Does local business always win?

I’m forever grateful for being able to work with different types of business owners and leaders. Being able to work with a variety of owners/leaders, I’ve quickly managed to gain an understanding of what most telecoms companies in the UK are either succeeding in or struggling with when it comes to generating new business leads.

It usually boils down to a variety of variable factors.

·????????Unreliable telemarketing department

·????????Business development teams not winning enough business

·????????Limiting themselves to specific areas and local businesses

Now we all struggle with reliable lead generation from time to time and we all have sales people who don’t sell. The fix to this is training and nurturing those individuals/departments until you’re happy with the standard of their performance. The real issue is limitation. Where are these guys booking appointments? Where are they sitting appointments?

Could they be sitting more new business opportunities elsewhere? If my team sit more meetings, are they more likely to close? Most likely so yes…

The reality of it is, everyone tries to play the ‘’local’’ card but when it boils down to it, does that really matter? If I was local to yourself and I offered you a service for ￡5,000 a month but someone else came in at ￡3,000, my locality doesn’t matter because that business would be saving ￡24,000 per annum.

Now this isn’t me saying cost is the driving factor in every decision, I’m a firm believer that solutions matter and tailoring making your solutions to a specific prospect which add value to that business is far more successful than dropping your trousers commercially, much the same with locality. If you can provide a solution, which adds REAL value to a business, they won’t worry about where you’re based or what your cost is.

My advice, stop focusing on being the ‘’local’’ supplier of choice, you’re limiting your growth. With tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, you’re able to collaborate with businesses all over the UK. If servicing these clients is an issue, hire a third party to help on installations.

The most successful organisations I’ve been fortunate to deal with during my time at Endeva have a UK wide presence and will sit whatever opportunities they can get involved in. After all, the more new business you see, the more likely you are to win.

This is only my viewpoint, through my experiences running my own new business teams and now working with some of the UK’s largest and most successful. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts, so let me know in the comments below!