The Most Important Metric In Your Business Development Arsenal

When we think about sales and business development, we think about a lot of different metrics. Depending on the person you ask, some of the more important metrics might be calls placed, meetings, events attended, conversations, or something else. 

For me, the key metric that I use to ensure the health of my business development practice is a simple one that leads to any others that are essential like "closed sales" and that is "opportunities opened." 

What does "opportunities opened" mean for my business? 

It is pretty simple. 

"Opportunities opened" is a simple metric that I use that means I have moved a qualified, targeted buyer from stranger into the process of developing a business relationship. 

Let me break that down for you, the opportunity has to be with someone that can approve a proposal or enter into a binding business relationship with me. Simple! 

Here are a few reasons that "opportunities opened" should be on the top of your list of sales and business development metrics:

1. New business development allows you to stay close to the market: When you are dealing with new potential buyers, you gain access to a worldview that is much different than you current clients, if only because you don't have the same shared experiences. 

When you focus on new business development, you are close to the market and can gain a better understanding of where your products and services stand in comparison to your competitors. You can also find out about any new challenges and changes that are occurring that your current clients might not recognize because you are doing a good job of insulating them from these issues. 

2. Opening New Opportunities Allows You To Reinvigorate Your Business: If you are lucky enough to be in business for any length of time, you end up having a stable of clients. This is great because, hopefully, these clients are high value and reward you for the value you bring to them. 

But by opening new opportunities, you have the opportunity to add new clients that have new needs and may allow you to develop new skills that some of your current, established clients may not need. This is important for both you and your established clients because by opening new opportunities, you can help your current clients invigorate their own business or help them find a new service provider that can focus on their specific issues in a more focused manner. Because nothing is worse for you and your clients than a dissatisfied service provider. By opening new opportunities, you have the chance to help keep that from occurring, for you and your team. 

3. Opening New Opportunities Gives You The Chance To Grow: Just like I talked about above, stagnation can become an issue for businesses if they aren't careful. But being completely selfish for a moment, opening new opportunities allows you the chance to search out new industries, new sectors, and new people that you want to do business with because they have a need for a skill you want to develop or one that you feel is especially helpful to their problems. 

The added bonus of this kind of growth is that you can couple it with the things you already know and the experiences you already have to be of more value to your clients over the long term, both new and old. Which makes you a better value for them and allows you the chance to increase the demand for your services. 

There are probably countless other reasons that "opportunities opened" is the king of the business development chain for me, not least of which is that without opening new opportunities, I wouldn't be able to close new business.