The Three Pillars of Business Development Success

In our last article, A Counterintuitive Approach to Maximizing Your New Business ROI, I discussed the concept that?strategic growth is quality growth, and why many firms end up spinning their wheels and keeping themselves busy with misaligned projects that yield woefully inadequate margins.

In this installment, I present a three-pronged formula for achieving strategic growth, boosting your win rates, and optimizing your margins. Let’s dive in:

Focus on Work You?Want to Do

The work you should be focusing on is the work you want to do. Your firm is capable of performing a wide range of jobs, some of which are really cool. It’s one of the main reasons your team comes to work and one of the reasons they stay. You love to talk about these projects. And you’re proud of them. In fact, they even help you win more pursuits, because your prospects want to be associated with a firm capable of doing that kind of work.Then there are the other types of projects. The ones that are not exactly aligned with your core strengths. The ones that are not as fun, interesting, or profitable to do. And yet, you pursue them anyway. Why?

Often the answer is because of the promise that this job will spark the relationship that will eventually lead you to the projects you?really?want. Unfortunately, it doesn’t turn out this way as often as it should. You get known as the company that performs the starter project, and are never considered for anything beyond that scope. Failure to leverage the foot-in-the-door into better projects is a common story for many companies.

Focus on Clients You?Want to Work With

Despite the prevalent mindsets in most companies, YOU should be deciding on the clients you work with. It’s truly your choice. Wouldn’t it be terrific if you worked exclusively with clients who:

• Value what you do
• Have the right culture, ethics, and internal values
• Are easy to work with
• Let you play to your strengths, and build new strengths
• Help you attract and keep great talent
• Fit in with or build your reputation, so you can win even more of your pursuits
• Pay on time, and don’t nickel-and-dime every estimate

When looking at your current client roster, do they all fit the above profile? Chances are they do not. Most companies do not have ideal client portfolios because they wait for RFPs to be issued. This leads to a misaligned roster of clients and projects.

If there are clients you really want to acquire, you’ve got to go out and get them. Despite the fact that you have a great reputation, you can’t wait for ideal clients to call. You’ve got to get out there – aggressively. Build a strong marketing foundation. Cultivate a substantial network. Get these companies to know you, respect you, admire you–way before they’re thinking about a project or an RFP. Then, you’ll be right there when a project is ready to drop.

The key to winning new business from ideal clients is to establish a business development infrastructure that focuses on genuine relationships and trusting client partnerships. It is a proactive, systematic strategy that will ensure the long-term success of your company.

Focus on Profit You?Want to Make

For many companies, the profit they want to make from their new projects is rarely factored into their strategic growth equations. I have found that many pursuit teams run the numbers on revenue, rather than profit, which is clearly not the approach that will move the ball forward and lead to meaningful growth.

With profitable projects, companies can enjoy a wide range of benefits. For one, they can properly invest in the relationship with and service of their clients. They can also afford to staff the project and elevate the relationship with stakeholders at the top of the house. In addition, they can show a real duty-of-care for their clients, which puts them in the best possible position to grow their businesses. And growing current clients means more profit… and then more profit and then more profit!

To achieve sustainable growth, all three elements described above must be satisfied:

• Work you want to do
• Clients you want to work with
• Profit you want to make

If any one of these is missing, then you run the risk of stagnation, lackluster growth, and poor profit performance. The good news is that you are in full control of all three components.