Three Keys to Business Development Success

Are you looking for success in your technology or software business? Do you want your company to not just survive, but thrive in these difficult economic times? What were your dreams when you started your business? Did you anticipate how difficult it would be if the market turned downward, as it’s done? Are you doing what you wanted to do, or did you find you traded one boss for another, yourself?

Being a technology entrepreneur isn’t easy. Just getting up and running takes time, effort, and capital. Finding the right people can be a major pain. Once you get those pieces in place, then you have to start marketing. It can become overwhelming in a short amount of time.

I coach technology entrepreneurs and many of them are struggling. I’ve found the key to success depends on doing three things well:

• Lead Generation – Developing multiple ways of finding, qualifying, and fostering a steady stream of leads for your business. Most businesses rely on one or two ways of generating leads. Your success depends on creating as many lead generation sources as possible. That way, if one source no longer produces enough quality leads, you don’t lose all of your leads.
• Client Development – Generating leads is good. Generating high quality leads is better. But don’t forget, the ultimate goal is to generate high quality leads that want to buy your product or service. To convert leads into clients, you need to follow up on a regular basis and give clients a reason to buy from you and your business. During the client conversion process, you begin to build a relationship with your prospects, clients, and market.
• Market Leadership through Social Media – Becoming an expert in your field helps you generate leads, convert prospects to sales, and find the best partnerships for your company. A lot of people talk about using social media for lead generation, but I’ve found that its best use is to position you in the market as an expert and leader. You have the opportunity to post articles, blogs, or tweets that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your market area. It’s a natural and easy decision for possible clients to contact you for more information.

To get the most out of each of these three keys, develop repeatable processes. By creating a repeatable process, you can fine tune the system to generate the highest return for your time. You can also train less experienced people to complete the steps and free up the time of a more experienced rep to close the business.