Category Archives: Brexit

Brexit could affect your business. Read our blogs to keep up to date with the latest news.

Staying in your comfort zone might not be an option

I recently came across a great quote which might offer some comfort to those of us who might find the unknown a little daunting: Today’s rain is tomorrow’s whisky, Scottish proverb

Whatever your opinion on current events, it is clear that we are dealing with the unknown. This is a difficult situation for businesses to face, hence the sheer number of planning guides popping up all over the place from everyone, including the Government’s latest PR campiagn. The question remains, 

what do you do to prepare your business for the changes afoot?

The answer to this depends very much on your company and who it trades with, which can prove complicated indeed. However, there is one thing every business can do at times like this: developing your new business sales and growing your pipeline with qualified opportunities. You might say that I am bound to say this given what we do but I think you will agree that it is a logical move.

Growing your new business sales, as we all know, is not particularly straightforward. Indeed, there are many reasons why not to: here are a few prime ones:

  1. Hiring or developing the resources required is expensive
  2. There are no guarantees that you will get a return on your investment
  3. You might have to make concessions or changes to your product to make sure it fits
  4. Developing new business takes a lot of time and effort

This is all true but at times like this you need to ask yourself what alternatives you have, ensuring you maintain your sales revenue. If you have other ways in which to develop business then use them but if not, it’s time to get out of your comfort zone – you never know it might prove to be your making.  

Talking about comfort zones, the picture above shows our tent whilst camping on Mull in August. I have included it here because it’s a prime example of me being out of my comfort zone. Camping is not my thing, especially not in Scotland where it rains very often. But on our recent holiday we decided to go for it, and it did rain indeed.  Still, I found that the view from the tent every morning was worth every drop and I gained a lovely experience which will stay with me. I can therefore say, from experience that I would strongly recommend both getting out of your comfort zone, and camping.

As always, if you are looking to discuss your options or just for some advice do get in touch.

Why are new business sales a must in 2019?

Many people will be looking at this title and say that developing new business is always a must. Still, many companies don’t necessarily consider this an emergency, especially well-established ones. This is an important area to consider as a matter of course but I felt that there is more of a calling for it currently which is why I am dedicating this Blog to this.

Back in December, I wrote a Blog about common sense where I examined some key reasons to focus on new business development in 2019. One of the reasons, though general, is particularly important in the face of current events:

as Matthew S. Olson and Derek van Bever demonstrate in their book Stall Points, once a company runs up against a major stall in its growth, it has less than a 10% chance of ever fully recovering.

I am not sure about you, but I can certainly see a potential stall point coming up which might affect many companies’ growth. When I wrote my original Blog, many businesses were still treating the situation as one to ignore, thinking that things will get clearer in the New Year. At the time of writing these lines we are 13 business days away from the UK leaving the EU and we have no further clarity.

I have not written this Blog to join the end of the world choir and I am sure that business will prevail after Brexit, in the long term we may even be better off, who knows. Your problem as a business owner, Sales Director or senior manager is the short term. How will you navigate your ship in the stormy water of a ‘short-term economic downturn’?

There’s a lot to be said for applying some planning to this situation, whatever you call rainy day measures in your organisation. That said, many businesses feel that you can hardly plan for a scenario you are unclear about. However, there is one area you could definitely benefit from reviewing which is, your new business sales.

This is particularly important for established companies out there as over reliability on existing business can make them very vulnerable to a market downturn. As we all know, when the economy is showing signs of crisis many companies look to reduce their monthly outgoings and review unnecessary expenses. There is no telling what these might be and whether your company will be affected by it. In this situation, you might agree, there is no harm in developing some new business and growing your pipeline by way of plan B.

I cannot tell you which way you should go in terms of new business without knowing more about your circumstances. However, I can say that whichever way you choose to go, you need to consider two important factors:

  1. Developing new business can take time to mature, anything between 6-12 months.
  2. The longer you leave it the more competition you will have.

This is why I recommend that you look into this urgently to make sure that you can start widening your options and developing your sales pipeline. We have recently developed a new lead generation system we call Big ticket Leads which might provide a possible solution.  Watch this short animation to find our more.

 

What will you buy your business this Christmas?

It hit me a few days ago, as I was eyeing some iPad Pros at a well-known shop: we should all buy our business a Christmas present even if it’s just another excuse to buy another present. Having thought about it a bit more I realised that whilst an iPad will be lovely, the top three things on my list of presents for my business in 2019 are:

  1. Growth
  2. Security
  3. Joy

I wonder if you have ever thought about it yourself.  Whether you are a business owner or senior manager in a larger organisation, there must be things you wish for your business in 2019. Self employed or not, we all spend so much time at work that we should wish to make it a nicer place for us to be.

If you are hoping for similar gifts to me, you might think that the concept of buying these for yourself a complete nonsense. How can you buy growth and where do they sell security not to talk about joy? All true but as it is nearly Christmas, I would like to remind you of a lovely quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:

‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’

Before you accuse me of having too many sherries way too early, here are a few things you might consider which can affect these elements in your business:

Growth: It’s a big word so why not break it to its components,

  • Planning: There will be hundreds of free planning workshop to chose from in January, why don’t you book yourself on one of them or consider signing up with a good coach?
  • Skills: Are there any areas, professional, technical or general that could contribute to growth in your business? Consider some training courses for you and the team.
  • -Marketing/ lead generation: Creating a good campaign or re-designing your website can make a difference to new sales. To make sure you get results, put together a strategy for your business.

Security: This is a bit misleading because we actually have very little control over what happens around us. However, you can consider the little that you can affect, things like:

  • Forecasting: How good are you at analysing your sales pipeline? Many of us lose the will to live when it comes to detail analysis of Excel spreadsheets or CRM reports but getting better at it can do wonders for identifying potential problems in advance.
  • Sales Pipeline: There is nothing that affects sales more than a developed pipeline. You should always consider short term as well as long term opportunities to ensure that new sales are flowing

Joy: We all tend to underestimate joy as a real focus. It is often thought of as a by-product of living a full life, but it isn’t necessarily so. For me, the two most important elements of joy are:

  • Interest: is your work still interesting and challenging? If not, it might be time to alter what you do and shift things a little.
  • People: Are you surrounded by people you enjoy spending time with? Are they doing a good job helping you develop things? If not, it might be something to consider for the New Year

I hope this has given you some food for thought. Here at Your Business Development Team, we want to wish you a merry Christmas and offer you a little present from us: Click here to download a copy of our 13 creative lead generation ideas document.

See you in 2019…