According to research undertaken by Forbes, over 90% of businesses will fail within their first 5 years of trading. That’s a fairly staggering statistic. Failure comes as a result of a number of factors – no market need, a lack of cash or investment, poor work ethic and poor marketing. But one over-riding factor is clear – if you don’t have a proper new business development strategy in place, you won’t generate the leads you need to succeed.
Businesses with a growth strategy work better. That’s fact.
Jim Piper is Client Service Director at one of London’s oldest lead generation companies, Alchemis. As a new business agency, their role in helping start-ups (as well as more established agencies) has seen a number of London businesses go from strength-to-strength over the last decade or so.
“Having a clearly defined new business strategy is an essential part of the framework in any company” says Jim, with it also being “paramount that generating incoming leads isn’t a part of business that is left at the bottom of the list.”
According to research undertaken in 2015, companies with a proper business development plan are 29% more likely to secure funding or investment, and 32% likely to grow by over 50% in their first 5 years of existence. Whether that new business plan is implemented in-house, or outsourced to companies like Alchemis, its importance is clear to see.
Generating leads is a difficult task, mainly because a lot of in-house teams or external agencies will let relationships go cold. Once initial contact is made, it’s imperative to stay in touch with that prospect, even if they don’t have a requirement for your product or service at the time of the initial call. A CRM works wonders for ensuring that there is a proper follow-up process in place, so that when the prospect is in the market, you’re right on cue.
By using a well-established lead generation company, you’re ensuring that your business development budget isn’t going to waste. They’ll ensure you’re sent fully qualified leads, with required parameters including turnover, job title, have definite requirement and so forth.
A clearly defined new business development strategy is a must have process for any business to see out the first 5 years of trading, and to ensure that it doesn’t fall into the bracket of the 90% that fail within that time frame. And to be clear, this model doesn’t have to be a reinvention of the wheel – just a wheel that operates well.
Leave a Comment