How to plan BD time when you’re more than just a salesperson

Ben Paul shares three steps to successfully plan and utilise your precious business development time.

For many business owners, or those working in small and medium enterprises, being responsible for selling and marketing their products and services is only part of what they do. Whether you’re also in charge of operations, staff wellbeing, or the management of the delivery of your product/service, it can be daunting to also find the time to dedicate to business development (BD) or sales activities.

However, if your business is going to grow then developing new leads and bringing new clients on is essential. In fact, given that over a medium-term period, clients and customers will leave your business, it is actually vital to nurture and bring in new ones if you are going to have a sustainable business in the long term.

The majority of us are aware of the need to develop new business, and indeed also set aside time to look after your existing clients and customers. Yet many business owners, and those with a wider delivery or operational focus, struggle to find a way to do this.

To help you set aside the time for this, and also be effective with it, below are 3 key steps for you to follow and to build into your weekly and daily habits.

3 ways to plan and utilise your BD time

Commit to a realistic amount of time.

It’s often said that time is more valuable than money. Time is certainly finite, and during the global pandemic, people started to realise the importance of time for them in both personal and in business terms.

With this in mind, when you start to plan your weekly BD/Sales time, be realistic and commit to an amount of weekly and daily time you can actually commit to. Do this first before you plan your activities. There’s no point planning the ultimate BD plan if it will absorb 30 hours per week, and sales is only 25 percent of what you do. This will lead to you designing a plan that you will fail to execute.

Therefore, be realistic and stick to the time commitment you set.

Segment your time across the week.

Any good sales process will ultimately engage your client/customer/prospect in a conversation, which means that it requires both thought to get that engagement, and a regular focus on keeping that conversation moving.

While the timetable below will need adjusting for every individual, it provides a good template to plan your time.

Monday: Start by planning who you need and want to engage with this week. Next, plan your emails, social media messages or calls in your allotted time today. If you are also responsible for marketing, today is the day to check your plans and see what needs to be delivered this week.

Tuesday: Re-visit your sales messages and send those emails and messages (in manageable batches). As a general rule, people are more likely to respond from 10:30am on a Tuesday through to Thursday. This is a guide, and individuals do have different patterns and preferences.

Wednesday – Thursday: Make those calls, continue sending your emails and social media messages, and do any required follow-ups.

Friday: Revisit the week. Start by ensuring all client/customer/prospect enquiries have been followed up on. Make sure you have captured all meaningful interactions in data. At the very least this should be captured in a spreadsheet or more ideally in a CRM platform. There’s plenty of very good and free CRMs around if you don’t have one, such as Hubspot or Zoho.

Make sure you share your plan and routine with someone else

There are lots of benefits to using an external coach. Due to this type of relationship, they have the authority from you to help hold you to account and help you stay on track with your BD time commitments. BD and sales coaches can also provide expert advice on how to overcome any challenges you are facing in your sales efforts.

However, if you don’t have the luxury of access to this type of resource, then share your plan with a colleague or/and industry peer/friend. Having someone you can share your experiences with and who can help you stay on course and motivated is invaluable. They can also share their experiences with you and help you refine your sales approach.

Follow your BD plan to succeed

While sales is much more than a numbers game, targeted well researched and thought out approaches always produce a higher reward than generic scatter-gun approaches. Regular activity will lead to a greater chance of success.

A lot of sales is about having the mental habits in place to commit to the regular execution of your BD plan. In the early days, it may be harder and take longer to write those sales emails and research those calls. It may also be harder to overcome those initial fears of putting yourself out there and being rejected. However, if you stick at it, you’ll build resilience and you’ll be more successful in your approaches, as you develop and enhance your skills through your experiences.

Therefore, commit to a weekly BD plan and stick to it, to start the process of growing your business’s revenue.

Ben Paul is director and founder of The BD Ladder, a business development and marketing consultancy focused on provided B2B service providers with practical advice and coaching that delivers results. He can be contacted at [email protected]