What to do when your business development isn’t working

You’ve been trying to grow your business for a while now. At first you were full of excitement and optimism. You had a rough plan of what you wanted to achieve and cracked on with marketing yourself and the services you offer. You attended some networking events, created social media accounts, got busy on LinkedIn and contacted your old network.

This generated a few leads, several requests for coffee meetings and resulted in bits and pieces of business.

But that was then. The leads have dried up. You’ve lost your mojo on LinkedIn and, if you are honest, the thought of having to go to one more networking event fills you with dread.

And yet you need to build your business. So what do you do?

This is a scenario that I am increasingly helping business owners with. Should you find yourself in a similar situation, here are a few pointers to consider.

🔸Take Stock: The first step is to be brutally honest with yourself. What are you ACTUALLY doing? What’s working? What’s not? What aspects of business development are you enjoying? Where do you see room for improvement? What are you deliberately NOT doing?

🔸Check your commitment: Consider LI your main activity to gain leads? How often are you showing up (posting/commenting?) How long are you on the platform engaging and providing value?  Is it a strategy or a hobby? Ouch!

🔸Change your strategy – I heard another coach last week say that most business owners, when they start out, usually focus on only 2 marketing activities. This is so true! Only today, a client explained that they focus on face-to-face networking and dabble on LinkedIn. Neither were currently working for them. There could me a number of reasons for this (such as positioning /personal brand etc which we will explore over the coming weeks) but it’s also possible that these are simply not the right BD focus for them.  

The reality is that there are at so many more business development activities you could incorporate as part of your strategy. Alongside networking, building referrals, online presence (website, social media), paid advertising, content creation (blogs/articles), speaking opportunities, webinars and presentations, collaborations etc etc. Open your mind to what could work better.  

🔸Invest in support: When you are IN your business it can be hard to see the issues clearly and clarify what you need to do first. This is where working with a coach, who already supports business owners with these challenges, is invaluable. A good coach will question you, challenge you to think creatively about your business and encourage you to make changes!  They will also nudge you out of your comfort zone and help you overcome some of the mindset issues that may be holding you back from being more visible or braver!

I’m not a believer that there is ONE perfect way to build a business. I don’t agree in “secret sauces” or strict one size fits all strategies for success.

But I do believe that with some trial and error, marketing input, and buckets of accountability and encouragement, you can discover the business development activities that will make the wheels of your business turn. 

🔸🔸I'm Kerry, an Executive Coach supporting senior professionals to grow in their careers and businesses. Curious about Coaching? DM me and we can arrange time for a call.