19 Business Development Strategies (Tips for Startups + 6 Infographics)
Startups famously entangled in contrast with marketing traditional products and services. With the finish of the Coronavirus Pandemic no place in sight, startups end up in a particular situation to enable different organizations to keep on working during this remarkable crisis.
By Houman Asefi
In this article, I discuss 21 ideas and strategies to develop net new business for a startup to increase sales. Business development is a fancy word for sales. It is worth mentioning that I have tested all these strategies and I can assure you that they work in almost the majority of situations.
All you have to be is not afraid of testing and see which one brings maximum results in the shortest time.
1. Reset your price
Price is a pain point for a significant number of your clients, so high direct expenses are probably not going to swing with numerous organizations.
However, If you can rotate into the product as-an administration plan of action, presently’s an ideal opportunity to do it.
SaaS products — cloud-based services — are more likely to gain traction due to the lower, reasonable expenses. What’s more, it’s a success win circumstance because the SaaS reset price model known to be more robust to economic downturns.
2. Co-Marketing
If your startup has created associations with corresponding brands, presently is an incredible time for a co-marketing campaign.
By co-marketing your services with the services of a complimentary brand, you are expanding the estimation of your proposal to your objective market.
Co-marketing permits the two brands to use each other’s crowd and builds the possibility to arrive at clients you might not have previously. By collaborating with complementary brands and making eye-getting content, you make sure to create new leads cost-effectively.
3. Offer Free Product Trials
The money related limitations that went with the spread of this virus has left numerous startup owners with dry pockets.
Providing possible customers with a free item introductory is an incredible method to show your organization’s incentive to their business while assisting with supporting their business during a pandemic when clients sign on and see how valuable your services are, the probability of information exchange increments exponentially.
4. Rethink product
Advertising is consistently about gathering people’s needs, and that is a higher priority than at any other time during an emergency when people’s needs change.
If you don’t refresh your item system to consider the coronavirus, at that point, your outcomes are likely going to take a plunge, and your audience will be the neutral best-case scenario.
So that means delaying any startup marketing strategies that focus on products that do not apply to your audience during a pandemic and concentrate on time-delicate material.
Is it safe to say that you were going to dispatch a crusade focusing on media outlets? Set it aside for later. Have programming that makes it simpler for organizations to convey while working remotely? That is your new core interest.
5. Retargeting
Have you at any point looked amazon for a thing and abruptly promotions spring up for said thing on practically any website page you surf to?
It is the advantage of retargeting.
Retargeting helps increment changes through reconnecting past site guests. This SaaS business strategy enables likely clients to acquaint themselves with your image, inspiring an expansion in trust and believability.
SaaS startups like HubSpot offers retargeting services through their AdRoll mix, just as numerous other respectable organizations expertly discovered using a straightforward google search!
6. Record your video connecting with customers
If you are comfortable in front of the camera and your customer is OK with it, it will be a good idea to start recording some of your interactions with your customers and partners on camera and post it to your social media.
Remember, this is not a marketing effort. You do not need to go to marketing and ask for a budget. Simply, record some of your non-critical interactions with your customers and show your target market proof that you have effective relationships in your niche.
This will help to build your brand and position you as a thought leader in your space.
7. Be a podcast guest
Start inviting yourself to podcasts. You definitely have some interesting stories from your customers that worth sharing. Reach out to the popular podcast hosts and pitch them your story. They are always looking for sharing great news and stories in their niche.
Just be careful what you sharing. Make sure you generalize the information and remove all specific details so you are not exposing your customer.
Plus, try to show them as a hero of the story. They may hear the podcast and if you illustrate yourself as the hero, you may damage the relationship.
8. Educate your potential customers
Create 2–3 minute educational videos to share on social media (YouTube channel and LinkedIn feed), think: what would my clients want to know if they had access to me (don’t think what YOU want them to know)
Send these videos to your prospects and ask them for their feedback.
You also can send them to your existing customers and see what they think.
9. Recommend a book
Read and recommend a book!
When was the last time that a sales rep sent you a book?! That’s what I am talking about.
The book should be relevant to your industry.
1st: How the industry is evolving? 2nd: What are the triggering trends in the market.
Get some customers to feedback on the book and attach that to your email.
10. Answer customers questions (FAQ)
Answer your common customer questions and document them in a nice format.
Of course, question every week as it pertains to your industry. If there aren’t enough questions, you can even ask them and answer them, linking back to your website.
Everywhere your audience is looking for answers, you want to be front and center!
Share the document on your social media and also use it in your prospecting.
11. Speak on virtual events
Speak at virtual conferences.
You have to start small, put yourself on a virtual stage, and leverage it to get to a bigger stage.
Virtual conferences want to get thought leaders, so you have to get on Meetups, get interviewed on podcasts, appear in industry reports, and get quoted in epic blogs. And set a goal to reach out to at least 1 virtual conference a month to inquire about speaking opportunities.
12. Focus on helping and not just revenue
Forget about revenue!
I know this is a bit unconventional.
However, when you’re creating content and interacting with customers, you have to completely ignore revenue, ROI, tracking metrics, etc.
If you’re still in “sales” mode, your content and behavior will come across as self-serving, needy, and desperate — it will turn off your audience.
Instead, be the best person you’d like to be if you were one of your clients. And commit to it forever before you decide whether to keep at it. It works!
13. Become an idea machine
Become an idea machine!
Every day, dedicate 15 minutes where you just sit down and come up with 15 ideas.
These can be new business ideas, ways to improve your current performance, tests you want to run, or just ways you can help clients’ businesses.
Then, share those ideas freely.
Just reach out via email and share 1–2 ideas and then say “do you have time for a call or coffee to share some more ideas?” Add value, and build goodwill. Even if they don’t become a client, you will get more word-of-mouth/referrals.
14. Focus on industry reports
Industry reports: identify channel partners who work with the same clients like you and could refer business to you, interview 10 of them and create a beautiful report with their differentiation & top insights.
Or, simply buy some of the great industry reports!
You do everything for free, connect with partners and customers, and offer value to they’ll refer business to you. But they will also promote your report to their audience, so you get access to them.
You can gate that report on your website with a landing page so people give you their name & email and then the autoresponder sends them the download link.
Or, again, deliver massive value and send those reports for FREE to your customers.
15. Find leads on review platforms
Find leads on review platforms: Go to g2 crowd or Capterra, check out platforms that your buyers might use, look at the reviews and reach out to these people because they are buyers in your target organization.
Worst case, ask them to connect you with the right person.
16. Go back to your lost opportunities again
Start to reach out to your lost opportunities and see if they are OK with the current competitor’s solution.
There is a high chance that after 1–2 years, they realized that this is not what they want or their requirements have changed.
So always send information and market updates to your customers, even the lost ones.
17. Go where your customers are
Join communities, meetups, and masterminds.
Find out where your clients/buyers are, and join them. Add value and share your experiences with them, until they get to know, like, trust you.
Let them come to you and ask you what you do, or if you can help them.
18. Create Slideshare and presentations
Turn content into Slideshare presentation: LinkedIn Slideshare is another channel where you can post a deck and it gets views organically.
You can turn a post, video, eBook, or webinar presentation into a deck for Slideshare.
Just upload it, and many B2B companies are getting leads directly from those decks.
19. Get a coach or mentor
You can try all these tactics and learn the hard way, or you can learn from somebody who has done it before, many times.
Go out there and get a sales or marketing coach to help you sharpen your skills and give you some new ideas and how to hunt net new business.
OK, that was it.
Now go out there and try ALL of these tactics and tell me which one works for you.
