If three birds are sitting on a wire, and two decide to fly away, how many are left?
If you haven’t heard this riddle, you might answer “one. “ But the answer is that three birds are left on the wire. The two birds only decided to fly away, and deciding is not the same as actually doing.
Moving from deciding to doing is a common challenge in new business development. How many times in our sales career have we decided to do something but stayed sitting on that wire?
We’ve established short and long-term goals. We’ve even mapped out an action plan and a roadmap to follow that will lead to success. But we remain sitting on a wire. Our behaviors don’t change, and we don’t follow through with the plan.
Maybe the goal we set wasn’t specific enough. Maybe our plan was too vague. Or maybe our plan was so complicated that we became paralyzed – not knowing where or how to start.
Desmond Tutu once said, “There’s only one way to eat an elephant. One bite at a time."
3 Steps To Achieve Big Revenue Goals
Here are three simple steps to take each workday that will help put your plan in motion, get you started on developing new business, and bring you closer to achieving that big 2023 revenue goal.
1. Connect Online
Connect with one existing client on LinkedIn daily until you’re connected with every account on your list.
By connecting online, you’ll gain access to a wealth of information they’re sharing about their company. You’ll learn more about what’s important to them, their strategies, and their goals. This insight can be invaluable information as you develop your strategy to engage, penetrate and grow this business relationship.
Further, connecting online will provide access to their professional networks. This can lead to introductions to new contacts both at their company and other potential target accounts. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The first step is just making the connection. And the first step in connecting is sending the invitation.
2. Penetrate the Account
Connect with one additional person at your key accounts or prospects each day. Look for someone that has the potential to influence the purchasing process. You may even discover entire new buying centers within an existing client that you’re currently not doing business with. But where do you find these new contacts?
Visit the “Team” section of their website, read their press releases, search on LinkedIn or Google, or just ask someone. Ask your current contacts about other potential contacts, or ask whoever happens to answer their phone.
3. Research for Opportunity
Pick one new prospect on your target list daily and follow their company on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Set up a Google alert on their company and their main competitors.
This is another small, simple step that can yield valuable insights into your prospects. Once this step is done, your research process becomes much easier. Instead of spending time looking for information every day, the information comes to you. You can even set it up to show up in your inbox.
While many of you could do more than one account for each of these three steps in a day, the key to moving from deciding to doing is to make it small, simple, and repeatable.
*Editor's Note: This blog was originally written in 2014 and has since been updated.
