Business development

If a dollar goes into this business, what comes out the other side?

A lender reads the financials; a buyer reads the sales engine. The more clearly you can show who the customer is, where they come from, what each one costs to win, who wins them, and that the business could deliver twenty-five per cent more, the more both will pay for it. The free Business Development Plan writes it down a section at a time and works out the conversion numbers as you go, and eight calculators do the sums on their own.

Why it matters

The engine, not the owner.

A buyer is buying next year's salesA buyer pays the most for the sales that will keep arriving without you: relationships the business holds, channels it runs, a process someone else can follow. Every one of those you move off your own desk adds directly to the price, and a lender reads the same thing as a business that keeps finding its customers.

A lender wants the growth traced“We will grow twenty per cent” is a hope. “Search brings 400 leads a year at $80 each, one in ten buys, and a customer is worth $9,000 in gross profit over three years” is a case. The plan connects the marketing line in the budget to the sales line in the forecast, channel by channel, so a loan for growth has evidence behind it.

The business has to deliver what it winsGrowth the business cannot deliver loses the customers it worked to win. The plan sets the sales target against capacity used today, so the people, equipment or premises are in place before the sales arrive, which is also what a lender finances most readily.

The free tool

Five parts, fifteen sections, and the numbers worked out for you.

Each section says what to include and what a lender or a buyer is reading it for. The figures you write in are saved to your Business Profile, so the calculators below open with them filled in, and the plan works out what a customer costs to win, what a dollar in brings back, and what the target takes. It downloads as a branded PDF that sits beside a loan application or a business plan.

01 · Who you sell toThe ideal customer, named specifically enough that someone else could find one. How they buy: what sets it off, who decides, how long it takes, how often they come back. Where you stand against the alternatives, and the proof.

02 · Where the customers come fromEvery channel with its leads, customers and cost. A website and search audit, a brand and message checklist, and the referral and partner network, each as a list of what is in place and what to fix first.

03 · The numbersLeads to quotes to sales, what winning work costs, and the target. From these the plan works out the cost to win a customer, the return on each dollar, the customers, quotes and leads the target needs, and reads your close rate and marketing spend against what is typical in your industry.

04 · Who wins the work, and who delivers itThe sales team, the sales process as a new hire would need it, the weekly cadence, how the selling moves off the owner one relationship at a time, and whether today's capacity can deliver the plan.

05 · Action planThe next ninety days with an owner and a date on each step, the numbers reviewed every month, and what could go wrong.

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Free calculators

Eight business development calculators.

Each stands on its own, starts with a worked example, and explains every term. Signed in, they open with your Business Profile's figures and save back to it.

Customer acquisition costWhat one new customer, and one lead, cost to win from everything spent on sales and marketing in a year, and what that is as a share of sales. Return on ad spendWhat a campaign brought back for what it cost, in sales and in gross profit, and the break-even below which it lost money. Dollar in, dollar outFollow a dollar put into a channel through leads, customers and sales to the gross profit that comes out the other side, and the most you could pay per lead and still break even. Sales funnel: leads to closeLeads to quotes to sales, what it adds up to in a year, how many leads one sale takes, and what is in the pipeline at any time. Website conversionThe share of visitors who enquire, the customers and sales the website produces, and what one more enquiry a month is worth in a year. Salespeople the target needsWork back from a sales target to the customers, quotes and salespeople it takes, and how much of it still depends on the owner. Can you deliver the growth?Whether the sales in the plan fit inside today's capacity, and the people, payroll and room it takes to deliver the rest. Customer lifetime valueWhat a typical customer is worth over the relationship, against what it costs to win one, and how many months it takes to earn that back.

Also free

Where the sales engine shows up elsewhere

The three-minute Business Diagnostic grades the sales engine beside lender-readiness, transferability and the plan: who the ideal customer is, where the work comes from, whether the cost to win a customer is known, who closes, and whether the business could deliver a quarter more.
The Maturity Model asks how the work comes in, from “word of mouth and I do the selling” to “a predictable pipeline we can forecast”, and what each level is worth to a buyer.
The Business Plan Generator has a sales and marketing part, and its new sales engine section carries the same figures.
Your industry lists the close rate, marketing spend and sales cycle that are typical for businesses like yours.

With Legatis

The Business Development Plan as a service

Business development is where the managing partner's own operating background lies. As an engagement, the plan is built with you and your sales team: market positioning, the ideal customer, pipeline discipline, pricing and proposal systems, the partnerships that open new channels, and the conversion numbers a lender reads beside the financials. Fixed fee, scoped to the channels and the team in play; implementation, if wanted, through coaching or a fractional executive.

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