Maidsfield Blog - Partnering and Business Development

The Gallup Organization have great publications on Strenghts and Weaknesses…

On reading their psychology and competencies books I began to notice that businesses develop in a similiar manner to humans. From youth to maturity and the stages we go through…..

this is a companion pience to this months Market Leader Newsletter - read Newsletter Article Human Psychology and Business Parallels

In our youth, how we focus on our Weaknesses and not our Strengths, how we view Risk and how we learn and develop good habits for growth…..

this is to name three - any other?

see newsletter article on Seductive Marketing Part 2 - Your Ideal Client..

Your Ideal Client is a client with whom you find it easiest to deliver value to.
Who would you regard as your best reference client? Why?
Do you enjoy working with them? Why?
Do you clearly understand the value of what you do and pay accordingly?
Do they refer business to you because to see clearly that you are a key part of they business?

Being Ideal Client Focussed doesnt mean you start ignoring other business, but it will define a focus to develop a greater number of Ideal Clients in your business.

contact Maidsfield for more information on Ideal Client Focus and Maidsfield’s Market Leader Programme

Consider a company, ABC Consulting Ltd, with ?¢‚Äö¬¨1M revenues per annum with 40 clients.

50% of ABC Consulting?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s revenue is from what it defines as Ideal Clients which consists of 10 clients. The company classes these clients as Ideal as ABC has greater expertise in the problem areas and can deliver with least risk, greatest success and thus greatest profitability.

In analysing ABC?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s projects to Ideal Clients, 10 clients, the company achieved 40% gross profit on those projects. Projects to Non-Ideal Clients were averaging 25% gross profit, to 30 clients requiring more time to manage.

The reduced margin was typically on projects outside ABC?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s strengths and risks were taken in lesser known areas of the project which caused some element of overrun.

Financial breakdown of the company?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s revenues and gross profit can be represented as follows:

In reviewing the table above it can be clearly seen that working with 10 Ideal Clients is producing almost twice the Gross Profit than dealing with the 30 Non-Ideal Clients.

If ABC were to transition their business to focus on Ideal Clients only this would allow them to be dealing with fewer clients to achieve similar Gross Margins.

If ABC were to win 10 more Ideal Clients then the total figures would be as follows:

According to the above example, for ABC Consulting the benefits are as follows:
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ The basic financial value of focussing on their Ideal Client is ?¢‚Äö¬¨75,000 per annum gain to their Gross Profit.
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ They are also dealing with fewer clients, which requires less time and resources.
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ They are more focussed in their business sales and only chase very relevant projects and clients which now they are more likely to win due to their very evident and successful track record
?¢‚Ǩ¬¢ Due to their focus and resulting greater expertise, they are in a better position to deliver a higher value service to all their clients and thus charge more premium and value based fees.

Is you business ripe for such a change?

December’05, Youghal, Co Cork, Ireland

The first event of the new Enterprise Youghal industry organisation took place in the Walter Raleigh Hotel on Tuesday, December 6th, with a strong attendance of over 50 local business representatives.

The organisations purpose is to drive Enterprise Development within the Youghal region. The greater Youghal area has a population of over 50,000 people with many small businesses. Through enabling proactive business networking and structured support from the South Cork Enterprise Board, Enterprise Ireland and The Youghal Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise Youghal aims to encourage and drive business development in the region.

South Cork Enterprise Board secured Maidsfield Associates to assist in the establishment of the Enterprise Youghal working with Youghal Town Council and Youghal Chamber of Commerce.

University College Cork operates a successful and highly appreciated Executive MBA Programme. In order to ensure the product continues to meet market needs, Donagh Kiernan of Maidsfield was engaged to facilitate a review.

The review involved facilitating a number of Focus Groups and reviewing the target candidate student (Ideal Client).

The Focus Groups consisted of Industry Leaders, Human Resource Directors, UCC MBA Graduates, UCC MBA Board, UCC Administration and Lecturing Staff took place over two month period in August/September ?¢‚ǨÀú05.

The review report was produced and presented to the MBA Management Board for discussion and review.

January’06, Cork, Ireland

Decare Systems Ireland (DSI), a leading provider of software and Internet solutions, based in the University Technology Centre in Cork have secured a partnership agreement with Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer.

Amazon’s online retail business involves selling product from their own warehouses but also acts as a channel for other merchants to sell their product on Amazon. The size of the merchant companies vary from 1 person selling used DVD movies to established wholesale/distributors/resellers selling a wide range of products.

DSI’s successes already include Avon.com and Figis in the development of their ecommerce platforms but also integration into the Amazon US platform. DSI are also the leading developer of Health Insurance Administration Systems within the US market.

In creating, recognising and realising opportunities Maidsfield have been a tremendous assistance. Working closely with the DSI management team over the past year in development our partnership with Amazon, Donagh has demonstrated the real value of what Maidsfield have to offer, getting things started and producing results. DSI and Amazon have a real sales-generation partnership bringing real value and immediate increased revenue to Merchants, Amazon and DSI.

- John Murphy, General Manager, Decare Systems Ireland

some comments,

Do we send a letter first and then call OR do we call first and then send the letter?

Letters dont work, People dont read them

Direct Mail does work.

One letter rarely works. The idea is to get their attention. A simple letter is unlikely to do this. Two letters may do it, but it may take five, or more …..

In October’05, in promoting a full day workshop, I wanted to test the various direct mail methods and messages.

To one group of 70 companies that I hadnt worked with (with some companies I knew that i knew), I ran three post card size mailings or photos of clients and their endorsements of my services. On the back of the card stated the details of the workshop. The three cards hit the target group one day after another:

1) Monday they got a card of Tom Keane of Nitrosell.com,
2) Tuesday they got a card about John O’Hare of Azotel.com
3) Wednesday the card recieved details about my guest for the day, Cian Kinsella ex of CR2 and Kindle Banking Systems …

Did it get people to call me or visit my website and book online?

It definitely got noticed but it didnt get bookings without a follow-up call…….seeking feedback it seems my timing was out - there was simply too many free Enterprise Ireland seminars on at the time….its great to see EI doing so much…

Letters need to get their attention, either through innovative novelty, being hit multiple times or even to the point of being annoying or contraversal…

Never assume that one letter will work…

So you’ve got a great technology product and/or service,
and it solves a real business need, applicable to many business types,
and you’ve got clients who sing your praises.

Nothing relates better for a client than really understanding their business.

As an expert supplying into the industry you should know your clients’ needs better than they do. After all , you do work with many companies with this need and they mostly just know their own from one point of view.

Focussing on specific sectors allows your company to become experts in those sectors.

ACTION: Determine the sectors that have the greatest Need for your solution. Who gets greatest value from your solution and Why? what are the Need Drivers?