Learning Circle

Business development with ongoing success

Do you see business development as projects with beginning and ending, or an ongoing circle? I see it as an ongoing job – one of the most important jobs we have to take care of, to secure our business.

It’s all about the people who consume and enjoy the ideas we create. We get the ideas from the consumers, we develop them with the consumers, and we make our success together. Business development is partnership, and we create through the learning circle.

Customer Relationship Management systems

Most Customer Relationship Management systems are made with a project understanding based on AIDA – attention, interest, desire, action. After the customer action, where we have the sale or the rejection, the project is done and closed down. We are missing the good stuff – experience.

If we think in circles we use our experience in the ongoing work of getting our customer’s attention, keeping them interested, and in desire for more business with us – all because we listen and learn, so we can be, and stay, a valuable business partner.  

Business development becomes a circle. Our experience gives us curiosity and attention to upcoming needs. After research we see new opportunities, that we, with the right strategy, seize. We take action to meet our customers desires, and we gain experience once again – we are working with our ongoing success. Sometimes the action doesn’t work as expected, and our experience tells us to go back to the strategy lab, but we are still developing – the beauty of the business development learning circle.

Also strategy lab is a circle. Experience gives us new opportunities to work with. If we grab them, and put them into our strategy lab, we have great material to work with – it comes directly from the customers! In the strategy circle we put the opportunities into our strategy workshop, test ideas, and the results of the tests make us take action, or put us back to the workshop. When we believe in our strategy, we make it fly, and the action taken, will give us new opportunities, if we keep listening.

I believe the key to ongoing success, is to Listen, learn and act according to the experience we get with our customers. Therefore we can’t see business development as projects . We need to see it as an ongoing process – a learning circle.