Re-reading my last blog post, I realise that one of the things I do is to relieve business owners and managers of the stuff they’re not good at, and that’s getting in the way of their ability to grow their business.

I meet a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners who are really pretty good at going out and landing new clients – and they love doing it.  And then one of two things happens, as the business reaches a certain size:

1. The people who’ve been great at getting new business in get bogged down in the minutiae of handling the top customers, and can’t find the time to do what they love – talking to new prospects and winning new clients.
2. They keep on networking, chasing up referrals, even cold-calling, bringing in the new clients, loving that buzz they get from landing a new account; and meanwhile the delivery team back at the office is cracking under the pressure, and the existing key accounts are getting pretty much ignored.

Result of both of those: lost business!  Either because it’s not being won in the first place, or because they’re not getting the most out of their best customers.

The sort of salesperson who loves chasing down new business (the “hunter”) is often pretty poor at looking after them once they’re in – that takes a “farmer”.

Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m completely rubbish at chasing down new business – but give me an existing client with potential to buy more, and I’m in my element – I’ll ‘farm’ them ’til the cows come home (if you’ll excuse the pun!).  So what I do for clients is to free up the ‘hunter-killer’ closer to go out and bring in new business, while a trained account manager looks after the existing clients, protecting them from going elsewhere and making sure they are fully serviced.

More details on what we actually do at www.opportunity-management.net

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