Avoid Being Stretched Thin
Not too long ago we hired a “business development” guy (I’ll have another post on why hiring a biz dev person is a bad idea in a small company) to help grow in to channels that we had not explored before. His stated value to us was in his relationships, how he could make deals happen and had done it before with company x and y. The result was a year of being stretched thin, creating proposals, getting on conference calls, traveling with very little in return.
Why was it a disaster for us? Simple, not being focused and stretching resources thin.
We juggled over 30 prospective deals ranging from OEM bundles, retail to service related products with businesses as diverse as video game manufacturers to international publishers. Every one of these took one hundred man hours between emails, phone calls, conference calls, travel and proposals. Almost none materialized because of lack of focus. There wasn’t a strong connection to what our core value was, how our customers buy and the proposed arrangement.
There are always new possible deals that you can add or new markets that you can go in to. This can easily create diaster. It is best to be #1 in your niche. Understand the psychology of how your customers buy. After success in your niche you can then expand WITH MORE RESOURCES in to related products and services.
