TRIO Tips: Bring in New Business

What’s the hardest part about generating new business for your company? Maybe it’s the cold calls or making time to follow through with people you meet at networking events. Maybe it’s just laziness.

How can you fix this problem? Two words: SET GOALS! By following this goal-setting process, you will maintain a consistent schedule and be well on your way to bringing in new business.

Vision: Take a second and think about the journey you’ve had so far in life. Your relationships, the risks you’ve taken, the career moves you’ve made—you’ve probably experienced both highs and lows in all of these areas. Does it take success to make you hungry for more? Or does failure seem to propel you forward? Use your own personal risk style to help you envision where you want your company to be in the next year (or even five) and how you’re going to take it there.

Business goals: List everything you want to increase and/or decrease by the end of the year. That may be gross revenue, new transaction, client retention or net revenue. Then think about your leading and lagging indicators. What needs to improve? What are some things that should possibly be removed?

Behaviors: Now it’s time to be both goal-aware and behavior-focused. This means that even though you need to focus on your goals, you also need to stay committed and block out time each week on your calendar to achieve them. Here’s a tip—don’t just put your goals on a “to-do” list. You’ll find every excuse to do other things instead of checking them off. Focusing on your behavior is just as important as focusing on your goals.

Tracking: How will you track your progress? Will it be on an Excel spreadsheet or something more visual? Whatever it is, make sure you keep track of what you are doing, what worked and what didn’t, plus what actions you need to take next.

Review: Revisit the above steps and make any necessary changes monthly and quarterly.