BECBC and Business Development - it's written in our DNA

Many of our Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster (BECBC) members are also members of other organisations and it’s always interesting to have a conversation about where these memberships sit in their organisations, not just in terms of who attends but also about which budget pays for them. With our micro members it’s a shorter conversation-they only have one budget and it’s the one that puts food on their table, so I know they really think about the value they take from memberships. It’s also one of the reasons I’m so proud that 22% of our memberships have a turnover of under £100k, I know we have to be delivering real value to their business for them to pay a membership fee year in, year out.

With our larger businesses though we often find we’re paid from one of three budgets: Comms, Social Impact or Business Development. While we deliver benefits across all these areas, I’m firmly of the belief that we should sit in Business Development and it was lovely to see a post from LinkedIn News UK earlier today that, for me, confirmed this belief. The post lists the “10 fastest-growing skills that business development professionals should be investing in to get ahead in today’s world of work.” These are the skills that employers are looking for because they’re the ones that will bring in more business and the great news is being a member of BECBC can help with many of these. I’m going to pick out four of them to focus on.

Right at the top of the list, unsurprisingly, is Relationship Building. This is something we’re well known for here in Cumbria. Our members develop long-term relationships with each other while also welcoming new members into the room. Being in the same room as your potential customers, suppliers and collaborators means when they need something you’re at the front of their minds and, importantly, they know what you do, how to reach out to you and that they can rely on you to deliver.

Next up is Strategic Thinking How many times have you heard the phrase “you need to work ON your business instead of IN your business”? How do you do your strategic thinking? How can you make sure you are scanning the environment around you for trends? For many of our members our monthly Energy Networx events are the perfect opportunity to do this. The Energy Networx brings together all our members for presentations on themes we’ve identified and offer quality networking opportunities to talk through those themes and more.

Third on my focus list is Lead Qualification. If you want to find out what your potential customer’s needs are, who the decision maker is and whether you’re going to be a good fit for them you can’t beat having a conversation and whether that’s at an Energy Networx meeting or one of our focussed sector group meetings this can save you hours of time trying to get through to the right person in an organisation.

My final focus area is Business Insights, now there are a number of ways we deliver on this, but my favourite is the sharing of experience between members. When a business faces a new challenge, you can guarantee that another business has already been there and learned many a lesson on the way. I watch members in meetings willingly sharing this experience and reassuring fellow business owners that they’re not alone in facing whatever issue is concerning them.

So, while we deliver on comms by amplifying our members messages and on social value through our Social Value Group business development is written in our DNA, not a surprise when we were born from the supply chain and are run by the supply chain.

If you’d like to know more about maximising your BECBC Membership read this blog from our Tender Opportunities Consultant, Liz Bowe.