Strategies for Corporate Expansion

Strategies for Corporate Expansion

Kelly Kennedy: ​Welcome to episode 71 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, we are talking about expansion. What do we do for business development? If we're moving into a new location, a new city, a new province, a new state, a new industry. Stick with us. We're going to chat about that today.

Intro: The Great.Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and broadcasting to the world.

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And now your expert host Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 71 of the business development podcast. And on today's show, I wanted to take some time and talk about expanding into new industries, expanding into new cities, but business development expansion. What do we do? How do we do it? What should we consider? We are going to be chatting about this with you today, but before we get into today's episode, I wanted to give a gigantic thank you to Colin Harms for episode 70, Say I Did with Colin Harms of Hypervac Technologies.

Hypervac Technologies is also a brand new sponsor of the business development podcast, and we appreciate them greatly. So please do give them some love, head on over to www.hypervac.com and check out their various products. They make some pretty cool stuff. All right. So wanted to also get into just some updates for the show.

So we're in October. I'm looking for community questions. So anybody listening right now, business development, we need some community questions for our October community questions episode, send them on over to podcast@capitalbd.ca, subject line, community questions, and we will work to get them addressed here in our October episode, and I just wanted to say, thank you so much.

If you're if you're sticking with. us here. If this is your first time to the business development podcast, we appreciate you greatly. Thank you so much for swinging by our show today. And we do hope that you head back to our back catalog where we have 70, 70 previous episodes to this one to get you caught up and to help you in your business development and company growth journey.

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Alright, let's get into today's episode. So today, I wanted to take a minute. I've been getting lots of questions with people that, you know, they do business development where they're at, or they're doing sales in their current city, and their company's growing, and they're saying, Kelly, what about like expanding into the next city, or the next province, or the next state, I guess, if we're in the U.S.? And What about another industry? What if there's other industries we can serve? Because if you're listening to the show, you recognize that we talk about that a lot. Typically, there's multiple industries you can serve. And so we need to keep our minds open into how to do that. But you may be asking yourself today, what should we consider?

What should we think about when doing this? I have some awesome, awesome news for you, stick around with us to the end. There's really good news if this is you and this is what you were looking to do The sky is the limit and I'm gonna explain to you why today, but I just wanted to get into Some things to consider before you do hop on this expansion journey.

Okay, so obviously We have to consider, can we support the expansion? Okay. It's one thing to dream and aspire to be, being able to do an expansion. To actually execute an expansion is a completely different thing. The business development is only one aspect of this. And so you have to kind of ask yourself, Can I financially support another location?

And this is something that I know can be a bit of a challenge, and you may need to hire some people to review your current your current finances or a good accountant to be able to put together maybe some estimates on what an expansion might look like for you and your business. Because just because You're thinking about it doesn't necessarily mean you're ready.

You need to make sure that financially you can support another location, the marketing that goes along with this employees in a new location, and maybe any of the other challenges that you could face with setting up in a new location. And we know that nothing in business comes cheap. Lessons are expensive and hard earned.

So the more that we can think about this and plan and be proactive before we jump in with both feet, the better off that you're going to be. So financially you need to consider. The financial costs of an expansion into a location if it's like your next city, it might not be that much. But if you're going across the province or across state lines, it could be a completely different ballgame.

We also need to think about our logistics. Okay? Just because you can support the supply lines in the place you're at today does not necessarily mean that logistically speaking, it's going to be easy to support the new location. This could be the availability of parts or products or people that you need in order to supply your service or product.

This could mean, frankly, just the availability of, of, of items or the remoteness of the location. Like, if you're in Canada, we have incredibly remote locations where, yeah, like, you can maybe only reach them for six months a year. Like, that is a real, real problem. And so these are things that you have to consider before you do move into a new location.

What are the logistics of servicing this area of supplying a product to this area of manufacturing in this area? And are we going to be able to maintain the same supply lines? Are we going to be able to actually deliver a consistent product or service in this area? And so we need to make sure that even if financially we can afford it, that the availability and the logistics of doing that are possible.

Okay, and emotionally, okay? I know this because I'm a business owner and I totally get it. Are you prepared for the amount of... effort it is going to take to launch a new product or service in a new service area, or to service a new industry, or to service a new city, okay? I know most of us business owners are pretty tapped.

Like, we work our butts off, and I'm speaking to you because I know it's you. You're working your bag off to support this current area. Imagine what that is going to be like when you open up a second store or a second location, or you start servicing a whole nother industry and you have, say, another 20 new clients or customers or more.

What is that going to be like for you? Are you going to be able to offload some of that pressure? Are you going to be able to hire new people to be able to support that extra workload? How are you going to do that emotionally, mentally, in a way that you are not going to burn yourself into the ground?

And I know the answer for most business owners is we'll figure it out. But when we do that, we tend to burn ourselves into the ground. So you need to be thinking, okay, mentally, emotionally, support wise, how can I do this? How can I do this? Or can I do this without burning out? If the answer is yes, okay.

Now you have to consider some other things. Can you compete against the local offerings in the area? Remember what I always tell you guys, you're the most competitive where you are. Unfortunately for you, this is also true for the competition. And if your competition is, is local there. They're established there, they have customers there, and you are going in and stealing some of that market share.

You are going to have to work two to three times as hard to do that. You're going to have to offer a pretty, pretty compelling alternative to the local offering. And I've seen this happen at a large scale. I've seen it happen at a small scale. Put it this way, when you guys are competing against a local offering or a local incumbent, It is challenging.

It is challenging to offset them, and so you need to be prepared for that, okay? You need to know what is the competition. We need to do a little bit of research. We need to know what we're competing against in that area, right? What is the reception to outsiders? This is, I hate to say it, this is actually very critical, though.

In Canada, for instance, sometimes there is a poor reception. Two out of province workers, and we've seen this in B. C., we've seen this in Saskatchewan people like to support the local community. And I don't blame them, right? We support our friends and family. That is just the world we live in. And so when you're coming in there from a completely different province saying that you can do it better, or they should give you a try, sometimes what your customers are thinking is, Well, yeah, but I've used John and I go for, you know, I play ball with John's son or, you know, John's wife is, has the teacher of my kid.

Like that is a tough person to offset. Okay. And there is going to be reluctance to to be able to move into there. So you definitely need to consider what the reception is of outsiders before you jump into that. Okay. Is there enough demand for a new company? Obviously, you know, you've probably done your target research.

My bet is, is that if you're deciding to expand, it's because you've already done this target research and you think there is enough demand. However, we're not always right. I hate to say this, but market research isn't always accurate. Your research isn't always accurate. And I know as business owners, sometimes we can fly a little bit by the seat of our pants, just saying, you know what, we'll figure it out.

And yes, you 100 percent probably will figure it out. But let's just hope that when you do figure it out, There is actually enough demand for a new customer in the area, because if your incumbents are settled, they're established, everybody likes them, they're working with them, you may not be able to steal that work, and if you can't steal that work, you're going to be in trouble rather quickly, so you need to make sure that there is an appetite for a new competitor in the space, and you can really do this with just some phone calls, honestly, I've had lots of conversations with companies that say like, yeah, like we, you know, we use ABC company because ABC company has been here for years, but like, we're not really thrilled with them.

This is the perfect market for you to jump into because you know that ABC company is really successful because they're the only player in that space or the competition isn't even close to as good. So ultimately. You have this great opportunity to come in and offer something better and they're going to be receptive to it.

But the opposite is also true. And you could end up in a space where they're like, yeah, we use ABC company and we absolutely love them. And you know, I, I work with John's wife and his kid plays ball with my kid. This is going to be a really, really, really tough market for you to break into. And so you know, doing some initial phone calls to potential customers in the area and just asking, Hey, you know, if we opened a location here, is that something that you think would be receptive?

Tell me currently about your experience with the competitors. And if some people will give you some feedback and you're finding that the feedback is saying there's space for you, then absolutely. But make sure that you're doing at least a little bit of target research before you hop into that space and make that commitment because.

Yeah, it can be really, really, really harsh wake up call if you get there and there's no space for a new competitor. Alright, and another thing that you need to consider, once again, is are you going to need a local office or is, or could you have a satellite office, or can you work remotely? So, ideally, You could test this idea by not necessarily opening a full office in the area.

First, you could test the idea by potentially opening a satellite office and then marketing there for say six months without actually having to pay for a full office or a full setup and have have some ways obviously to deliver on your product if you can win some clients, but it'll at least maybe give you a test run before you, before you jump in with with both feet.

But if you can do that, if you can test it out. You're going to be much better off and a satellite office is a great way to be able to try that. Once again, like I said, sometimes it's about being local and, and if you have to be local, then, you know, opening a satellite office or opening a actual office is going to be beneficial to you, but you need to make sure that you understand this market and the demands and if that's a priority to them before you jump into that space.

Alright, so let's say that you've gotten through all of this, and you're still like, Kelly, we're doing it, there's an opportunity here, then amazing. If the answer is yes, I have great, great news for you. This is an excellent opportunity to execute successful BD. Starting in a new location is kind of like a clean slate.

at a great new opportunity. I absolutely love this. I love working at companies when they're like, Kelly, we're doing an expansion. We're moving into this area. We're pulling the trigger on it. Start BD work. Because for me, it's like being able to start over all over again. And it gives you just this wide gamut.

Now you have a whole new city or a whole new industry of targets that you can target. And so it's like, honestly, for a BD person, it's like a kid in a candy store. I absolutely love this. And this and You know, if I'm speaking to you today and you're making this call and you're saying like, yeah, I think we're going to expand in the next six months.

Congratulations. I can't wait. You were an amazing space. You're in an amazing location and you're in an amazing point in your, in your journey. And you were going to be greatly successful at business development in this space, just because. You have such a wide opportunity, such a wide net of companies.

You can now reach out to, and they may not even know who you are. So you even have the ability to reinvent yourself a little bit. You can even reinvent your company a little bit. Maybe you can try some new business models. Maybe you can try some new services. This gives you a whole new opportunity. And as a business development person.

It's like when you started a new company, this is like the same thing all over again. It's like, it's like being given this blank slate and you can just do whatever you want with it. And it's an incredibly exciting time. And I absolutely love it. So what do we do? Okay, we have to make sure first off, it's the same steps that we always follow for our business development process, right?

We have to review our marketing materials, and we need to revamp brochures in order to target the new area or industry, right? So we need to make sure that Our marketing materials are very specific to the new area or the new industry. If, for instance, you were working in oil and gas before and the new area is heavy mining or heavy forestry, we need to revamp our brochures to reflect heavy mining, forestry, whatever the new industry is that we're targeting.

If we're in a new area and we know that there's certain values in that area, we should revamp our brochures and our website to reflect how we care about those values too, and how we are going to support the community or how we are going to support that area with our new organization, right? Being able to speak to how you're going to help them out or being able to speak to them directly in a way that the customer will understand is always going to be more effective.

This doesn't matter whether you're local going into a new area. You need to understand what they want or what is important to them and you need to speak to it and like, like just revamping your brochures and making it more targeted to the industry of that area is going to already make you incredibly effective.

If you can speak to the values of that area as well, if you can think about what are the values of this area, what do they care about? Do they care about their local little league? Great. You should come in and maybe think about sponsoring some of the local little leagues to buy some favor. There are ways for you to help, to speak to how you're going to help the community that you're moving into.

And the more that you can do this, the better off and the better your reception is going to be in that area. We then need to identify the leading companies and industries in that area. And we need to create a target list. So once again, just like before, right? We always got to, we always have to speak to the target list.

We have to create a target list in the industry and area that we are going to be marketing to. So we need to review our brochures, our website. We need to make sure that it's up to date. If you are adding a new location or you're going to add a satellite office, make sure that it's on your marketing material so that they can see their city, their town.

their industry, maybe on your brochure packages on your website, and they can connect better with it. And then we need to make sure that we are identifying each industry and sub industry in that area, right? Remember, if you work in mining or forestry, there's a whole ton of support industries that support those bigger players.

It's typically not just the bigger players that you can work at. It's it's the sub players. It's the ones under them. It's the The service companies that then service those, there's almost always other companies that are relevant to you and your product or service. So make sure that you're not just targeting the big boys, that you're targeting the medium sized companies, the large companies, the small companies, the service based companies, because the reality is there is more.

There, there's always more, you just have to open your mind to it and start to say, what else can we do here? What are the other underserved areas that our product or service can work very, very well for? And I think you're going to find that that industry list quickly grows to 50, 100 companies and boom, sky's the limit.

You got lots and lots of opportunity to start that marketing campaign. All right. So we've, we have revamped our marketing material. We've identified the companies and industries. Okay, now we have to use technology to our advantage. So we talk about this all the time. I always love to use LinkedIn as that initial, as that initial soft touch strategy.

That's what I like to call it. And it's where, okay, so we've identified the companies. Now we need to figure out who is, who's the right person in this company. Right. And we talk about this all the time that SCM is the low hanging. fruit pretty much everywhere. But typically SCM isn't the person making that buying decision.

They're, they're usually the person who's reached out to after the other people in the organization have said, I can't find what I'm looking for. SCM help us. Right. But typically it's a director of operations. It might be the plant manager. It might be the, you know, the forestry manager or whoever else at the various locations, manufacturing manager.

Typically, there's somebody else in that line that's not SCM, and we need to identify them. We need to figure out who is buying our product, who is buying our service, and we need to reach out to them directly. LinkedIn is the best place for this, period. Bar none. LinkedIn is amazing for this. So if we can identify that they're a director of operations, they're a plant manager, great, hop on LinkedIn, search plant manager, search the area you are now in, and my gosh, watch that list just populate itself with potential future customers for you.

Because that's what it ultimately does. Connect to 100 of them a week. Make a digital introduction. Short, sweet, personal, okay? Don't use just a blanket introduction. Introduce yourself first, right? Be yourself before a company. People connect with people, and we need to find ways to connect together. So if we can take some time, and we can create a very personal introduction, Doesn't have to be long, like I said, maybe a quick paragraph or something like that on LinkedIn, just introducing yourself in the company, attach a brochure, and I think you're going to find that when you do finally reach out to these people actively.

So via direct email, via phone number, cause you've tracked it down and figured it out and you're making that connection and asking for the meeting. They are going to know who you are already. It's not going to be a completely cold introduction. Very likely, they've read your LinkedIn introduction, they've connected with you, they've already seen a few of your posts, or whatever else you got going on, and they are going to relate with you.

And when you do reach out to make that initial connection I think you're going to find you're going to get it. They're going to be interested in sitting down and learning a little bit more about you and your company. And then it's important, obviously, at that point, to build a personal connection, right?

Remember, it's not all business, you know, business always comes, but we don't start there. We don't start there. We can be personal. We can build a relationship. We can build a rapport first, and we should always be focusing on that. We should always be focusing on how can we better create a relationship here because relationships last.

Right? They just do. And they give you an advantage in business that is not really fair. But that's the whole point, right? We want to create unfair advantages for us and our companies wherever possible. And you do that through building strong, great relationships with your potential customers. And we do that by reaching out like friends, like people, and building real relationships with them.

We go for lunch, you know, maybe we go golfing, maybe we do fun things together, but over time, we build a great relationship that turns into great business down the line. All right, so, and then obviously, we have to always follow and execute our BD process, right? So we have to go through the CRM, we have to make sure, okay, so we're establishing a CRM, we're establishing the right the right steps of our CRM.

And if you're wondering what those steps are, go back. I have, I have multiple episodes on CRMs and establishing the business development process. Go back to those, listen to them. They are going to give you the tips and help that you need in order to fully establish a great business development program at your business.

But when we establish a CRM, we need to make sure that we have that digital introduction stages, stage one, right? That's when we're reaching out to them on LinkedIn, we're adding them to our CRM stage. Then we move into. Contacted stage. So we found their information. We've reached out. They're now in the weekly contacted stage.

After that, we have a backburner for the people that we disqualify because we want to just move them into a disqualified section and maybe get back to them at a later date. But for now, we want to disqualify them, move them into backburner. After backburner, we should have a future opportunities. So if you're talking to a potential customer, they're like, you know what, just not right now XYZ company, although what you do looks awesome, and I would love to have that conversation in six months.

Move them. to future opportunities and make sure that you've updated your data accordingly. Then we want to have a meeting book stage. All the people in contact made that are just psyched to meet you. Great. This is what we want. Let's move them into meeting booked. Then after meeting booked, we need a next steps phase where we're asking, okay, this meeting was great.

What's the next steps? Do we need a, do we need to fill out a vendor list application? Is there an upcoming RFQ or RFP that we can bid? What are the next steps? How do we become a customer? And then obviously from there, we want to move them into that current customer stage and hand it off to an account manager.

And if you have questions regarding my views on account management and business development, I have multiple episodes on that as well. Feel free to go back and listen to one of them. But in my mind, they should always be separated. Your business development should be focused on new business opportunities, and your account management should be the people managing your current accounts, your current customers, keeping them happy and maintaining that relationship moving forward.

I want you guys to also consider when you are moving into a new location, remember. The be all end all the model that you use in your current location, depending on where you're going, may not be how they want to do business in the new location. Okay, so when you move, you know, a province or a state, things can be different.

And we have to understand that you can't just assume that because where you are today, the business model you use is going to be relevant across the country that you're in, because it's straight up just is not there are certain places where business is done differently. Where different models work differently.

If you were opening a new location, if you're going into a new state, new province, new location, new city, new industry, be open to customer feedback. Be open to having your BD reps sit down with a, with a, with a company and say, look, tell me what you need. Tell me what is the challenges you're facing and how do you want those challenges solved?

You know, is a monthly fee how you want it solved? Is this product going to solve that problem for you? Or is there another thing that we can be doing that is going to be more effective? And be open to looking at your model. And making adjustments, making adjustments to fit the new industry, making adjustments to fit the new service location, the new customer, right?

If you can help customers in the way they want to be helped, you are straight up just going to be more effective, period. You're going to make more sales, you're going to sell more product, you're going to sell more services. You need to meet your customer where they are at. And sometimes... What that means is you have to reevaluate your current business model.

Okay. So, especially when we're moving into a new location, an untested location, absolutely. You can keep your current business model, but be open to looking at it. Be open to looking at it, to fit the new place, to help the new customers needs because one size never fits all. And that doesn't matter whether it's in marketing materials or, or your business model.

Okay. There's going to be scenarios where you need to adapt if you want to be successful and moving into a new location does typically present this challenge and you can fix it by simply being open to that conversation and saying, look, Mr. Customer, Mrs. Customer, we want to do business with you here. We are open to negotiation.

We are open to doing things in a way that you are comfortable doing. Bring us up to speed. What does that look like? How do we help you help us? Okay, because it really is a win win scenario, and that's where we want to always be. As a business owner, as someone selling services or a product, we want to create win win, no brainer scenarios for our customers where it's like, why wouldn't I use XYZ company?

They offer me this great product or this great service in a way that I want to be offered it. It's a no brainer. We love them. We want to keep them. This is how you do it. You open up those lines of communication with your customer. And you find something that works for both of you. And if you can do this, you know, maybe it means that you have to revamp your model a little bit, but long term, it's going to make you incredibly, incredibly successful as compared to people who are not open to doing that.

All right. So. Remember in a new location, business development is not only possible in new markets or industries, cities, wherever you are, it's a blank canvas to work from and it represents a new and exciting opportunity for you and your business. And I encourage each and every one of you to take that leap, take the jump, be open to some change.

Cause it's not going to come easy. It's not going to necessarily be exactly the same, but if you are open to it, You are going to be successful. Look for win win scenarios with your new customers and watch yourself thrive. All right, shout outs this week. Alagan Sathianathan, Colin Harms and Chris Eklund.

Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate you immensely. Thank you so much for joining me on the Business Development Podcast. Once again, if you've enjoyed this show, please like, share, subscribe. Tell a friend, tell a family member, tell a coworker. And if you want to advertise with us, we are always looking for new corporate sponsors.

We appreciate them greatly, and we are looking forward to helping you grow your businesses as well. Until next time, this has been Kelly Kennedy. You're listening to the Business Development Podcast, and I will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development.

Your business development specialists for more, we invite you to the website at

www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.