Bigger is Better is a business development service based in the Bay of Plenty. BD Specialist and Director Paul Lennane works with small-medium service-based business owners who want to boost and sustain growth, need help balancing day-to-day operations, want to leverage their business capabilities, and enter new markets. We had a chat to Paul to find out more.

Tell us a bit about your background – who you are and what you do?

We have extensive experience developing business and growing new revenue in emerging and established markets throughout New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. We have worked across the industry spectrum with some of the world’s largest organisations to your more boutique businesses, and no matter the size of the company, we partner to transform, expand, and accelerate their growth.

What makes your organisation unique? What’s the one thing you want people to know about your business?

We want to help businesses achieve exceptional growth. It’s in our DNA, our personality, and our attitude. We believe networking and procuring exceptional growth is for any business across any industry vertical.

What services do you offer? How can you help our business community?

Every business wants growth. However, the first question we ask our clients is, ‘is your business ready for growth?’ Before we investigate the market, we review their business and examine their operations, processes, and people. We reverse engineer the entire customer journey and test whether each area of their business can expand to extra demand. We ensure quality and delivery of service remain high.

What project have you worked on that you are you particularly proud of?

A business we worked with abroad last year wanted to move into international markets. We reviewed their plan, timeline and business to ensure they had the end-to-end capability to provide exceptional service and delivery, i.e., meet the extra growth/demand. One area they needed to invest more in was their people. People are the most important investment in any business. They are critical to its success, so there must be a real focus on having everyone on the same page and with a growth mindset. Communicating the plan and goals of the business is essential so that everyone feels they are in it and positively contributing. We built a plan that focused on building capacity, upskilling, and ensuring each employee was aligned to the business growth goals and that they came to an environment conducive to a career, not just a job. This was a successful project, and the company is doing exceptionally well!

What’s happening in the current climate that is affecting your industry?

We are busy, particularly over the last two years. Businesses are rallying for growth and want to expand. However, realise they have not focused on building a pipeline of high-value, potential clients where trust is already established.

What’s the one misconception people might have about your industry?

Business development is strategic; it’s not sales. Sales is a result of good business development. Business development is about networking with potential clients before they need your services, where you invest time building relationships so that the potential client knows who you are, what you represent and are trustworthy. Building trust and rapport first takes the ‘sales transaction’ out of the relationship because you have a more personal relationship; otherwise, you will be judged on price and not value.

If you could impart one piece of advice to our business community,
what would it be?

The customer experience is the only thing your business will be remembered for, whether it was excellent, mediocre or poor. More than not, repeat business comes from having a great customer experience, you might get a second chance with a mediocre experience, but you will lose business through a poor customer experience.

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