Barriers to Business Opportunities

To identify barriers, look at data including sales figures, client feedback or customer satisfaction scores and check how the competitors are doing compared to your organisation. If competitors are struggling to achieve their business objectives, too, then the barrier may be based on the market, not the organisation’s strategy.

Speaking with the people involved is also important to identify barriers. Talk to people within the organisation, such as management and employees. Managers can point out any issues in the big picture, while employees can spot problems in the day-to-day operations. The barriers to business development opportunities can be either internal or external. Internal barriers are factors within the organisation. These can sometimes be connected to external barriers as well.

Internal Barriers

Some types of internal barriers are:

• Poor management: Managers who lack leadership skills do not effectively motivate employees. This can lead to employees lacking direction or having a vague understanding of the organisation’s objectives.
• Lack of resources: The organisation may not have enough financial resources to market products and services effectively or expand the business. They may also not have the facilities and equipment that the employees need.
• Lack of strategy: Managers may be too busy thinking about the day-to-day operations instead of looking at the big picture. They might forget to plan for long-term growth and fail to prevent problems. The objectives and targets set might also not be reasonable or realistic enough.
• Low productivity: Employees do not feel motivated to be efficient during work. They may also lack the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to work properly. The established systems, procedures, and processes may also be inefficient and counterproductive.
• Ineffective marketing: The organisation’s marketing strategy might not be working. Marketing efforts may not be reaching the intended audience or are not compelling enough to convince them. Meanwhile, external barriers are factors that limit your business but are outside the scope of your organisation.

External Barriers

• Saturated market: There may already be too many competitors offering the same products and services in the market. This prevents you from gaining new customers and is especially difficult to overcome if your organisation is newly established.
• Negative press: News outlets and social media may be harming your organisation or the industry the organisation is part of. Negative press will make customers wary of your organisation and hesitant to buy your products or services.
• High taxes: The organisation may struggle to pay taxes and contributions if revenue from sales is not enough.
• Aggressive competitors: Competitors may be expanding their business or increasing their marketing efforts in order to drive more customers towards them.
• Struggling economy: Recessions can slow down the business’s growth. Investors may become uncertain, and customers may lack the resources to buy your organisation’s products and services.

Business relationship barriers may result from poor communication, interpersonal, or intercultural skills. Barriers may also occur through parties having different values and belief systems.

Addressing Barriers

You can deal with internal barriers without drastic measures because they often have to do with the strength and effectiveness of business relationships. The following table provides strategies that focus on the people aspects relevant to your organisation.

Scenario

Robert has recently learned that a client has discontinued their services with Ace Finance in late July, citing disappointment with the customer service provided by the company. The client did not identify a specific person but implied that the three-week delay in having his tax return completed was unsatisfactory. Robert wants to understand what occurred and calls a staff team meeting. The meeting was productive, and it turned out that in August the accounting team was down two members which resulted in lengthy delays in processing returns. Whist Robert is disappointed he is relieved it is not an employee issue but rather a lack of staff planning from the office manager. This is something the company can manage, and the office manager has trained up a team member to assist with scheduling staff over the busy times of the financial year.

Once you have established and further developed your professional relationships, you need to present your organisation’s interests and objectives to business contacts. This involves participating in formal and informal networks, participating in promotional activities to entice customers and giving presentations to inform colleagues and peers outside the organisation. Doing these relies on you understanding your business contacts and being able to communicate effectively.

Participating in formal and informal networks

There are two types of networks in which you will participate.

• Formal networks: Formal networks are easily identifiable because they have an organisational culture attached to them4. Examples of formal networks are associations, professional conferences, and management groups. These usually rely on a hierarchy, where the leaders of the network manage how information reaches the other members. Formal networks also include groups of contacts who are meeting (physically or virtually) on a regular basis to discuss a specific topic of mutual interest. For example, how to support or promote their businesses. As the network group develops it may become more formal and meetings may include an agenda and minutes. Formal roles may evolve out of this type of networking activity.
• Informal networks: Meanwhile, informal networks have no hierarchies and are structured around the social ties the members have with each other. You can meet contacts through any means, even at places outside of professional events, for example social gatherings. This type of network is characterised by its give-and-take nature. Regardless of their seniority, every member can share information freely.

Prepare in advance

Before any networking event, remember to prepare and plan your message according to organisational objectives and policies, the people you want to contact at the event and what materials you need (business cards, brochures, etc.) Regardless of the type of networking event you go to, opportunities to connect with potential contacts are often fleeting. This means you need to be prepared to get your point across as quickly as possible. This means:

• Summarising your key points: You can evaluate how effective your message is by considering whether you have answered the following: who, what, when, where, and why. If you are preparing for the networking event and some of the information is not related to answering these questions, it can safely be left out.
• Speaking in short sentences: Pick your words carefully, and make sure everything you say has an actual impact on the listener.
• Divide your message into categories: Try to assume that you will get five minutes with each person you contact at the event. You can divide your message into the following:
  • 30 seconds to introduce yourself and your organisation
  • 30 seconds to try to gain common ground
  • One minute to discuss your organisation and its goals
  • Two minutes to discuss your key points One minute to make a call to action.

Do your homework on potential contacts

One of the most critical things you need to know is who will be at a networking event. Research who has been invited, what organisations they belong to, their current clients and suppliers, and whether they have any vested interest in what you can offer them.

If you know certain people are attending from a given organisation that you want to meet, take the initiative to know their organisation well. Look at current news related to their organisation, issues they are known to be having, what their overall plans are.

You can find this information usually through their website or news articles related to the industry. When you have planned your message and have an idea of who will be attending the event, consider what your other objectives are. What else do you want to achieve at the event? Consider the following questions: Do you want them to just get information about your organisation? Do you want to make a sale? Do you want them to refer you to their contacts? Do you want to be offered positions at their organisations?

Promoting to Customers

Ineffective marketing and low customer loyalty can be barriers to your organisation’s objectives. Promotional activities can help you reach your target customers and entice them to buy your products or services. Promotional activities include:

• Advertising: This activity helps you reach a larger audience by advertising your products or services. The medium depends on the customers you want to attract. Social media is a cost-effective method and allows you to connect with potential customers without trying to sell them something obviously.
• Direct marketing: This activity involves sending mail, emails, text messages, pamphlets, and brochures to customers. This allows you to build a relationship directly with customers. Since this may be unsolicited contact, note any privacy regulations that apply. To receive feedback on your direct marketing activities, you can attach surveys to the mail you send.
• Personal selling: This activity involves directly communicating with one customer at a time to build a relationship. This is an expensive and time-consuming activity, but it can create more meaningful connections and bring in loyal customers. Since this activity relies on direct communication, you can ask for feedback directly from the customer.
• Public relations: This activity involves press releases, press conferences, media interviews, sponsorships, and word-of-mouth referrals. It can lend credibility, as customers receive this information from third parties such as media outlets. For guidelines on conducting public relations activities, you can refer to the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Code of Ethics.
• Sales promotions: This activity helps increase revenue for short periods of time. Sales promotions include coupons, discounts, contests, free samples, and trials. You can receive feedback from customers by asking them to answer online and written surveys about the products and services.

Presenting to business contacts

Presenting your organisation’s interests to other types of contacts can be done through formal and informal presentations. Whether you are giving a formal presentation to a group of contacts or giving an informal sales pitch at a networking event, you need to communicate effectively to align your organisation’s goals with those of your contacts. Before giving a presentation, you need to plan and prepare for it. This means:

• identifying your objectives
• identifying the audience and context
• writing the script
• preparing any visual aids
• practicing.

Conversing at an informal networking event may not seem daunting. However, formal presentations can be a different matter altogether! When you deliver your presentation, keep the following in mind: control your pace and tone of voice, use appropriate body language and set a time to answer questions. It helps to have a set of anticipated questions and prepared responses. If you do not know how to answer a question, just be honest and ask if you can follow up. Take note of their name and contact details so you can answer their question at a later time.

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Meetings

Even if you start with an informal network, you may find that over time you decide that you need to become a little more formal. This may mean sending out an agenda before the meeting and after the meeting distributing the minutes which record the main discussion points, new business, action items, and timeframes. For example, a small group of business owners, perhaps in similar but not competing products or services decide to get together to discuss ways of supporting and promoting the businesses to raise their profile or extend their range of products and services. They decide to hold a fundraiser for a local charity which requires consultation and coordination and a more formal approach to successfully organise the event. There are many templates for meeting agendas and minutes, but they are often formatted in a table and contain the following information.

Everything you do in your business requires you to receive feedback to understand how well you did. You can try to accomplish something, but unless you know whether you achieved it or not, you will not be able to tell how successful you actually were. Evaluating your networking activities requires you to seek and receive feedback. Feedback will help you improve both your networking and presentation skills. You can ask for feedback from your business contacts:

• Suppliers: You can provide surveys to evaluate the business as a client.
• Customers: You can provide a way for them to leave online and written reviews about the business’s products and services.
• Colleagues: You can ask for feedback verbally during formal feedback sessions or informal discussions.

Once you have informed the relevant personnel about issues with your professional relationships, ask for their suggestions on areas you can improve on. Consider your message and the manner in which you delivered it. Think if you were able to meet the needs of your organisation and your potential business contacts. One of the things you need to seek feedback for is how you communicated your message during networking events. Feedback will tell you whether:

Management Feedback

One way to improve your business relationships is to seek feedback from your managers and colleagues on the quality of relationships you have with your business contacts (for example, clients, customers, networks and so on). Your manager may suggest you create a short survey using a tool such as Survey Monkey and send it to your key clients, customers (this may include those inside your organisation to who you offer or receive a service, for example) seeking their feedback.

Responding to management feedback

Equally, it is important that you take on board feedback and respond in a professional manner. Be open to any opportunity to improve your skills. For example, your manager may suggest that you attend training or professional development in public speaking if feedback suggests that you lack confidence speaking in larger groups.

Always treat feedback as positive and constructive. Ensure that you do not get defensive when you are receiving feedback. Feedback is not about destroying your efforts. Rather, it is aimed at reinforcing what you do well and making you aware of any areas of improvement.

Once you have received feedback, consider how you can apply the suggestions to your professional relationships. Improvement is a continuous process, so implement the techniques you learned when interacting with current and potential contacts and ask for feedback from your supervisors and colleagues whenever you need to.

Key points

• The basic concept in business networks is that members make referrals to each other from among their friends, clients and associates.
• Networking strategies must support the organisation's objectives.
• Potential business networks include industry associations, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other networking organisations.
• Networking can be physical or virtual using social media platforms.
• Networking etiquette includes how you engage with networks, confirming communication channels, using appropriate written and verbal communication and cross-cultural awareness.
• Organisational policies and procedures will outline the protocols you should follow when contacting a person or another organisation.
• Barriers to business development can be internal or external.
• Advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, public relations and sales promotions are types of promotional activities to attract customers.
• Seeking feedback from managers, colleagues, clients, suppliers and others can help you improve your networking skills.

Complete the following short quiz on networking strategies (4 questions)

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