How Your Agency Benefits: Agencies want to know if they are putting their best foot forward in the marketplace. Evaluating your business development operations is the ideal way to know if there is untapped potential and what can be done to access it.

Through my years of experience, I have developed a comprehensive outline for evaluating an organization’s business development structure and team. Using this approach, I have helped many organizations and can assess specific aspects of business development or take a holistic view and provide recommendations, plans and implementation support.

The evaluation can include the following elements:

• Analysis of agency data and reports
• Analysis of marketplace statistics and competitive landscape, using internal and external sources
• Assessment of business development structure, plans and personnel
• Interviews with key staff, referral sources and stakeholders
• Evaluation of processes and tools, including sales, marketing, intake and related departments
• Review of marketing collateral and its use
• Identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, with recommendations for addressing them