Based on more than 20 years’ experience in the corporate arena, Barbara Wilmot's approach to business development is based on the following principles: 

The "one-to-many" or "macro" approach - developing business from cold, totally new clients to build a pipeline for the future.

This is usually is the role of the marketing department because it requires specialist approaches and is time consuming. Typically, it involves list sourcing or contact database development, together with a series of campaigns or initiatives which are run throughout the year to identify colder leads. 

The "one-to-one" or "micro" approach - developing business from existing, lapsed and occasional contacts.

This is the opportunity area for the executive teams because it is less time intensive and because it is easier to win work from known rather than new contacts. To create better focus and to be realistic about workload and schedules, approximately 10 to 20 development contacts and opportunities for each executive are identified. Qualified leads that result from marketing initiatives are also included for follow-up and development. 

This modus operandi avoids the need for uninformed cold calling which can be too random and infrequent and can often have a low success rate.