Services: Business Development
By fostering new business partnerships, recruiting new clients and generating new marketing strategies for business development in Orlando and Central Florida, DBMG will create a strategic plan to help your business grow.
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Case Study: Colonial Life
Colonial Life Insurance Company is a billion-dollar enterprise that works with employers to provide supplemental insurance coverage to their employees, including optional insurance policies such as cancer, short-term disability and medical bridge insurance. I was brought in because they wanted to increase their focus on state agencies in Florida.
Even though Colonial has been writing insurance policies in Florida for about 50 years, there were a number of state agencies with whom they were not doing business. Importantly, Colonial had new products to offer state employees on a “pre-tax” and “post-tax” basis.
Our goal was to set up meetings with decision-makers in every state agency to introduce the new optional products that could be offered to their employees. Working in Tallahassee, I was able to secure meetings with the right decision-makers to get the job done. Their products are now available to virtually every state agency and state employee.
This illustrates an important point. In working with state and local governments, it’s really not about governmental relations or governmental affairs; it’s about business development. I’m representing a client who wants to present their services to the government agencies.
In a similar fashion, I also represent Colonial in the private sector. There, we identify companies where we believe these supplemental policies would be most beneficial to their employees. Working with the client, we then introduce representatives from Colonial Life to those private sector corporations, facilitating meetings with key decision-makers for Colonial to make presentations.
For example, Quest Inc. was deemed an important strategic target by Colonial. I was able to secure a meeting and presentation for Colonial Life, as a consequence of a personal relationship I have with Quest’s vice president. They signed up with Colonial Life and their products are now offered to more than 600 Quest employees – a major win for our client and for us.
“Dick Batchelor and his firm’s business development capability have afforded my organization the opportunity to grow at a level previously unattainable. It’s through his ability to connect dots and put people together with similar interests that have made this achievable.”
Case Study: Contech Restoration
Contech Restoration is a concrete construction and restoration company. They brought me in to help accelerate their business-development strategies, focusing on major purchasers of building-restoration services. Since they had a great reputation in the vacation-ownership sector of the resort industry, the initial strategy was to further reach out to vacation-ownership companies that were in need of structure construction and reconstruction services. Working with us, they were able to get them in front of corporate decision-makers at a number of timeshare companies, including Starwood Vacation Ownership, Island One Resorts and others. Having represented a number of timeshare companies in the past (ARDA), I was familiar with how the vacation-ownership homeowner associations worked, which informed our outreach strategy. For instance, I knew that Florida law required owners' monies to be put in reserves, so that when reconstruction needs arose, the monies were to be on hand. In that light, it was also important to introduce Contech Restoration's successes and skill sets to key managers of the homeowner associations so that, as construction needs arise, Contech will be “top of mind,” having already been introduced and acquainted to Contech’s expertise.
The company's expertise is particularly strong in reconstructing resorts that have beachfront-water damage. In that light, after identifying major resorts along certain coastlines in Florida, we also introduced Contech to key management teams at resorts in hurricane prone counties.
Another part of the multi-pronged strategy was to introduce, and in some cases reintroduce, the company to large general contracting companies such as PCL and Balfour-Beatty, both multibillion dollar corporations. In doing so, our goal was to enlighten the companies’ leadership as to the skill sets of Contech Restoration and to demonstrate how they could team up - not only on smaller projects, but also on the largest of projects as well. This strategy worked, as both companies have committed to using Contech’s services on major upcoming projects.
Case Study: S2K
S2K is a telecommunications audit company. It goes into companies of significant size that have substantial monthly telecommunication costs and does in-depth audits to demonstrate how the company can save substantially on recurring telecommunication costs.
At S2K, I sat down with them to learn as much as I could about their company, products and services. Working together, we jointly determined the target companies they wanted to access – companies to which they wanted to make a presentation. From there, I put them together with the right people in those companies so my client (in this case, S2K) could make their presentations and hopefully secure new business. This strategy proved largely successful.
To take a specific example: Westgate Resorts has 28 locations around the country. They are obviously a big user of telecommunication systems. Through my relationship with the owner of Westgate, I was able to connect the dots by putting the head of S2K in front of the Chief Information Officer at Westgate, a key decision-maker. After the meetings and subsequent negotiations, S2K secured a lucrative contract that would, in turn, save Westgate Resorts hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in telecommunication costs.
“Dick Batchelor was very helpful in assisting me in connecting with strategic businesses in my target markets. Being walked in to meet a contact with someone known and respected in the community makes all the difference. Dick’s assistance proved to be a valuable asset to my business.”
Case Study: Disney World
Disney had a strong interest in participating in any proposed high-speed rail systems along the I-4 corridor. As a major player in the region, they also wanted to be sure their interests were fully protected. So when a rail system was proposed that would encroach upon their boundaries, they needed to be a very active player in the decision-making process.
I was hired as a member of a team to work with the Florida High-Speed Rail Transportation Commission, as well as Orange County and transit officials, to represent Disney’s interests.
