To come up with a blog topic I asked our summer Intern “If you could ask me a question about what I do here, what would that question be?” She responded “What do you do all day.” OK, so I guess that’s my blog topic:

My primary responsibility at Visionary is new business development. This manifest itself in two distinct ways: 1) trying to get new clients, 2) devising new services and products that will help existing and future clients with their success.

So, on the first one (trying to get new clients):

I wish we could make money selling five dollar bills for one dollar. My job would be very easy… I mean these five dollar bills would practically sell themselves. This is because everyone understands the value of getting more for less, and a one dollar investment to make four additional dollars is worth making.

In order for me to sell our services and products I have to outline our value proposition in a way that makes it as simple as buying a five dollar bill for one dollar. I work to draw out the possibilities and potential of web services for generating income. This is hard for some smaller businesses to see. They want a inferior product and service from our competitors or a cheaper price, but if they were to opt for our professional services and products, they would have a more successful website and generate much more profit. I work to make that as clear as possible. I often ask questions like, “How many sales would you have to generate from the website in order to pay off the investment in the website?� For many clients this is several hundred products. For some, like construction companies, they only need to sell one product. By helping them see the potential and possibilities, I help them succeed at business.

On the second one (devising new services and products), I work to understand what our current clients need to become more successful. By offering them new and advanced tools for their websites, we not only generate additional income, but help them generate additional income. We want all of our clients to have cutting-edge websites, even if their site was designed and launched six years ago. We also stay on top of the market place by offering the latest and best technology solutions to prospective clients. New clients want to know we are not stuck on the technologies of yesterday. Most of my time in this area is spent exploring a variety of advanced content management systems and new ways to tie legacy systems to web interfaces.

So my typical day includes:

I start by making a list of all the people I need to contact, all the tasks that need to be completed, and to be honest I think about what I’m going to do for lunch. By outlining these things at the start of the day I am able to stay on task all day long. It’s the nature of our business that I am constantly interrupted, so having a list allows me to get right back to the task at hand when I am interrupted.
After I make my list I check e-mails and return calls. Then set to completing the tasks on my list. These tasks may include:

1. Calling prospective clients
2. Creating marketing materials
3. Meeting with advertising executives on advertising campaigns
4. Meeting with other senior management to keep our business flowing and growing
5. Checking in on existing clients to make sure things are going good
6. Working with other team members to complete tasks
7. Meeting with division teams to help them create strategies for success
8. Researching solutions on the web
9. Project management tasks
10. Programming, design, and development tasks

Many of my days are also spent traveling to and from meetings with clients, prospective clients, and partners. During the next two weeks I have meetings scheduled in Peru, Wabash, Fort Wayne, Muncie, Indianapolis, and North Manchester.

Well, that’s just a snap shot and a brief answer to the intern’s question.

Cheers,

Andrew Duffy