2025 - How to Create an Effective BRE Program for your Community

What Does Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) mean to you?

For many Economic Development Organizations, the term “BRE” is used to reference the annual visit with the most influential / important / valuable local businesses. “BRE data is the information collected from the annual meeting. 

We don’t see BRE this way. 

Having worked with 100+ economic development organizations, we take a broader view. 

●    BRE is more than the annual, on-site BRE visit. 
●    BRE is every significant touchpoint with any local company. 
○    Surveys
○    On site meetings
○    Support tickets where real, actual assistance is being provided to a local company
○    All efforts to improve your community’s economic vitality
○    Referrals and introductions or “connects”
○    Online resources designed to help local companies perform better
○    Hiring events
○    Talent Attraction
○    Events
●    BRE is a multifaceted program that should be unique to your community.
●    Every customer touchpoint deepens (or weakens) your relationship with existing, local companies. And let’s not forget local people that are about to start companies! 

Purpose
The majority of job and economic growth comes from your local employers. The owners and executives of these companies should be your VIP’s in your economic development network. It’s in the community’s best interest to keep these companies happy and growing.

A vibrant local economy naturally attracts new companies and is fertile ground for start up businesses founded by entrepreneurs. As your community’s population and average income rise, your community magnetism increases, creating more “pull” - ie. business attraction magnetism as well.

 
Key elements of BRE programs may include

●    Annual Visits with Key Accounts
●    Assistance - Tickets, Cases, Support Services
●    Job board 
●    Promote local business
●    Buy Local Programs - programs designed to keep trade activities “in the community”
●    Education, Training, Events, Networking 
●    Business Incubation / Accelerator Programs
●    Programs to Foster Innovation
●    Workforce Development, Training, Education
●    Community Development Initiatives
●    Talent Attraction

 
Annual Visits

Annual Visit, ideally on-site, with your most important companies. Look for companies with:
●    The most employees / largest local employers
●    High growth potential - look for opportunities to help these companies growth
●    High risk potential - how can your team minimize their risks so they can stabilize and then grow? 
●    Lots of buying products and services from outside the region - there may be opportunities to get introductions to their suppliers and bring the supplier (and new jobs) to your community

Action Items: 
●    Do you have a CRM database that can profile and “tag” companies in this way? Do you have a list of companies targeted to receive an annual visit? 
●    Are you able to easily schedule annual visits? If this is a challenge, we should explore the reasons why this is true.  
●    Set a goal for the number of annual visits.
●    Market your services on the website, newsletters and on social media.
●    Share local business wins - celebrate local business success.
●    Monitor local business news and share this.
●    Get business owners excited about doing business in your community. Make them feel connected and important (they are your VIP’s after all).
●    Do you have a comprehensive list and a profile of companies in your area with more than 10 FTEs?   If you need to know how to get this list for free, we can help. 
○    Email me:  tomw@convergence-crm.com    
○    Subject line: How do I get a list of all companies/contacts in my community?

●    Focus on Quality of Visit first, data capture 2nd.
●    Focus on relationship building. Your BRE team should be made up of friendly “people-people”. Become the “go-to person” in your community that business executives can turn to in the areas where your team can help.
●    Put a CRM system in place to track visits, engagement and the contact / company profiles
●    Determine what your key data points are - what are the most important pieces of data for you to capture on every visit? 
○    This allows you to create consistent reports
○    Your local utility provider may also want you to capture reports that help you, the utility company and the company(s).
○    Your State / Province’s economic development team may also have a set of data that they’d like you to capture as well. If you must report to the state, this is how you can get to consistent, state-wide reporting.
○    If you are or if you work with a regional economic development group, make sure to standardize on these data points as well.

Annual meeting tips

Use a website landing page like this one  to help people understand what a BRE visit is and why they would want to book the meeting with you.

Show a few case studies from well known companies in your community, with their permission of course.


 

Here’s how our clients capture a few main points of data before the meeting via a form or survey.
●    At the very least, ask this question but don’t leave it open ended. 
●    You must adjust this for your organization. 
 

 
Tips and Best Practices:

Make scheduling the meeting easy.

Think about why someone should meet with you. Communicate the value. Answer these questions:

1.    Why should a company business owner spend 1 hour of time with you?
2.    What do your business contacts get out of this experience?
3.    If you owned the company, would you book a BRE meeting?  

Don’t use the term BRE meeting with company contacts. 
Business leaders don’t know what BRE means. 
Suggestion: Create a new type of meeting that your entire team always uses, try “Business Success meeting”. 

Suggestion: Consider creating a theme or marketing theme for your annual BRE meetings.  

Do you see the difference?  If you owned the company, would you schedule a Business Success Meeting or a BRE meeting? 

If you show up for a Business Success meeting with a long list of questions that you need for internal analysis and evaluation; the answers are only valuable to only 1 person in the meeting - you! And that is exactly what we want to avoid. Instead - Be Helpful!

Ask questions that are helpful to the business owner / executive. Explain why you’d like to uncover and why (what’s in it for them to share their info and ideas with you).

“Let’s talk about your workforce. What we’re looking for here are ways to help you find and hire the right people.  Based on your answers, we’ll come up with an action plan to help”.... 

Try to phrase every question in a way that helps your VIP buy in to you as a trusted advisor. Learn to pause and listen.

Listening is the most important skill you must develop.
The purposeful pause is key.
If you’re doing all of the talking in the meeting - you’re doing it wrong.

Here are some Helpful Resources to Improve your Listening Skills.
-    Wharton Course - free - Active Listening Course
-    Best Resource - Steven D. Crawford - executive coach and trainer
-    TedTalk - the power of silence
 
Transition from BRE to “Assists”

Economic developers have a lot of ways to help local companies. 

Question: Do you know who is largely unaware of what you can do?  

Answer: your local businesses. (sorry, but it’s true).

You have to be in position in order to help. You must be in front of and communicating with your target audience of local business owners. Helping others builds relationships. Helping companies contributes to your economy.

What you can do… 

●    Get a CRM that tracks any and all assistance provided to companies.
You can track the categories of assistance provided and you track the time.
But what you really want to track and report on is the outcome or the results you delivered.
You want to see all assistance provided to every company, in every sector, and in the aggregate. You’ll spot trends and identify new ways in which to help your companies.

●    Improve your team’s internal awareness of how your company can help local businesses. 
●    List the services that you provide to local companies


 


●    Track outcomes and results.. You’ll have to define the reportable outcomes. We have a model for this and we help you think through it. 
 

After you’ve provided assistance, think about using a survey to create your Net Promoter Score.

●    Net Promoter Score - here is a NPS formula 

●    Free - customer service metrics calculator (google sheets)

Industry Roundtable Meetings

Here's a list of steps that can be taken to create an effective industry roundtable meeting:
1.    Define the purpose and goals of the meeting: Clearly outline the objective of the meeting and what specific outcomes are expected.
2.    Invite relevant stakeholders: Identify key players in the industry who should be invited to participate, and make sure they represent a cross-section of viewpoints and perspectives.
3.    Plan the agenda: Determine the topics that need to be discussed, allocate time for each topic, and assign a facilitator for each segment of the meeting.
4.    Preparation and research: Ensure that all participants are adequately prepared for the meeting by providing them with relevant background information and data.
5.    Encourage open discussion: Create a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere where all participants feel free to share their thoughts and ideas.
6.    Facilitate active participation: Encourage active participation from all attendees by asking questions, encouraging dialogue, and creating opportunities for small group discussions.
7.    Document the meeting: Record the key points and decisions made during the meeting, and ensure that these are shared with all participants in a timely manner.
8.    Follow up on action items: After the meeting, follow up on any action items that were agreed upon and ensure that they are completed in a timely and effective manner.
9.    Evaluate the meeting: After the meeting, take the time to evaluate its effectiveness, and identify areas for improvement for future roundtable meetings.
10.    Report outcomes: Provide a report of the meeting outcomes to relevant stakeholders and communicate the next steps to be taken.

Community Walk-BRE Blitz
●    Advantages
○    You can capture data quickly so the data is “fresh”
○    Provides a human touch
○    Allows you to reach a lot of businesses quickly
●    Disadvantages
○    Volunteers are not as effective
○    You will get less data

●    Insights and Tools
●    Limit the amount of questions to ask 5-10 questions
●    Use a website form that the volunteer completes via cell phone or tablet
●    Segment the list of companies to visit by number of employees (1-10 employees),  business sector (retail) or geography (downtown)
●    Forms should auto-populate your CRM to record the visit and generate results associated with the contact and company.
●    Train your volunteers and have them practice the interview with you.





 
How to Use Online Surveys..

Use Case 
Send to all companies in the community to identify trends and also to identify companies that are either At Risk or with High Growth Potential. If you get a hit on either, consider moving to an in-person Business Success Meeting.

Events, Workshops and Programs

As a result of working with local business leaders, ask about their topics of interest for programs like this. Create a running list in your CRM. Review the results and then, create a course.

●    Create an online course with thinkific - check out our online courses here
●    Hire someone to create a course
●    Book a professional speaker
●    Market the event, track attendees, get feedback every event
●    Ask for reviews and testimonials
●    Promote - Press Releases
●    Run a contest to drive interest
●    Be Creative




 
Resources and Ideas

Sample Reports
 

 
BRE - educational video for company owners / executives (marketing and PR)

 
We’d suggest a few changes here but, this is a great animated video about what a BRE Program is.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6JD7N1DCA

*We can help you create and get visibility of a video like this one.




 
Get on a TV show or create on (LinkedIn Live).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFNw-zZsbg4

Video from a rural community doing 1x1 visits and industry roundtables. 
https://youtu.be/f2NXY3iGud8

 
Some people don’t like Incentives
Be careful how you communicate.
9,400,000 Views on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bl19RoR7lc

Author’s note:
Tom Wengler has worked with over 100 Economic Development organizations in the last 5 years, and over 200 EDO’s since 2010, this guide is based on the best practices and ideas we’ve seen in the market. We’re happy to discuss your BRE program, ideas and vision. 

www.EconomicDevelopmentCRM.com