What is business development?

Business development can include a wide range of activities and strategies, from keeping an eye on market trends and doing a market analysis, to finding a way to scale your business to meet the demands of the market, to bringing on new talent.

A wide range of activities and strategies are included in business development, from keeping an eye on market trends and doing a market analysis, to finding a way to scale your business to meet the demands of the market, to bringing on new talent.

Business development is typically designed to increase the size of the business. Sometimes the sales team needs to make the business grow organically, without necessarily expanding the size of the business.

Additionally, identifying the market need, gathering information from customers, working with clients, and closing sales are all part of successful business development.

Organizations should have a clear understanding of what factors can and will impact business development. A business can develop good business development strategies with the right management and hard work.

HOW IS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIFFERENT FROM SALES

Sales activities fall under the marketing umbrella of business development. Business development activities can take several different forms, such as lead generation and promotion, as well as selling. Both sales and business development activities require a comprehensive effort from company stakeholders to make the strategy successful.

While the activities of sales and business development are different, both consist of communicating with customers to identify their wants and needs, as well as providing the potential for the customer to respond positively to an offer.

Many companies are beginning to understand the differences between the two activities and their role in the overall success of the company. Companies that choose to make business development an important strategy in their overall business development program have a successful future ahead of them.

HOW CAN BUSINESSES START BUILDING A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Business development activities should be developed and implemented strategically if they are to be successful. Business development requires constant focus and continuous dedication to stay ahead of the competition. This is very different from sales, which can be a highly competitive and fast-paced world where salespeople are competing for customers all the time.

Business development activities need to be planned long before the actual launch of the product or service. Successful business development plans will take place after a product or service has been defined.

Business development activities need to be planned with the expectation that there will be a long-term commitment from the business to see that the plan is successful. Business development plans are not to be abandoned or discarded because the initial results are not what was expected.

Business development activities are not something that can be put on a shelf and forgotten about while the company is working on sales. The business needs to stay focused on building a successful business development plan and following through to see that the goals of the plan are met.

The business development plan should contain goals that the company wishes to achieve. The business development activities also should include the processes to achieve these goals. These processes need to be thoroughly documented and implemented. Business development activities should be tied into the sales and marketing strategies of the business so that they work hand-in-hand and work together toward a common goal.

WHAT SHOULD A COMPANY LOOK FOR IN A DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

To develop a successful business development program, companies need to understand the skills and abilities needed to excel in business development activities. Many companies have no idea that the individuals within their organization can excel in sales or business development activities. Business development is a skill set that requires a great deal of knowledge and proficiency in different areas of business.

Salespeople require certain skills that are also required for business development. Many companies are missing out on great employees who are not already employed in sales but have the skills needed to excel in business development. Companies need to find individuals that can excel at sales and have the skills needed to succeed in business development.

A company may not be able to find the individual who has all of the necessary skills, but they can often find a great individual with a good sales history and skills that could develop into a great salesperson. Companies need to look for individuals who want to learn more and develop a knowledge base in business development.

HOW CAN SOME COMPANIES LEARN MORE ABOUT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Business development training seminars can be great ways to learn more about developing a successful business development plan. Many in-depth seminars cover both sales and business development. There are also non-technical seminars that cover the entire business development process.

Most of the business development seminars are focused on technology and business development. Many technology-based seminars have devoted a lot of time to customer relations, networking, and much more. This can be a very good starting point for many companies who are thinking about developing a business development plan.

Business development seminars usually focus on the business side of things and many of them include sales training. Companies that have found success with their business development training seminars often found that the one-hour seminar was time well spent.

Often these seminars are available as well on the Internet. Companies that decide to take this step will probably find that the seminar was a good investment because of the return on their investment. The people who attended these seminars were much better prepared than the average person to do good sales and they all had excellent retention rates.

SUMMARY

Successfully developing a business development plan can be a daunting task. Before any business owner or manager sets out to make a plan, they need to identify the problems that they have that are preventing them from doing the work that needs to be done.

People need to have the skills that will allow them to be successful in their business and businesses have to be able to find people who have the skills that are necessary to succeed.