But the strategies, execution, areas of knowledge, and skills
required include new approaches to content, programs, and tools.
Specifically a business development leader has the following responsibilities:
-
Defining the business you are in and how to position it in your market
-
Identifying customer pains and needs
-
Articulating your value proposition against those pains and needs
-
Understanding what your customer wants to know at each decision stage during
their buying process
-
Prioritizing how to use customer intelligence to connect with your markets and
generate more business
-
Evaluating and reporting on performance
Along
with management and pitching skills.
The
objectives of business development have not changed: building relationships,
attracting new customers, opening new markets, and business growth. But the
strategies, execution, areas of knowledge, and skills required include new
approaches to content, programs, and tools. Specifically a business development
leader has the following responsibilities:
-
Defining the business you are in and how to position it in your market
-
Identifying customer pains and needs
-
Articulating your value proposition against those pains and needs
-
Understanding what your customer wants to know at each decision stage during
their buying process
-
Prioritizing how to use customer intelligence to connect with your markets and
generate more business
-
Evaluating and reporting on performance
Along
with management and pitching skills.
When
you think about the function of business development, it should be thought of
as a marketing function. Yes, there are some soft sales skills (qualification,
negotiation, etc.) that are necessary to become a good business development
professional, but at the end of the day, it’s a marketing function.
Simply
stated, the function of sales is to sell directly to the end customer. The
function of business development is to work through partners to sell to the end
customer, in a scalable way.
Scalability
is the differentiator. It allows a company to use pre-existing sales teams or
communities that a partner has developed to reach new audiences. Sales is very
much an equation of capacity, which is why sales teams tend to grow so large.
Business development teams, on the other hand, are typically very small,
maintaining their small size by working through existing partner
infrastructures. The art of business development comes in identifying partners
that fit that description, while finding a way to provide value to the
partner’s end customer and business.
Sales
= Transactions. Sales is responsible for selling a specific product or service,
with a clear price and value to an identifiable customer.
Business
Development: Identifies and executes NEW areas of business (e.g. new markets,
new distribution channels, new products) typically through the use partnerships
between another company and an internal department.
The
focus is both on the new (atypical) and interaction/collaboration with external
partners who are not customers (potential customers, maybe, but not sales
prospects). Once it is no longer new and becomes a repeatable kind of business,
then it transitions to another part of the company (sales, marketing, product
dev, engineering).
For
Business Development, the goal is not a sales transaction: Business Development
is not (formally) empowered to sell a product directly to a customer or
customers (otherwise they would be competing with the Sales team).
Business
Development should never be dealing with the sale of existing products to
existing (identifiable) customers, no matter how large the revenue opportunity
– sales does that. Nor should business development be setting up distribution
channels – this is a marketing function.
For
instance, when Amazon decided to add online movies to it’s product offerings:
Initially this was a business development role because of a brand new area of
business – with a new business model, new distribution, etc. that required an
external partner(s) working with internal Amazon departments. Bizdev would be
coordinating the internal/external activity until all had the licensing terms
fleshed out, pricing, marketing strategy, created a new area of the site with
new kinds of distribution … once that all happens it is standard business, and
then out of the hands of bizdev and then- driven by marketing, sales, product
etc.
A
Sales Executive (probably not a role that should formally exist in a pure
online / ecommerce company) would either focus on ’big ticket’ sales that have
requires the longest 1-1/face to face selling cycle, and/or manage other sales
personnel.
For
instance, at a car dealership: The Sales Executive might manage the floor sales
personnel (deciding commissions policy etc) while also being the person to
negotiate a deal with a large business to buy 50 vehicles for use as company
cars.
Be
wary of folks who take the stance of defining these (or any) terms loosely, as
they please. Sure it’s perfectly acceptable and common for companies to combine
the roles – but a Business Development professional from one company doesn’t
want to find himself in discussions with another ”Bizdev Exec” only to find out
that it is really a sales-call.
In
the traditional sense, sales is a function where the end result is cash. In
business development, the end result is a new channel for sales to occur in.
So, a salesperson gets a check, and a business development person opens
pathways and partnerships that salespeople will take advantage of to get more
sales.
Sales
is Transactional – Business Development is Relational: Sales is about push-push
, meeting quotas, dealing with the sales funnel and using CRM systems etc with
the primary goal of getting a deal. The focus is very much on what the seller
is selling, preferably sold on an ”as is” basis. In contrast, business
development is more about creating value for the customer. The Seller ( or
Business Development Executive- if you prefer) is trying to really understand
the customer’s problem and see if the seller’s product might be a good
solution.
Business
Development is Solution Selling: Business Development really puts the customer
first. The focus is on understanding customer needs and adapting the product or
service to meet those needs, i.e. provide a solution. The solution gets better
better over time as the seller’s organization gets better at understanding the
needs and goals of the buyer organization. And the buyer organization better
understands the seller’s capabilities.
Business
Development builds trust, commitment=loyalty: Not that you can sell if the
buyer does not trust you. But since the business development orientation is all
about a focus on the customer’s needs and problems , a business development
approach helps the buyer organization trust you. Upon dealing with your
organization for a while there is commitment that builds up on both sides.
Mutual loyalty results in ongoing business,new projects and happy referrals.
Business
Development is longer sales cycles: In sales there is a mantra to identify customers
that goes something like: ”Need,Now and have Budget.” In other words, focus on
immediate prospects for whatever you are selling. Business Development takes a
longer term view starting with need that is at least latent and building the
relationship from there on.
Business
Development CRM is different from a sales call list: Today’s technology i.e.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions take the longer sales cycle
Business Development approach. So after a first meeting, you enter details in the
system so that you can follow up in a timely fashion, particularly when
multiple people from the sales organization are talking with multiple people in
the buyer organization.
Tokunbo
Akeredolu-Ale is a Masters holder in Information Technology and Project
Management from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and Project Management
College (UK) respectively. A Chartered Loan & Business Risk Consultant,
Full Member Of The Chartered Institute Of Loan & Risk Management Of
Nigeria, Chartered Member (C.ITP) of the Computer Professionals Registration
Council of Nigeria and currently CEO at Omnibus Accenture Company Limited RC:
950816.
An
Enterprise Development Consultant that combines personal business experience,
& capabilities across varying sectors, collaborating with clients to help
them become more efficient people, businesses and institutions.
Over
the years, He has been able to show small business owners, managers and the
self-employed persons in Nigeria how to use efficient business & management
solutions to grow their business. I have also shown a number of business owners
how to free up their time and radically shift their Entrepreneurial thinking.
He combines successful enterprise solutions, business strategies, sustainable
performance management, and Integrated Marketing techniques with powerful
developments in Advanced Thinking to show any business owner how to sharpen
their mind and strengthen their business.
Tokunbo Akeredolu-Ale ~
BSc/MSc Marketing Communication & Commerce.
PhD Leadership & Organizational Management.
Professorial Fellow, Omnibus Institute For Professional Learning & Development (Prof.FOIPLD),
Doctoral Fellow, Omnibus Global Academy. (Dr.OGA),
Doctoral Fellow, Chartered Institute Of Social Media & Digital Marketing (Dr.FCISMDM)
Fellow, Chartered Institute Of Administration (FCIA).
Email: info@tokunboakeredoluale.com
Whatsapp:08185000488
BSc/MSc Marketing Communication & Commerce.
PhD Leadership & Organizational Management.
Professorial Fellow, Omnibus Institute For Professional Learning & Development (Prof.FOIPLD),
Doctoral Fellow, Omnibus Global Academy. (Dr.OGA),
Doctoral Fellow, Chartered Institute Of Social Media & Digital Marketing (Dr.FCISMDM)
Fellow, Chartered Institute Of Administration (FCIA).
Email: info@tokunboakeredoluale.com
Whatsapp:08185000488