What is Business Development?
Business Development is the process of looking for new customer segments, new revenue streams from existing customers and new ways to drive customer acquisition. It can also be said that the goal of business development is to increase a company’s customer base or revenue growth by finding opportunities for market expansion. In this way, business development often is understood as the organic counterpart to corporate development, which describes inorganic growth.
As an entrepreneur you may have looked into developing your own product or services that would sell better than your competition; however, before you start producing your product or service you will need to build a network of contacts as well as awareness about what exactly it is that you are trying to produce, or hire business development consultants to carry out this critical task.
This can be done through different methods with varying levels of efficiency – such as going through social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram advertising the opportunity for people worldwide to buy the products for themselves. This can be a great way to generate revenue at first, but if you look at many companies out there they do not even have an idea as to how they are going to start off their business. They create a Facebook page and post pictures of what they are planning to produce in the hope of generating interest. This is just a common practice that many people do not understand and as long as this practice does not go through the process of learning about entrepreneurship it will only create more problems for yourself.
The first thing that you need to know about business development is the fact that it is very hard work. You will need to know what your competitors are doing and how they are doing it better than yourself. You will need to be able to create a strategy for the long term success of your business. Another thing that you will need to do if you believe that you could have a successful business out of this is research into possible market trends, as well as all of the products and services that are already out on the market which can compete with yours; this way, you can see if yours is more efficient or cheaper than what people already own, or if it has some added benefit compared to others.
If you do decide that it is the best choice for you, then the next step would be to create a concept for your business plan. If you look at many companies out there, you will see that there are certain parts of a business plan that are missing or do not help them to succeed in the long term, and these include marketing plans, sales and marketing plans, financial plans etc. When creating a business plan think about what would make it successful over time – this will help you come up with ideas, ideas that have already been done before by other businesses around the globe.
When looking at different businesses worldwide pre-existing commercial operations can be very helpful when trying to decide on what type of industry your operations should be focused on. This can be done through researching different industries and deciding on a few that you think will be the healthiest to start off with, as well as looking at how successful they are in the world market. If you cannot find any information out there on how successful businesses have been in the past, then it is vital that you look into what makes a company successful in business. If you do not know how to make money in your company, then you need to work out a budget and sum up all of your ideas accordingly. It is important to think about what the overall purpose for your company is, as well as what your target market looks like before you giveaway anything or start producing and selling your product.
One of the best things that you can do when developing a business is to build up business relationships with others. If you are not a part of any business networks then it is vital that you start building up some connections with people who already work in businesses. This is a simple way to get information about your industry, as well as other potential customers. You will also need to think about the types of business that you want to start and how they are going to interact with your company. This can be done through looking at what people do in their everyday jobs, and then figuring out how they could benefit from working with you, or if they would just become a customer in the future. If you are part of any association or chambers of commerce then it is vital that you use these connections when starting off on your journey. This can be done through trying to attract investors and other business partners.
Critical Skills for Business Development
Whether it is for finding new customers or selling existing ones, it takes more than just solid business sense to be successful in business development. Business development consultants must master all three elements of the sales process – (1) Information, (2) persuasion, and (3) implementation. Some additional critical skills listed below are important for business development and their applications in the real world.
- Business Analysis. Business analysis is the process of developing a broad understanding of an organization, function or department from all sides, and then putting this information into a framework which is relevant to the customer and customer decision maker. This is done by an individual both from within and outside of his/her organization.
This process takes place both before and after initial contact has been made with the potential customer or decision maker as it provides a more holistic view of the company and can also help with positioning your company (what is your main value proposition). - Business Modeling. Business modeling is a fundamental skill for business development executives. To understand the ‘why’ behind an organization, you must be able to model that organization. This step bridges the gap between being an expert and being a skilled individual when it comes to understanding an organizations structure and its objective.
The purpose of business modeling is to provide a framework which explains how actual operations are carried out within an organization, from the most basic level (as opposed to the higher levels which are relevant for decision making) allowing for a better understanding of where efficiencies can be made when planning and forecasting new sales potential.
This process can help your company gain more clarity on how effective your strategy and objectives are. - Business Forecasting. Business forecasting is an essential skill for any business development executive, especially when you are trying to decide whether or not to enter a particular market or deal with existing customers. For example, if the organization’s sales are expected to grow by 10% and they are currently sitting at $100M/year this means that there is a lot of potential in the market – how should they be positioning themselves?
This skill is important as it helps you decide on how much resources should be invested into new markets and existing ones. It also allows you to complete these forecasts within a reasonable timeframe. - Market Research. Market research is important for understanding what customers want, what the competition is doing and what their needs are. The more information you can gather about your customers, the better you can understand their preferences and how to better serve them.
Market research provides a very important tool in business development, it helps to gather information on the market trends, the competition and statistics on your current customers. - Proposal Writing. Proposal writing for business development is a vital skill for any executive that is working to close a deal with existing or new clients, this consists of both creating the proposal from scratch and ensuring that the proposal is acceptable from the customer’s perspective at all stages of the process.
Proposal writing skills are very important as they allow you to understand the customer’s needs and objectives and make sure that your company is able to meet them, it also helps you with your positioning. The ability to create a proposal from scratch allows business development executives to be creative in how they can help the customer, it also ensures that the proposal is presented in a way which will stand out from the competition.
With the changing world we live in today, it is vital that you know that there are opportunities for you and your company to expand. You will need to build up a reason for why people would need your products or services, as well as how they would benefit from having them. It is important to be able to create a network of connections with people who have nothing to do with business in order to create a long-term strategy for the success of your company in the long term future. Fintalent’s business development consultants are available for hire to help businesses carry out this arduous but ultimately rewarding endeavour.
