In the field of
commerceCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
, the specialist area of
business development comprises a number of techniques and
responsibilitiesMoral responsibility can refer to two different but related things. First, a person has moral responsibility for a situation if that person has an obligation to ensure that something happens. Assume that John promises to baby-sit for his neighbour while she goes to a job interview. However, he...
which aim at gaining new
customerA customer, also called client, buyer, or purchaser, is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
s and at penetrating existing
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
s. Techniques used include:
- assessment of marketing
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
opportunities and target markets
- intelligence gathering
Business intelligence refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. Business intelligence may also refer to the collected information itself....
on customers and competitors
- generating lead
A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service, and represents the first stage of a sales process. The lead may have a corporation or business associated with the person...
s for possible salesA sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods...
- advising on, drafting and enforcing sales policies and process
A sales process is a systematic approach to selling a product or service. A growing body of published literature approaches the sales process from the point of view of an engineering discipline ....
es
- follow-up sales activity
- formal proposal
A business proposal is a written offer from a seller to a prospective buyer.Business proposals are often a key step in the complex sales process--i.e., whenever a buyer considers more than price in a purchase.-Overview:...
or presentationPresentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner. A presentation program, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, is often used to generate the presentation content.-Useful illustrations:...
management and writing
- pitch
In selling technique, a sales pitch is a line of talk that attempts to persuade someone of something, with a planned sales presentation strategy of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the product or service.-First impression:...
and presentation rehearsals
- business model design
Business model design refers to the activity of designing a company's business model. It is part of the business development and business strategy process and involves design methods.Business model design includes the modeling and description of a company's:...
Business development involves evaluating a
businessA business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself...
and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as:
- marketing
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
- information management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
(sometimes conflated with knowledge managementKnowledge management comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
)
- customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Jamier L. Scott. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
A sound
organizationAn organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment...
aiming to withstand competitors never stops business development, but engages in it as an ongoing process.
Successful business development often requires a multi-disciplinary approach beyond just "a sale to a customer".
In the field of
commerceCommerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer. It comprises the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information, or money between two or more entities...
, the specialist area of
business development comprises a number of techniques and
responsibilitiesMoral responsibility can refer to two different but related things. First, a person has moral responsibility for a situation if that person has an obligation to ensure that something happens. Assume that John promises to baby-sit for his neighbour while she goes to a job interview. However, he...
which aim at gaining new
customerA customer, also called client, buyer, or purchaser, is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
s and at penetrating existing
marketA market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things...
s. Techniques used include:
- assessment of marketing
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
opportunities and target markets
- intelligence gathering
Business intelligence refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. Business intelligence may also refer to the collected information itself....
on customers and competitors
- generating lead
A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service, and represents the first stage of a sales process. The lead may have a corporation or business associated with the person...
s for possible salesA sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods...
- advising on, drafting and enforcing sales policies and process
A sales process is a systematic approach to selling a product or service. A growing body of published literature approaches the sales process from the point of view of an engineering discipline ....
es
- follow-up sales activity
- formal proposal
A business proposal is a written offer from a seller to a prospective buyer.Business proposals are often a key step in the complex sales process--i.e., whenever a buyer considers more than price in a purchase.-Overview:...
or presentationPresentation is the practice of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience or learner. A presentation program, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, is often used to generate the presentation content.-Useful illustrations:...
management and writing
- pitch
In selling technique, a sales pitch is a line of talk that attempts to persuade someone of something, with a planned sales presentation strategy of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the product or service.-First impression:...
and presentation rehearsals
- business model design
Business model design refers to the activity of designing a company's business model. It is part of the business development and business strategy process and involves design methods.Business model design includes the modeling and description of a company's:...
Business development involves evaluating a
businessA business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself...
and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as:
- marketing
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
- information management
Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information...
(sometimes conflated with knowledge managementKnowledge management comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
)
- customer service
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Jamier L. Scott. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...
A sound
organizationAn organization is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment...
aiming to withstand competitors never stops business development, but engages in it as an ongoing process.
Successful business development often requires a multi-disciplinary approach beyond just "a sale to a customer". Some consultants frequently recommend a detailed strategy for growing a business in desirable ways, which may involve
financialFINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
, legal and
advertisingAdvertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer...
skills. Business-development practitioners cannot reduce their activities to simple templates applicable to all or even most situations faced by real-world enterprises.
CreativityCreativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight...
in meeting new and unforeseen challenges may help sustainable
growthEconomic growth is a term used to indicate the increase of total GDP. It is often measured as the rate of change of gross domestic product . Economic growth refers only to the quantity of goods and services produced; it says nothing about the way in which they are produced...
.
Business-development roles may have one of two modes:
- sales-oriented (client-facing); or
- an operational function to support sales.
In a sales role, business development could concentrate on developing strategic-channel relationships or on general sales. This emerges from analysis of the varied
job descriptionA job description is a list of the general tasks, or functions, and responsibilities of a position. Typically, it also includes to whom the position reports, specifications such as the qualifications needed by the person in the job, salary range for the position, etc...
s found in job-search engines, especially in the UK. In the US, the term "capture management" appears as an alternative job or role title, typically used when describing business development as an operational function to support the selling function of a company. The
Association of Proposal Management ProfessionalsThe Association of Proposal Management Professionals or APMP is a 501 non-profit membership organization. APMP was founded on August 14, 1989...
have produced the "
Capture Management Lifecycle" that describes the process in three broad stages:
- pre-bid phase
- bid phase
- post-bid phase
Small to medium-sizedA small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. The legal definition of "small" often varies by country and industry, but is generally under 100 employees in the United States and under 50 employees in the...
companies often do not establish procedures for business development, instead relying on their existing
contactSocial contacts are people who, in exchange for money, goods, services, or simply loyalty, will help an individual achieve personal goals.Social contacts may be illicit or legitimate, and their services can include favors such as securing employment for an individual, defusing a difficult...
s. Or people in such companies may assume that because they know people in high places that this will solve any business-development problems and that somehow new
financial transactionA financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. In accounting, it is recognized by an entry in the books of account. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or...
s will come to them. Such thinking can have significant ramifications if one cannot exploit those relationships, which very often remain personal or weak. Such a situation may result in no new sales in the pipeline.
Business-development
professionalA professional is a member of a vocation founded upon specialised educational training.The word professional traditionally means a person who has obtained a degree in a professional field...
s frequently have had earlier experience in
financial services Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies, stock...
,
investment bankingAn investment bank is a financial institution that raises capital, trades in securities and manages corporate mergers and acquisitions. Investment banks profit from companies and governments by raising money through issuing and selling securities in capital markets and insuring bonds An investment...
or
management consultingManagement consulting refers to both the industry of, and the practice of, helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement....
; although many find their route to this area by climbing the corporate ladder in functions such as
operations managementOperations management is an area of business concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resource as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements...
or sales.
SkillsetSkillset is the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses to ensure the UK creative media industries maintain their position. It was founded by David Puttnam, and is jointly funded by industry and government...
s and experience for business-development specialists usually consist of a mixture of the following (depending on the business requirements):
- marketing
- legal
- strategy
Strategic or institutional management is the conduct of drafting, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its long-term objectives...
- finance
Finance is the science of funds management. The general areas of finance are business finance, personal finance, and public finance. Finance includes saving money and often includes lending money. The field of finance deals with the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated...
- proposal management or capture management
- sales experience
The "pipeline" refers to flow of potential clients which a company has started developing. Business-development staff assign to each potential client in the pipeline a percent chance of success, with projected sales-volumes attached. Planners can use the weighted average of all the potential clients in the pipeline to project
staffing to manage the new activity when finalized. Enterprises usually support pipelines with some kind of CRM (
customer relationship managementCustomer relationship management are methods that companies use to interact with customers. The methods include employee training and special purpose CRM software...
) tool or CRM-
databaseA database is an integrated collection of logically related records or files consolidated into a common pool that provides data for one or more multiple uses....
, either web-based (such as the salesforce.com
software-as-a-serviceSoftware as a Service is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. SaaS software vendors may host the application on their own web servers or download the application to the consumer device, disabling it after use or...
solution) or an in-house
systemSystem is a set of interacting or interdependent entities forming an integrated whole....
. Sometimes business development specialists manage and analyze the data to produce sales
management informationA management information system is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solve business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy...
(MI). Such MI could include:
- reasons for wins/losses
- progress of opportunities in relation to the sales process
- top performing salespeople/sales channels
- sales of services/products
For larger and well-established companies, especially in technology-related industries, the term "business development" often refers to setting up and managing strategic relationships and
allianceA Strategic Alliance is a formal relationship between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organizations....
s with other, third-party companies. In these instances the companies may leverage each others' expertise, technologies or other
intellectual propertyIntellectual property is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law...
to expand their capacities for identifying, researching, analyzing and bringing to market new businesses and new products, business-development focuses on implementation of the strategic business plan through equity financing, acquisition/divestiture of technologies, products, and companies, plus the establishment of strategic partnerships where appropriate.
External links