Consider working for a company that has no personnel dedicated to business growth and development. Nobody to push you to improve or inform you about new business prospects, market changes, what your competitors are up to, or how you can better attract your target audience.
Don't you think this would make it difficult to succeed? That is why, to help them grow, businesses construct business development strategies and recruit staff to focus on these (and other) responsibilities.
What is Business Development?
In its most detailed definition, business development is a set of actions and processes aimed at developing and implementing long-term, lucrative growth prospects within (and across) organizations. But in practice, most companies use the term differently, depending on what they need that function to do for them. Business Development at a SaaS scale-up, for example, typically requires a lot of cold outreach to prospective clients. In contrast, Business Development in a large, worldwide corporation may do market research in preparation for a new market entry or a new product line. Regardless of their variations, a business developer in all firms has one purpose: to identify and implement new business growth prospects.
“Growth opportunities” is the essential word here. In most cases, "new opportunities" refers to more than just "new clientele." It also contains the following: Finding new collaborators, getting into new markets, new product development. But, in any case, how is this different from marketing? Although there appears to be a lot of overlap between company development and marketing at first appearance, there are some significant variances.
Concepts for Business Development
Business development ideas are strategies you may use to make a good impact on your organization in various ways. They may assist you in identifying ideal prospects, improving your networking skills, increasing brand awareness, and uncovering new opportunities. The strategies listed below are meant to get you started; however, these suggestions may or may not be appropriate for your scenario because every business and team is different.
1. Try Something New When it Comes to Networking
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It is common knowledge that cold calling is no longer as effective as it once was. Instead, reinvent your business development strategy by building solid relationships with your prospects. You can do this by meeting with them in person at industry-related conferences, trade exhibits, or events. Look for possible consumers on your online networks, such as LinkedIn and other social media sites. Contact folks who sign up for your email list or fill out additional forms on your website.
2. Consultations are Available
Provide prospects with consultations and assessments. Prospects will determine whether or not to convert if you discuss how your product or service applies to their needs. On the other hand, consultations and assessments may disclose why a prospect is a poor fit for your product (which is equally as valuable since it prevents you from wasting any time spent cultivating them or dealing with a dissatisfied consumer later on).
3. Give Prospects and Leads Sales Demos
For strategic business development, offer sales demos to your prospects and leads so they can experience how your product or service works in action. Make sure these demos are tailored to explain how your solution solves a prospect's or lead's problem. These demos can be shared in person, by email, on your website, or through video chat.
4. Networking
Networking is unquestionably the most popular method of business expansion. It's based on the idea that professional services purchasing decisions are based on connections and that face-to-face networking is the best method to form new ones. Many relationships do develop in this manner, and this is true in many cases. You can also build a new business by networking with your target demographic. However, there are certain limits. Today's buyers are pressed for time, and networking takes time. When you include travel and time away from the business, it may be rather costly.
On the cost and time front, newer digital networking solutions can aid. Even social media, though, needs a time and attention commitment.
5. Referrals
Referrals, which are closely related to networking, are frequently viewed as the process that converts networking and client happiness into new business. For strategic business development, you build a relationship with someone, and they refer you to a new business. Clients who are satisfied return the favor. Clearly, recommendations do occur, and many companies rely on them for the majority of their revenue. Referrals, on the other hand, are a passive activity. They count on your clients and relationships to find potential candidates for your services and make the appropriate referrals.
The problem is that referral sources aren't always aware of how you can assist a client. So many referrals aren't a good fit for your skills. Because your referral source overlooks a fantastic prospect when they see one, other well-matched referrals go unmade. Finally, many potential clients will dismiss your firm before even speaking with you.
6. Take Care of Your Possibilities
Remember to nurture your leads, whether through a phone call, an email, a meeting, or another means of connection. The goal of lead nurturing is to provide your prospects all the information they need about your product or service so they can decide whether or not to buy it. You may tailor your business and product material to help your leads better grasp how your product will answer their specific pain points by nurturing your leads. You'll also be able to express your support for the prospect and ensure that they feel heard and understood by your firm.
7. Offer a Variety of Content to Your Prospects
Provide various content types for your prospects to discover more about your brand, product, or services, such as blogs, videos, and social media posts. The best way to go is to meet your prospects where they are and provide the material they want to read or watch. Ensure that all of this content is downloadable and/or shareable so that prospects may share it with their colleagues to demonstrate why your product is the best option for them.
8. Get in Touch With Marketing
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Although business development is housed under the sales department, it does not imply that internal business development work is limited to salespeople. Hold regular meetings with the departments at your firm that impact your capacities to succeed, such as marketing and product development, and keep lines of communication open.
Consider the following scenario: Marketing develops content and campaigns that show how your product or service solves problems for your target audience. So, why not chat to them about the blogs, campaigns, social media postings, and website material they're making for the folks you're marketing to?
Your reps and BDRs can share any material created by the marketing team directly with prospects to assist them in converting and advise the marketing team of any information that they believe is missing for prospects.
9. Make an Investment in Your Website
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You seldom get a second chance to make a first impression, and your website is frequently that first impression for your prospects. As a result, it is in your best interests to make it as accessible, navigable, visible, and useful as possible.
In business development, small steps like making your site visually appealing, connecting social media profiles, optimizing the site for search engines, linking to material like sales content, and maintaining an active blog may go a long way.
10. Encourage Your Staff to Improve and Enhance Their Knowledge and Abilities
The business growth is never static. Business development strategy, technology, and market conditions are continually changing. Therefore it's vital to have your personnel keep up with the latest developments. Anyone involved in your company's growth should be willing to learn new skills as needed. If your company adopts new technology for proper business development, make sure everyone affected by the change is well-versed in how to utilize it.
Encourage your staff to learn more about their field's peculiarities as well as the sectors they work in. Is artificial intelligence beginning to change the landscape of a certain industry? You need to make sure that BDRs who work with those companies are well-versed in how the market they serve can impact them.
Introducing Strikingly
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Strikingly, a prominent free website creation platform creates attractive, mobile-responsive website templates suitable for a wide range of industries. To make your search easier, we've divided our templates into categories. Preview each design that appeals to you and begin building your site from there. When choosing a design, you should have a clear idea of the types of material you want to include on your site and how you'd organize it. Some templates are better suited to multimedia material, while others are better suited to text-heavy websites.
Conclusion
Any successful company must invest in strategic business development. It's how you figure out how to increase revenue, find your target customers, produce more leads, and close more deals. Consider how you can create a great business development plan and make sure you have the right team of business development representatives in place so you can start growing your company right away.
