Many businesses fail in epic fashion, not because they didn’t have the budget or the right marketing team on board – but because they failed to put an effective business development strategy in place.

 

 

What is business development?

 

Business development or BD is the process of identifying, nurturing and acquiring new clients as well as business opportunities, in order to fuel growth and profitability.

A business development strategy is a document which underpins the strategy you will incorporate to achieve the above goals.

 

 

How to come up with a business development strategy

Identify your target audience

The first step towards a winning business development strategy is to identify who your ideal customer is – i.e. people who are highly likely to buy from you and drive your business forward. Initially, you may not even need a very large target audience to begin with, although you will definitely need a high-quality one, or in other words, one that is relevant to what you’re offering.

Since business development is a long-term process, the last thing you want is to put in all that hard work, only to discover that your prospect isn’t fully qualified to build and drive your business.

 

 

Conduct market research

The next logical step is to learn everything you can about your prospects. Your audience has to work with you and not the other way around, so ask yourself:

• What are their problems or pain points which I can solve?
• What kind of services might they be interested in?
• What kind of solutions are they taking advantage of at the moment?
• How will my product/service improve their current situation or the solutions they are taking advantage of?

Answering the above questions will not only give better insight into your target audience, but especially your competitors. Understanding what makes you unique from the latter will give you a competitive edge, and it is very important to highlight this distinction in your marketing communication.

 

 

Establish which channels you should use

Now it’s time to assess your revenue goals for the year and determine the best channels to achieve them. The best and most common channels used for business development tend to be a combination of advertising, referrals, cold calls, networking and content marketing.

Networking, for example, actually happens to be one of the oldest, most tried-and-true business development strategies. Depending on the industry you’re in, face-to-face networking may be more effective or digital networking through social media networking might be more effective. In some cases, a combination of both may be needed.

 

 

Understand your SMART goals

You’ve likely come across the term S.M.A.R.T more than a handful of times: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-related.

SMART goals help you measure and track progress. Business development goals are often not tied directly to generating revenue, or rather, tied to a lot more than just revenue generation. More importantly, though, they need to have methods with which to draw prospects into your sales funnel.

Get the above in order, and you have a successful business development strategy on your hands.

 

 

Do you need help with your business development strategy? If so, don’t hesitate to Contact Us or give us a call on 0151 319 8550.

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