Creating A Business Development Strategy – Imagine working for a company without employees dedicated to growing and developing the business. No one challenges you to improve or tells you about new business opportunities, changes in the market, your competitors’ efforts, or how you can attract your target audience more effectively. This will make it quite difficult to succeed, don’t you think? That’s why companies create business development practices and hire employees to focus on these tasks (among others) to help them grow. Business Development Business Development Representative BDR Responsibilities Business Development Ideas Business Development Process Business Development Plan Business Development Plan Business Development Business development is the process of implementing strategies and opportunities throughout your organization to drive growth and increase revenue. It involves pursuing opportunities to help your business grow, identify new prospects and convert more leads to customers. Business development is closely related to sales — business development teams and reps are almost always part of a larger sales org. While business development is closely related to sales, it’s important to note what sets them apart. Business Development vs. Sales As mentioned, business development relies on a larger sales team but it serves a different function than normal sales work and responsibilities. Business development is a process that helps your company establish and maintain relationships with prospects, learn about your buyer personas, increase brand awareness and find new opportunities to drive growth. Instead, the sales team sells your product or service to customers and works to convert leads into customers. Work related to business development facilitates the work of a salesperson or sales manager. Let’s take a closer look at what a business development representative — the person responsible for carrying out various business development tasks — does next. Business Development Representative A business development representative (BDR) finds and creates new strategies, tactics, targets, employees and prospects for your business. The goal of all BDRs is to find ways to grow and provide long-term value for the business. Having the necessary business development skills and experience will help your BDR achieve all their daily tasks and responsibilities. Business Development Representative Responsibilities Although some BDR responsibilities may change over time and as your business grows, the following list will give you a solid understanding of typical BDR duties. 1. Qualify leads. BDRs must qualify leads and determine ideal prospects to determine who they will sell to. Typically, leads are qualified through calls, emails, web forms and social media. The key to qualifying leads (leads assigned to BDR as well as BDR leads identify themselves) is to consider their needs and then determine whether or not your product or software can be a solution for them. 2. Identify and communicate with prospects. By qualifying leads and finding people who fit your buyer persona, BDR will identify ideal prospects. They can communicate with those prospects directly to learn more about their needs and pain points. This way, BDR can determine whether a prospect would really benefit from your product or service by becoming a customer. This is important because it increases the potential for better customer loyalty and retention. Once the BDR has identified ideal prospects, those prospects can be passed on to a sales representative on the team (or sales manager, if necessary) who can nurture them to a deal. 3. Proactively seek new business opportunities. Proactively seeking out new opportunities — whether in terms of product lines, markets, prospects or brand awareness — is an essential part of your business success. BDR strives to find new business opportunities through networking, researching your competition and talking to prospects and current customers. If a new business opportunity is identified, the BDR should schedule a marketing assessment and discovery meeting with the sales reps on the team so they can all assess whether or not there is potential for a transaction. 4. Stay up-to-date on competition and new market trends. It’s important to stay up-to-date on your competitors’ strategies, products and target audiences as well as any new market and industry trends. This will allow you to identify ideal prospects more effectively. It also helps your business prepare for any shifts in the market that may lead to the need for a new approach to qualifying leads and attracting your target audience. 5. Report to sales and development managers. As we reviewed, in most companies, BDRs report to sales reps and sales managers. BDRS must communicate with these top people for a variety of reasons such as discussing key qualification strategies and how to connect prospects with sales reps to nurture them into customers. BDRs also need to report their findings (such as business opportunities and market trends) to sales representatives and managers. Communicating this information and working with sales representatives and managers to develop and/or update strategies that are appropriate for your business and audience is critical to your success as an organization. 6. Promotes satisfaction and loyalty. A BDR interaction with a prospect may be the prospect’s first interaction with your business. So, creating a great first impression immediately is important to encourage interest from the start. Whether BDRs are working to qualify leads, learn more about prospects and their needs, or find the right sales rep to deal with them, their interaction with all of your prospects is important. Once BDRs research prospects or begin interacting with them, make sure they tailor all communications to the prospect. Tailoring all the content delivered in the way they are shows they are heard and cared for. This action is professional and leaves a strong impression. In addition to understanding how BDR can help you grow, business development ideas are another effective way to engage prospects and identify new business opportunities. Let’s see. Business Development Ideas Innovate the way you network. Offer consultation. Provide sales demos for prospects and leads. Nurturing prospects. Provide prospects with several types of content. Communicate with marketing. Invest in your website. Push your employees to develop and refine their skills. Business development ideas are tactics you can implement to positively impact your company in many different ways. They can help you identify ideal prospects, network more effectively, increase brand awareness and uncover new opportunities. The following tactics are available to get you started — every business and team is different, meaning these ideas may or may not be appropriate for your specific situation. (So please modify the list!) 1. Innovate the way you network. It’s no secret that cold calling is less effective than it used to be. Instead, innovate the way you network by creating strong relationships with your prospects. You can do this by meeting them in person at conferences, trade shows or events related to your industry. Browse your online network including LinkedIn and other social sites for potential clients as well. Reach people who sign up for your email subscription or complete other forms on your site. 2. Offer consultation. Offer consultation and evaluation for prospects. Talking about how your product or service applies to their needs will help prospects decide whether or not they will convert. On the other hand, consultations and evaluations may also show how prospects are not a good fit for your product (which is just as valuable because it prevents you from wasting time nurturing them or having to deal with unhappy customers later on). 3. Provide sales demos for prospects and leads. Prepare your prospects and leads with a sales demo so they can see how your product or service works in action. Make sure these demos are tailored to show prospects or leads how
your product solves their challenges. You can share these demos in person, via email, on your website or via video chat. 4. Nurturing prospects. Remember to nurture your prospects, whether through phone calls, emails, meetings or other means of communication. The main point of nurturing is to provide any necessary information about your product or service so that your prospect can decide whether they want to make a purchase or not. By nurturing your leads, you’ll be able to tailor content around your brand and products so your leads can better understand how your products will solve their specific pain points. You’ll also be able to show your support for the prospect and make sure they feel heard and understood by your company. 5. Provide prospects with several types of content. Provide your prospects with different types of content such as posts, videos and social media posts so they can learn more about your brand and products or services. It’s better to meet your prospects where they are and provide content they like to read or watch. Make sure all of this content is downloadable and/or shareable so prospects can send it to their team members to show them why your solution is their best choice. 6. Communicate with marketing. Although business development lives on the sales side, that doesn’t mean internal business development work only
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