If you ask what business development is, you’ll get different responses. A portion will say it’s sales, some will say strategic partnerships, and others will say business planning. And all of them are valid—business development extends to several aspects of the business.
Ultimately, business development refers to the ideas, initiatives, and activities that help a company find opportunities for growth. This includes boosting profitability, lowering costs, expanding the business, building a network, and making strategic decisions to reach goals.
With different departments influenced by business development, it’s important to establish collaborative communication and action to align and meet business goals. A business development manager (BDM) can oversee the scope of strategies to create long-term value for a company from its customers, markets, and relationships.
A business development manager plays a critical role in the success of a business. They identify business opportunities (e.g. growth areas, trends, new markets, customers, products or services, partnerships) to develop tactics so the company can profit more from their business.
To successfully oversee business development strategies, a BDM should have leadership, communication, and organizational skills, as well as knowledge in sales, business studies, finance, and negotiation. Technical skill in software and websites, such as Salesforce, Hubspot, and LinkedIn, is also crucial to efficacy in a business development role.
A business development manager has a wide range of duties since they essentially help make the company function better. This means their tasks vary for each department within the company.
Here are business development manager responsibilities for different business areas:
In planning, the business development role is involved in fleshing out the objectives and methods of the company to drive the work of different departments. Some of the responsibilities of a BDM include:
- Collaborating with key stakeholders to set goals
- Developing strategies to meet goals and finalizing decisions with their team
- Staying up to date on industry developments and the market positioning of competitors
- Assessing and enacting cost-cutting measures in operations and talent acquisition
- Preparing status reports on targeted goals
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Since the business development manager aims to help the company to earn more, they have a lot of responsibilities in sales. These include:
- Building lists of sales leads
- Pursuing sales leads to urge them through the sales cycle
- Creating detailed records of sales activities such as calls, orders, sales, lost business, and customer/vendor complaints and problems
- Estimating and allocating budgets for sales strategies
- Developing periodic sales forecasts that estimate future revenues by predicting the amount of product or service sold. It can be calculated by the individual sales representative, the sales team, or the entire company
Market development targets new customers in new target segments and non-buying customers in existing segments. The business development role takes on these responsibilities:
- Researching, developing, and undertaking new target market initiatives for the company’s product or service
- Looking for prospective accounts in target markets
- Demonstrating the functions and benefits of the company’s product or service to prospects and customers based on their needs
- Nurturing customer satisfaction through continuous communication and customer relationship management
- Assisting in the resolution of customer issues that may arise post-sale
Growing your network and building strategic partnerships provide opportunities for cost-saving, vendor management, and even market penetration. That’s why a business development manager has related responsibilities such as:
- Attending different conferences and industry events on behalf of the company
- Researching relevant individuals and organizations to find business opportunities
- Liaising with different third parties (e.g. vendors, agencies, government authorities, and regulators) to establish rapport and arrange meetings
- Negotiating with people, businesses, or groups to increase the market share of the company’s product or service
- Looking into outsourcing tasks such as administrative, sales, and customer support work to cut down operational costs
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A Magic Assistant is a remote worker who can take on a wide range of business functions including a business development role. They can assist your team with administrative tasks in business planning, research and data work in market development, finding and pursuing leads in sales activities, and building and managing relationships for partnership and networking.
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