Having the right business development plan is actually the key to the success of your company. You might have been reading a lot about how to create a right strategy and execute the associated plans for your business that can propel the revenue to a very high growth. The truth of the matter is, achieving new levels of profitability along with profit demands a very specific, expert and skillful execution of the same.
Business development is a process that has been long used by experts to identify, nurture and acquire new leads and opportunities that can drive profitability and growth. When you have a strategy, it is a document that describes how you can accomplish the same. The scope of business development is different for different organizations but in general the model is similar for almost all professional services. Firstly, you attract the prospects which include the influencers, potential buyers and other referral sources. In the next step, you build engagement with them that turn them into your educated and qualified leads. In the last step of the funnel, you take this opportunity to turn the leads into clients. Taking the decision is definitely easy for the prospects when they are completely educated about your services and products. So, in the first two steps, you need to follow the traditional marketing function while the final stage is a traditional sales function.
However, with 2020 in place, the business scope and scenarios are changing much. The rules have changed and naming conventions have also evolved which is why you need to be very sure before you enter a business arena what exactly are you trying to achieve, who are your customers and what is the prospective market for your service or product.
Business development versus marketing
Marketing is a simple process because it determines which services and products you will offer to your audience. This is the step where you have the price disclosed to your potential customers. But, apart from the cost what today's clients look for is how your work is different than the other competitors in the marketplace; which is why you need to have a complete awareness of your firm and how the target audience is placed. Business development is basically a subset of marketing function and it focuses mainly in distributing relationships as well as acquiring new market opportunities. Although, the title has changed, the role and responsibility of business development is pretty much the same. This is why you need to be very careful about developing the business development plan because it should not highlight much on your sales procedure but how you are looking to market the product. Sales is basically the work which involves converting leads into new clients. So, in business development, there are many activities that go beyond the sales function. Even though overlapping, the work is not the same of a business developer and that of a sales manager. So, when you are explaining the roles and responsibilities in your business, make sure to clearly state how your organization does not have too much of pushy sales person.
Strategic business development
The pandemic showed us how every business needs to be ready to cope up with any kind of situation. A strategic business plan should be there that complement your firms strategic business goals. The role is to acquire ideal leads whom your brand can deliver the promised services. To understand the right target and create strategies accordingly, you need to take high stake decisions, but once done, this can help to create high levels of growth and profitability. One of the very important parts of this development strategy in your business is networking. It is built on the concept that professional services buying decisions can be rooted from relationship.
Even though face-to-face network is not a very feasible option in the recent years, it still is certainly true that human to human connection is vital for the upkeep of any business. Similar is this situation with referrals, which is a close relative of networking. You can earn more referrals from the existing clients had your brand been able to provide satisfying results to them in the first place. Of all these things, the very first step is to create a business plan that clearly states the key challenges and how effectively it is plans to overcome the crisis. Thought leadership is very important and when it is combined with the strategies, you can produce the best results.
Learn more about business plans and how to create a strategic one at https://www.planwriters.net/.