Alternate Axis

Tag: consultant

  • Business Development or Marketing – Are they One in the Same?

    Definition of Business Development vs. Marketing Communications

    Business Development is, by simplest definition, the conscious decision to seek out, qualify, and legitimize opportunities that broaden and deepen the offerings of a business.  While seemingly a simple concept on the surface, the activities involved in consciously deciding to develop business are as broad as they are deep.

    Such activities include the proactive analysis of present business activities, and the realistic and brutally honest assessment of where those activities are taking the business.  They include the formulation of decision-making criteria that will determine opportunities a business will and won’t explore.  They are the activities required to conduct competitive landscape analyses, and the determination to perform due diligence and develop risk/reward profiles for both near and long-term growth for all opportunities designed to compete within the defined market space.

    Business Development is a conscious decision to dedicate resources toward the identification of new growth opportunities for the company, and then design and develop a solid infrastructure to support and deliver on these new opportunities. In support of Business Development, is Marketing Communications.

    Marketing Communications is the design and development of communications plans, channels of communications, and tactics that detail, inform, and promote company offers to economic buyers.  Marketing Communications’ efforts are designed, by default, to pick up and drive home the business concepts and strategies articulated by the Business Development team.

    By design, Marketing Communications specializes in the articulation of promotional messaging, the development of physical tactics used to promote services, and the means by which sales staff communicates with prospects and customers. Market Communications does not, nor should it ever, be tasked with risk assessments, product and service P&L responsibility, or financial-based decision-making criteria.

    Business Development and Marketing Communications Process Optimization

    The optimization of Business Development and Marketing Communications activities can only occur when each is afforded the opportunity to focus on its area of core competency.  For Business Development, time taken away from the evaluation of new opportunities, competitive products and services, and growth through licensing opportunities equates to lost opportunity.  Conversely, for Marketing Communications, time taken away from getting the word out, priming the press, providing timely information to customers, and supporting sales through the provision of support tactics and services, equates to lost opportunity.

    It is critical to understand that this stated position is not intended to dilute or diversify, but rather consolidate and focus.  Business Development and Marketing Communications should always…always…communicate, practice shared-learning’s, and work together to achieve the common goal.

    When properly structured, mutually exclusive Business Development and Marketing Communications groups actively engage each other and interact in ways that focus the overall business effort.  The end result is the generation of more leads, more bids, and more contract opportunities that ultimately lead to more revenue growth and expanded business opportunities. [i]

    [i] Sabre Systems, Inc, Business Development and Marketing Communications Best Practices Version 5.0 , September 2003.

  • Traditional BD Roles and Responsibilities

    Traditional Business Development Roles and Responsibilities

    In the field of commerce, the specialist area of business development comprises a number of techniques and responsibilities which aim at gaining new customers and at penetrating existing markets.

    Techniques used include:

    1. Assessment of marketing opportunities and target markets;
    2. Intelligence gathering on customers and competitors;
    3. Generating leads for possible sales;
    4. Advising on, drafting and enforcing sales policies and processes;
    5. Follow-up sales activity;
    6. Formal proposal or presentation management and writing;
    7. Pitch and presentation rehearsals; and
    8. Business model design.

    Skill sets and experience for business-development professionals usually consist of a mixture of the following (depending on the business requirements):

    • Marketing
    • Legal
    • Strategy
    • Finance
    • Proposal management or capture management
    • Sales experience

    Business development involves evaluating a business and then realizing its full potential.

    A sound organization aiming to withstand competitors never stops business developmentbut engages in it as an ongoing process.

    Successful business development often requires a multi-disciplinary approach beyond just “a sale to a customer”.  Successful business development requires the establishment of a “pipeline”.

    The “pipeline” refers to flow of potential clients that a company has started developing. Business-development staffs assign to each potential client in the pipeline a percent chance of success, with projected sales-volumes attached. Planners can use the weighted average of all the potential clients in the pipeline to project staffing to manage the new activity when finalized. Enterprises usually support pipelines with some kind of CRM (customer relationship management) tool or CRM-database, either web-based (such as the salesforce.com software-as-a-service solution) or an in-house system.

    Business development specialists manage and analyze the data to produce sales management information (MI) such as:

    • Reasons for wins/losses.
    • Progress of opportunities in relation to the sales process.
    • Sales of services/products.

    Small to medium-sized companies often do not establish procedures for business development, instead relying on their existing contacts. People in such companies may assume that because they know people in high places that this will solve any business-development problems and that somehow new financial transactions will come to them. Such thinking can have significant ramifications if one cannot exploit those relationships. Such a situation may result in no new sales in the pipeline.

    For larger and well-established companies, especially in technology-related industries, the term “business development” often refers to setting up and managing strategic relationships and alliances with other, third party companies. In these instances the companies may leverage each others’ expertise, technologies or other intellectual property to expand their capacities for identifying, researching, analyzing and bringing to market new businesses and new products, business-development focuses on implementation of the strategic business plan through equity financing, acquisition/divestiture of technologies, products, and companies, plus the establishment of strategic partnerships where appropriate.

    Business-development practitioners cannot reduce their activities to simple templates applicable to all or even most situations faced by real-world enterprises. Creativity in meeting new and unforeseen challenges may help sustainable growth.

    Business-development roles may have one of two modes:

    • Sales-oriented (client-facing); or
    • An operational function to support sales.

    In a sales role, business development concentrates on developing strategic-channel relationships or on general sales; this is sometimes referred to as capture management.

    Capture management is one of the sales policies and processes that Business Development professionals advise on and develop for their companies. Others include proposal drafting and management, business development strategy, and the integration of branding and marketing to support the overall strategy.

    In the US, the term “capture management” appears as an alternative job or role title, typically used when describing business development as an operational function to support the selling function of a company.

    The “Capture Management Lifecycle” includes three broad stages:

    • Pre-bid phase.
    • Bid phase.
    • Post-bid phase.[1]

    [1] The preceding information is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Business Development. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
  Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

  • Why do so many people believe anyone can be a business developer?

    Why do so many people believe anyone can be a business developer?

    This is a phenomenon I encounter time and time again.

    This is a phenomenon that time and time again leaves me shaking my head incredulously.

    It is rare that someone is either so delusional or so egotistical that they believe, without any training or experience, they can be an engineer, a doctor, a supply chain management specialist, a nurse, a cosmetologist, or an astronaut. Yet that does not appear to be the case with sales and marketing. I repeatedly find that the vast majority of people I meet in business believe they can be a business developer.

    Years ago, I remember hearing a story of a General and his driver who were tasked with traveling to the various military installations on the east coast and briefing the spouses of the deployed soldiers on the various programs and support networks available to families while the soldiers were deployed. One after another they hit the bases and the General gave the briefing while his driver flipped the PowerPoint slides. While enroute to yet another base, the two were talking as they were driving along and the driver asked the General, if didn’t he get tired of giving the same pitch again and again?

    The General replied no not at all; and while it may seem to the driver that every briefing was the same, every briefing actually was subtlety different and each had its own set of challenges. The driver replied, “Well I respectfully disagree with you General. In fact, I think it is so easy and I have listened to it so many times I could give the briefing at the next base.” The General paused in thought for a moment and then said okay – next stop you give the briefing and I will flip the slides.

    At the next installation, having swapped uniforms, the two took to the stage and began the briefing. As the General flipped the slides the driver moved rapidly through the information with not too much problem. During the question and answer period however, each question became a little more complex, and he increasingly struggled to respond as the extremely quizzical spouses were besieging him with concerns. Finally as the questions increased in quantity and complexity he had a spouse stand up and make a particularly involved query. Completely stumped and on the verge of panic, he hesitated for only a moment, then quickly responded, “Why that is so simple, I am going to let my driver answer it for you.”

    While this may be a somewhat lame anecdote, it does reflect a situation all too common in many organizations. This is a modus operandi all too often exhibited by the, “helicopter business developers”. These are the folks who believe, that simply by periodically flitting in and out of the marketplace, (usually by attending shows, conferences, and seminars); not being held responsible and accountable for developing the business and making sales; and not doing the day-to-day, week-to-week, and usually month-to-month  “nug” work so essential to developing business relationships,  they are in fact “developing the business”.  Therefore, in their minds they believe they are business developers.

    Now granted, to their credit very few of these people actually profess any desire to pursue the business development career path. In their minds however (as evidenced by the free and willing advice they are quick to dispense to all who may be within earshot) they could easily do the BD job if they wanted to.

    Why this fact amazes me so much is that prior to my entering the field of business development, my sense of capabilities never included the concept that I could successfully sell anything, much less help others achieve the same results. I in fact was quite humbled by those I saw as being incredibly gifted and talented at “closing the deal”. I saw it then, as I do now – it is a real skill.

    The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want.
    Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
    Willy Loman, Act 1

    As I gained experience and was mentored by these “G&T” individuals, I realized even more that Business Development was not only a “Willie Loman” like art form, but was also a science or process. While every member of the organization is responsible for “growing the business”, it takes trained and focused Business Development professionals to systematically achieve business growth. Sales are different from business development. By recognizing Business Development as a science or process, I realized that there were certain principles that could then be learned, taught, and then followed. Achieving this knowledge provides the foundation required to be a successful business developer. Practicing the knowledge is what sets apart the successful Business Developers.

    It is this knowledge, both how to achieve it and how to execute it, that Alternate Axis shares with its clients.

    This knowledge will also be the focus of our future discussions.

  • It takes Money to Make Money – The Question Is, How Much?

    It takes Money to Make Money – The Question Is, How Much?

    There is a great deal of debate whether there is any truth to the old adage, “It takes money to make money.”

    If you are a promoter of get rich quick, pyramid schemes or a realtor engaged in the sale of site un-seen, beach front property or multi acre, mountainside retreats, the folks who provide you your initial “business development training” would have you believe it will not cost you one thin dime (at least of your own money) to make your fortune.

    On the other hand, if you were a well-heeled, Fortune 500 company, or even a middle-tier supplier or manufacturer of repair parts or components intent upon expanding lagging sales in this ever-challenging market, you would normally be expected to follow a more conventional business development (BD) strategy.

    The conventional BD strategy is to put more money into flagging business development efforts by hiring more people, engaging in more conferences, attending more trade shows and in general exercising a shotgun approach to expanding sales under the belief that if some BD effort is good, more BD effort is better. It is generally an all-consuming strategy, involving a great many resources (time, effort, managing, and mentoring to name a few), with a potentially limited return. In other words, by default you subscribe to the “It takes money to make money” philosophy. Since you apparently embrace the theory that to grow, investment is necessary, the logical question that should then follow is, “How much money does it [should it] take?”

    “Remind people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.”

    Scott Adams

     

     

    As someone who has run several major business development organizations, I am well aware of the overhead and “waste” of resources inherently associated with these BD teams. I say inherent because this “waste” is not due at all to the members of the organization, but more so due to the intrinsic cost associated with permanent employees, their benefits, and the cost of the bureaucracy to manage them. Traditionally this has been the way organizations have pursued business:  growing people from within; using internal assets; pursuing any and all “leads” and “opportunities” (generally translated to mean everyone on the team attending every trade show and conference – together), rather than focusing on specific targets, or “following the money.” In other words, doing it the way we have always done it.

    “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

    Mark Twain

     

    There is however a different way to approach augmenting your BD efforts; instead of bringing on board a new, un-proven, permanent hire who will be more expensive and take longer to train to be productive, you could hire a professional, experienced, and proven BD consultant on a contract basis.

    A BD consultant will work directly for you, without the associated overhead and incidental costs. Capable of being focused completely on prospective customers and markets, a BD consultant will adapt and work within the marketing and business development systems in place, but should you require, is flexible enough to examine your specific situation and create a program that takes advantage of the strengths you’ve already worked to establish.

    Put another way, they will tailor their efforts to maximize the current sales/marketing/administrative activities already in place within your office. Their initial focus is on determining which prospects should be contacted and what markets should be focused on in order to bring in new business to your company. All of this work will be performed more efficiently and at a lower cost than bringing on permanent employees. There is no “waste” in either time or talent, and your company pays for results not simply for attendance.

    There are additional advantages to be gained from bringing a proven, professional BD consultant on board -cross-pollination of ideas and an external perspective on your business.  This allows an opportunity for external analysis and the potential for change and growth. The ability of the BD consultant to bring to the table an extensive networking capability only further “sweetens” the professional relationship.

    The business development environment is changing. Opportunities, while still out there, require a whole new skill set to pursue successfully; that skill set may either not be fully present in your organization or may require reinforcing. Bringing on board a BD consultant will help you capture those elusive opportunities. It will also readily assist you in answering the question of how much money it takes to make money

    You can take that to the bank!

    “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”

    Ayn Rand