What is a business development strategy?
If you're thinking of a 50-page document full of graphs, forecasts and corporate jargon, I've got good news.
The Quick Read: A quick summary for busy people.
A business development strategy doesn't need to be a complicated document! It's about deciding where your best opportunities for growth are, who you want to reach and how you're going to make it happen. Get clear on your goals, focus your time and resources on what matters, and make sure your marketing, sales and business development efforts are working together.
Most importantly, turn your strategy into action and review it regularly to keep your business moving in the right direction.
Let's get into it
A business development strategy doesn't need to be anything like that. In fact, I'd argue that if it's too complicated to use regularly, you've probably missed the point.
So, what exactly is a business development strategy, and why should you bother having one?
What is a business development strategy?
It's essentially deciding where your next business opportunities are going to come from and how you're going to pursue them.
That might involve:
• Exploring new markets or customer groups
• Developing relationships with existing customers
• Finding strategic partners or referral opportunities
• Introducing new products or services
• Identifying different ways to generate revenue
There are plenty of possibilities, but that doesn't mean you should pursue all of them.
A business development strategy helps you work out which opportunities make commercial sense, where to concentrate your efforts and what you're trying to achieve.
Because you can spend an awful lot of time being busy without necessarily moving your business forward.
But isn't that what marketing and sales are for?
They certainly have a big part to play, but they're not quite the same thing.
• Business development looks at the bigger picture. Where are the opportunities for growth? Which customers or markets should you be targeting? What relationships could open doors?
• Marketing helps you reach those audiences, build awareness and generate interest.
• Sales takes those opportunities and works towards turning them into customers and revenue.
Of course, there's overlap. Quite a lot of it, actually.
The important thing is that they're all pulling in the same direction.
There's little point investing in marketing to attract one type of customer if your commercial priority is to grow a completely different part of the business.
Equally, you could have a fantastic sales team working flat out, but are they spending their time on the opportunities with the greatest potential?
That's where having a clear business development strategy makes a difference.
A strategy isn't a glorified to-do list
Going to networking events, contacting prospects, following up with leads and booking meetings are all business development activities.
But they're not the actual strategy.
Your strategy is about the direction you're taking and the decisions behind it. Your action plan is what you'll actually do to get there, who's responsible and when it needs to happen.
You need both, but getting them the wrong way round can leave you doing lots of things without being particularly clear on why.
And nobody needs more things on their to-do list just for the sake of it!
How complicated does it need to be?
Keep it as simple as possible. For most business owners and SMEs, a few pages can be more than enough, provided you've properly thought through the important questions:
• Your goals: Where do you want the business to be in the next 12 months?
• Your opportunities: Where is the greatest potential to grow revenue?
• Your target market: Who do you want to work with, and what do they need?
• Your approach: How will you reach those people and develop opportunities?
• Your resources: What time, budget and people do you have available?
• Your measures: How will you know whether you're making progress?
You should also be prepared to make some choices about what you're not going to pursue.
That's often the difficult bit, particularly when an interesting opportunity lands in your inbox or you feel under pressure to ‘do social media’.
Once you've worked through those questions, you've got the foundations of your strategy. You can then put together an action plan to make it happen.
And please, don't file it away until your next annual planning session.
I'd recommend reviewing your business development strategy every month. It doesn't need to be a big exercise, just a chance to check:
• Are we still focusing on the right opportunities?
• What's working well, and what isn't?
• Are our marketing, sales and business development activities supporting our priorities?
• Has anything changed that means we need to adjust our approach?
Businesses change, opportunities develop and sometimes the things that looked promising three months ago turn out to be a complete waste of time.
Better to recognise that early than spend another six months pursuing them.
So, do you really need one?
If you're serious about growing your business, I'd say yes.
Not because you need another document, meeting or excuse to sit in front of a spreadsheet, but because your time, money and resources are valuable, and where you choose to spend them matters.
A good business development strategy helps you make better commercial decisions and ensures the activity happening across your business is intentional and contributing towards the growth you're aiming for.
At M&M Business Support, I work with business owners and teams to explore growth opportunities, develop practical strategies and get involved in the business development activity that follows.
Coming up with a strategy is one thing. Finding the time and resources to actually deliver it is another.
If you'd like some help working out where to focus your business development efforts, let's have a chat.