Top 3 Skills Necessary for Effective Business Development

The most specific definition of business development will be a set of functions and processes meant to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between companies in a sustainable as well as profitable method. But in reality, most organizations apply the term differently. It depends on what they need that role to do for them.  

According to an employer branding speaker, generally, business development in a SaaS scale-up involves a lot of cold outreaches to prospective customers. On the contrary, in a big, multinational company, business development may have to analyze the market for new-market entry or a new line of products. However, regardless of the differences, business developers across industries share one common goal of spotting and implementing new growth opportunities. 

Here the most crucial point is growth opportunities. In most instances, new opportunities signify more than new clients. It also includes getting new partners to enter new markets and develop new products. Initially, there seems to be a lot of overlap between business development and marketing. However, there are some key differences. 

Difference Between Marketing and Business Development 

The difference between business development and marketing can often be hard to figure out and can be made more difficult as business development seems to vary from one company to another.  

The difference lies in the fact that Marketing is mostly about attracting new leads and customers. On the other hand, business development is about developing relationships with companies to create new opportunities.  

Marketing is the customer-facing branch of your organization to attract customers in three ways:  

1. Identifying your prospective customers by creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 

2. Maintaining a consistent brand and utilizing different channels, such as social media, website, ads, etc. to stay top in the minds of your ideal customers.  

3. Educate customers about your business, products, and offers. In many instances, generally

with smaller B2C offerings, this is sufficient to convince a prospect to buy. At that point, they’ll either call your sales team or purchase from your site. For everyone else, particularly B2B, marketing is just the initial stage in the journey, and this is where business development comes in.  

Business Development is all about relationships. The primary objective is to create strategic partnerships and relationships with other organizations in your target market. So, you may need to develop a relationship with a lead founder to push them closer to a sale. It can also imply leveraging present relationships to generate referrals and create new markets in other locations. 

Usually, the business development team collaborates with the sales and marketing departments, offering support so they can reach their goals. This requires a unique combination of marketing, communication, and sales skills:  

1. Marketing Skills  

As business development executives focus on developing relationships, they also need to promote their brand, gain more knowledge regarding new markets, realize the competition, and identify and educate new target prospects. Accordingly, these business development activities significantly overlap the marketing activities.  

2. Communication Skills  

No one can deny that communication skills training is extremely important. Calling up prospects, maintaining long-term relationships with strategic partners, actively listening to the concerns of potential clients, and sharing important information with stakeholders requires strong communication as well as listening skills. It’s difficult to succeed in the world of business development without your ability to communicate confidently and clearly.  

3. Sales Skills  

Usually, the business development team shares common skills with sales representatives, such as nurturing relationships with both potential and existing clients, prospecting, qualifying leads, and updating sales customer relationship management databases on all sales activities as well as follow-ups. Generally, the team collaborates with sales team members to move prospects along the sales process. A business development executive has to think quickly and strategically to win opportunities and stay ahead of the competition. They need to be entrepreneurial and visionary in the way they approach their work. As they’re often the first contact point for potential clients and partners, it means that they’re the perfect people to gather insights directly from the market. So, this position can be quite powerful if combined with other teams, such as the sales team, which is usually tasked with taking over opportunities. 

Conclusion 

According to a motivational speaker in Singapore, those were the top three skills that are necessary for effective business development.