Although a commonly used term, business development can be defined and understood in different ways. In fact, the terms business development, marketing, and sales are often used interchangeably, making the delineation between these functions blurry.
Language is a powerful change agent; that’s why it’s important to begin by clarifying the terms used to communicate about this critical business function. Common language builds cohesion, increases clarity, and provides greater focus within a business development team. Imprecise language contributes to confusion and lack of success.
Defining Business Development
Business development encompasses all the activities that generate, sustain, and grow revenue. Within business development, there are marketing, sales, and customer service. Revenue is the thread that ties these pieces together.
Think of business development as an umbrella under which the marketing, sales, and customer service functions reside. Each area has a different purpose regarding revenue.
Marketing generates leads. Marketing communicates with the prospective market and works to turn them into qualified leads.
Sales turns leads into revenue. Sales starts where marketing ends. It takes the leads generated by marketing through a consistent process and converts them into revenue.
Customer service keeps the revenue coming. It works to keep customers happy after the initial purchase and nurtures existing customers to generate future revenue.
Marketing generates leads. Sales turns leads into revenue. Customer service keeps the revenue coming. These definitions are simple but powerful when adopted by the entire organization. Once implemented, they lay the foundation for the ongoing success of a business.
Customers typically move through the three functions of business development in a linear fashion. For example, marketing interacts with the marketplace and generates a qualified lead. Sales then takes over and converts that lead into revenue. Finally, customer service ensures that the customer remains loyal, which keeps revenue coming.
When everyone in business development understands this flow and their role in the process, the resulting clarity provides cohesion for the entire department. Team members know when their part of the process begins, when it ends, and the purpose behind each step.
The concepts from this article were taken from Business Development Structure: Generating and growing consistent revenue through structure. Available through The ReWild Group and Amazon, the book explores in-depth this and other concepts while providing illustrations to help business leaders incorporate the ideas into their organizations. Get your copy today to start benefiting from Business Development Structure in your company.