If you are a manager in your company often, you will be tasked with developing business. So, in theory, let us create a definition.
What is Business Development?
Business Development represents an activity that makes a business better over time by implementing strategies and opportunities for improvement using different ideas, methods, plans, and efficient management.
Business Development aims at specific goals or objectives set by the company. These goals may include expanding business and profit, increasing revenues, expanding the customer or client base, forming strategic partnerships, etc. The primary aim of business development is to bring improvement or advancement to the existing business.
Business Development is not limited to a single or particular business department. The positive or negative impacts of its activities and ideas are spread across different departments, such as sales, finance, marketing, product development, and human resources.
How Can I Improve My Business Development Skills?
As business development affects all business departments, a business developer must have all the necessary skills to exercise continuous growth in the business. One must be focused, have excellent technical skills, be good at planning, and be quick enough to tap all the development opportunities.
The following are ways people can improve their business development skills.
- Research your competitors and understand how you are or can be better than them. Never compare yourself with your competitors; instead, aim to stand out.
- An eager and potential business developer would always ask interactive and considerable questions and listen attentively. Business developers must be open to great ideas, which can be achieved by asking relevant questions and listening to others.
- Effective communication and interpersonal skills are essential to becoming a successful business developer. One has to interact with people regularly, whether to acquire clients and customers, represent development plans to department heads, or make others in the department understand their respective goals.
- Make sure Action plans aim towards the set goals. An efficient action plan clarifies the role of people in achieving goals. Such positions must be clearly stated.
- An important skill that every business developer must possess is in-depth knowledge of the business field. If a business developer is well aware of the primary domain in which the business activities are involved, they can make better decisions and plans.
What are the 5 Main Business Objectives?
The core five business objectives are Economic, National, Social, Global, and Human. Objectives are the essential elements that form a business’s path.
Without these objectives, a business loses its direction. William F. Glueck, who wrote the book Business Policy and Strategic Management, quoted, “Objectives are those ends which the organization seeks to achieve through its existence and operations.” The” “y somehow forms the results that a business works towards achieving.
The core objective of any business is to make profits. However, in achieving that objective, it cannot neglect the interests of its owners, employees, society, the economy, and the protection of the environment. The five core objectives of the company are formed by the surroundings in which it operates.
How to Expand Your Business Through New Market Development?
Expanding a business through new market development is a growth strategy for companies to enter a new market to expand their current customer base. There are five steps that a company can follow to achieve market growth. They are:
- Formulate the Objectives of Market Growth.
- Ascertain Your Target Market.
- Conduct Complete Market Research.
- Ascertain if the Market Is Favourable for Business. Otherwise, Select a Different Market.
- Formulate a Strategy To Enter the Market.
Every business operates in a dynamic environment where change is inevitable. To keep up with this environment and prevent a business from becoming obsolete, a company must make changes to keep growing because growth is not inevitable.
Growth is a business’s foundation; without it, it is vulnerable to threats like increased competition, changing policies, and more. Expanding your business through new market development will help it grow and prevent it from succumbing to market pressure.
How to Create a New Department Within a Company?
The creation of new departments is part and parcel of the growth process. The following are some of the steps that can be followed to create a new department:
- Understanding what the company requires or aims at with the help of the new department.
- Research about the department and all the alternative strategies to create it.
- Create a strategic plan for creating the department, including the budget and the tasks within the department.
- Evaluate your process by comparing it with successful examples where people created a similar department.
- Choose the right people for the department.
- Get the new department plan approved by the managers.
Creating a new department is a tedious task. So much so that many people would not volunteer to do so. However, a growing business needs to add new departments to stay ahead in the highly competitive environment.
What are the Top 3 Skills for a Business Development Executive?
Due to the broad scope of this department, a business development executive must have several skills. However, every business development executive should have three: Vision, Leadership Quality, and Practical Communication Skills.
Business development executives should have a vision of their business aims and goals. Since this is a department with a broader scope, an executive must have leadership qualities to head such a vast department. They must be able to express their strategic views and plans to others in the department and encourage them to achieve their goals.
A business development executive must communicate with department heads, higher officials, and business clients and partners. The communication process may include expressing the company’s strategy and convincing clients and partners. This method can only be effective if the executive has practical communication skills.
What are the 4 Growth Strategies?
Growth is vital if a business wants to keep running. Every company uses four growth strategies: Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development, and Diversification.
Most companies include these four strategies in their business growth plans. Marketing development refers to expanding your business to new markets by introducing your services or products to new customers or markets in different states or countries. Market penetration is different from market development. Instead of tapping new markets, businesses try to grow by increasing their market share in the market where they are already present.
Product development refers to creating and introducing new products into the existing market or changing a current product to improve its performance. Diversification can be taken as a combination of market development and product development. It refers to creating and introducing a new product into a new market.
What Makes a Successful Business Developer?
A business developer who can create a great business plan that works as a map to success is a successful business developer. They must also have a vision and know that a one-person army cannot achieve goals. It is equally essential that the business developer creates a team of efficient people.
A business developer must have a vision or drive to steer the development team into achieving the goals and growth of the organization. Successful business development is a team player who can work with a dynamic team that does not aim toward developing a particular department or sector but for the company as a whole.
What are the 7 Principles of Business Ethics?
The seven principles of business ethics are Integrity, Loyalty, Commitment, Fairness, Honesty, Accountability, and Concern and respect for others.
Business ethics is an integral part of a business that sets the basic policies and practices for handling controversial subjects in the business environment. These subjects may include discrimination, fiduciary responsibility, corporate governance, and social obligations.
A business must operate under and follow business ethics between consumers, employees, and corporations. Another critical factor of business ethics is that it may have a lasting effect on others. Depending on how truthfully a company follows business ethics, this could be negative or positive.
After leaving Wells Fargo Bank in 2014, Daniel began a career as a finance consultant, advising companies and individuals on economic policy, labor relations, and financial management.
At Nimblefreelancer.com, Daniel writes about personal finance topics, value estimation, budgeting strategies, retirement planning, and portfolio diversification.
Read more on Daniel Smith's biography page.
Contact Daniel: daniel@nimblefreelancer.com