Business Development is an important function of the business. Every business needs business development no matter what phase of life the business is in.
For a new business, this is the most important function. This includes adopting a marketing strategy that aligns with your business strategy, vision and mission.
Effective strategic management can help businesses navigate through the difficult times. Business development needs to occur across the entire business.
Focus on marketing:
Significant amount of time, effort and money should be spent on marketing and public relations. This is especially important for small businesses and start ups. Money should be spent on creating customer awareness, brand awareness and building a social presence before you start spending money on fancy offices, equipment and paying yourself. Most business owners say that we not big enough to spend money on marketing but if you don’t then you are not going to get there. It’s sad to have a great product or service that no one knows about. Marketing costs will start to pay itself off with an increase in sales over time.
Forming strategic partnerships:
Strategic partnerships can strengthen your competitive advantage in the marketplace by allowing you to leverage the capabilities of existing companies. Companies should seek out other companies in their line of business that will supplement their products or services. Sometimes it has worked for companies to form a partnership with competitors.
Investing in employees:
Employees can make or break a new business, and investing time in business development can lead to increased productivity and efficiency in the business. Employees should be given access to information and decision making capabilities. An atmosphere of creativity and innovation should be created whereby employees should be allowed to submit ideas and take initiatives. Motivated employees will feel a part of the team and own ownership of their roles and take ownership of the company.
Soliciting customer feedback:
Frequent feedback from the customers should be solicited via your social media presence, customer surveys and informal conversations. Do not hesitate to add or remove features from your products and services, and offer price promotions to encourage existing customers to try new product/service variations.
Growth hacking is not really difficult once you have set a good culture amongst the employees. They will be more motivated to deliver you results.
