In the most basic form, business development is about making a company better. This means increasing your revenue through growth that will increase your profitability. That said, business development executives can sometimes get lost because they don’t know where to focus their efforts.
If you are in this situation, there are a few things you can turn your attention to that will help you grow your business.
Basics.
The most important thing to think about when working on your growth plan is the basics. This can range from partnerships to cost savings. All of these are things that you need to work on to push the company forward while staying focused on business goals—one of the most common basic things people tend to focus on is its global expansion. For instance, a successful company in the United States may want to assess the potential for expansion to another company. This will involve a due diligence period where you research the potential for growth in another region.
Sales.
For the most part, a sales department will focus on markets and clients and how much revenue they bring from these locations. However, when you want to grow your business, you should evaluate new potential markets and see if they can help you meet your revenue goals. If you find any worth it, you can consider asking the sales team to focus their efforts on this area.
Marketing.
Marketing is how you advertise and promote your products so that you can successfully sell them to consumers. This is very important if you want to boost your sales. Often, a big part of business development is creating and refining a marketing budget. Finding the resources to create higher budgets allows you to implement more aggressive marketing strategies. However, even implementing lower budgets and passive marketing strategies can help boost your sales.
Partnerships.
If you’re entering a market as a new business, you need to think about whether you want to go it alone or get local assistance from already established companies. Carefully look at the legal and financial aspects of a partnership and think about the growth possibilities that this can offer.
Project Management.
When you enter a new market, you need to think about how you will produce and manage products for the project. In addition, this is often the time to think about expanding your facilities and holdings.
Product Management.
Regulations and market requirements, and standards vary from place to place when it comes to products. For example, a certain medicine may be allowed in one country but banned in another. If you face this problem, you need to consider whether you need more diverse product lines or can create a different version applicable in more areas.
According to business development expert at On Location David Geithner, this is a crucial aspect of product management and growth. He recommends thinking about the costs, legal aspects, and regulatory requirements of creating all new products or altering the ones you have.
Assistance
According to the Small Business Administration, every company should have a developer, usually the owner or an employee. This person needs to be responsible for making strategic suggestions that can help your business grow. Sometimes, this is done through unique measures, such as asking employees to submit ideas. However, there are also plenty of outside firms that can offer assistance to smaller companies. These will help you get started if you are in the early stages of growing your business.
Most people understand business development as the process of growing a company. There are quite a few things that you can do to grow your business. Focusing on the ones in this list should help companies grow. Remember, every approved or vetoed idea can move your business towards growth. This will help you boost your company’s bottom line.
