Power Channels

Business Development – Partnerships for your marketing

23/08/2019
Reading time: 9 minutes

Contacts are of no use only to those who do not have them. This wisdom applies to Business Development channel really accurately.

How you use partnerships to target group owners in your right target group for you as a power channel, and what mistakes it should be avoided, you read in this article.

What is Business Development and why do I need it?

Contacts are of no use only to those who do not have them. This wisdom applies to Business Development channel really accurately. Business development is a set of actions through which a company identifies, secures and enhances the relationships with other enterprises.

Exactly when it comes to development of new business sectors it is so valuable to connect with the people in your target group in the market.

When you sport valuable contacts with various unions, clubs, federations or parties, you can see all doors opening for you. If it comes to business development towards parties, then we would speak about lobbying activities.

The partnerships that you build in the process are something bigger and more precious than sales. Here we are speaking about a Win-Win.

That is what Business Development is all about

Business Development has its core at structured networks with your partners.
Both your partners and you extract benefit from your business.

In the end of the day business development creates a long-term value for the company, for the customers, for the market and, of course, business relationships.

Business Development facts and figures

Harvard Business Review has found out that 84% of B2B sales are won when, for instance, buyers used a referral through a sensible Business Development partnership.

According to Statista, especially the GAFAM companies have been lobbying expenditures in Europe over the last few years.

Want to discover potential BizDev contacts?

Find opportunities for your Business Development via this simple search tool on LinkedIn, Xing, twitter and Google for Jobs.

4 mistakes in Business Development that you better avoid

You fail to forge win-win relationships

As already mentioned before, successful long-term strategic partnerships are those ones where win-win relationships (fair deals) are formed early on. As tempting as it may be to negotiate a one-sided agreement, sooner or later you are doomed to notice the missing balance.

You do not cultivate relationships after initial agreement

Failing to enhance and nurture the business relationships further as soon as they have been created is, perhaps, the biggest blunder. Partnerships that have been forged just “pro forma” are going to be shelved, just because you do not give it professional customer care — as simple as that.

You do not understand how you can help

The biggest mistake business development professionals make when creating strategic partnerships is not having a clear understanding of how they can help their future customers. Empathic approach should definitely be of a great help here because it promotes a mutual and deeper understanding from early on.

You forget that building relationship requires time

Some people in the business make a mistake supposing that the deal is over and they can redirect to something else. The same as in other business areas and actually life you can change the conditions and circumstances, you can affect and contribute the relationships, you can continue working on them and bringing them on a new level. You just need to remember that it is not done overnight and it requires time and a proper careful attitude.

Business Development placement in terms of marketing

Business Development in the entire Marketing Funnel

The set of actions associated with (BizDev) are to be found between the top of the funnel and the middle segment.

The focus is placed here, first of all, on drawing the attention of the potential clients to your company and solutions you offer encouraging them to find out more about you.

Immediate effect vs Long-term effect

Business Development requires time and, therefore, unlike sales, it does not produce an immediate stimulus that would encourage sales.

The BizDev activities pack is trimmed exactly to promote a long lasting effect.

Categorization in Channel Portfolio

When building a portfolio on actions and channels it is important to remember that the main function of BizDev is to be accurate and to be designed specifically to fit your goals and strategy with a partner who has access to the clients that are suitable exactly to your business.

This channel works best of all when complemented by nets and deeply planted seeds.

4 often underrated tips and hacks with Business Development

Stay active most days

If you make small steps but do it regularly (in a perfect world, every day) it leads to continuity and a mutually beneficial growth for you and your partners. It is important to point out at this stage that BizDev isn’t about quick fixes or one-off sales. Instead, this is all about long term growth strategy and you had better look at it in this light all the time.

Choose the right partners

Having the right business partners will go a long way in making your company develop in the right direction. On the other hand, if you get to work with wrong partners, you’ll find it hard to grow steadily.

Get the balance between quantity and quality

When developing their business many professionals make the mistake of aiming purely for quantity of sales closed rather than working on quality long term partnerships. Thus, it is really important to always strive to find the balance between quality and quantity, so that your company can enjoy a consistent and sustainable growth. It’s particularly important for startups that are only beginning their path in the market.

Grow at pace you find comfortable

Do not impose pace to your partner, if this pace is not comfortable for you. It is crucial because growing too fast or too slow can give rise to various impediments to your steady growth.

Business development comes down to these KPI's

Number of qualified leads

This figure shows the total number of the potential clients from your efforts in the pipeline partnership.

Deal Conversion Rate

This figure measures how many sales deals can be closed as a result of work with a particular partner. So, this metric measures your effectiveness in converting leads into new customers.

Get going

Business development is a long-term and far-reaching channel that effectively helps to build and promote win-win partnerships with your target group. The building of the business relationships is placed in the top of the marketing funnel, which means, right in the beginning.

If you filter partners carefully, — those whom you can deliver high added value, relationships with whom you build and nurture, — you are on your right path to win new customers through this channel.

And now: Go search for the patterns, which fit exactly to your target group.

What do You think?

André Wehr

About Me

As a founder and entrepreneur, I experience every day how important customer centricity is for companies.

Integrate the essential customer perspective into your product genesis and marketing processes. That puts horse powers on the street, until it runs.

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Business Development – Partnerships for your marketing

What is Business Development and why do I need it?