The new world of sales: Business development strategies that work

Why is business development important?

Business development is critical for a single simple reason, says Chris O’Shea, Senior Business Advisor, BDC Advisory Services: You can’t have a profitable business without customers—and business development is all about acquiring them.

Furthermore, a company seeking continuous growth is never really finished acquiring customers.

“Business development is foundational, especially in the world of business-to-business (B2B) sales,” says O’Shea.

To succeed, you’ll need a strategy.

How can you build a business development strategy?

The first step in any business development strategy is to know your customer, says O’Shea. You should figure out:

• which businesses (or consumers) you want to sell to
• who makes the buying decisions
• how they prefer to be reached

O’Shea suggests a step-by-step process for identifying your customers.

1. First, look at the big picture. Identify the overall sector you’re operating in, such as technology.
2. Segment that sector. In the technology example, sector subtypes could include companies that make social media apps, databases, cybersecurity software and so on. As part of this step, find out who your competitors are so you can position yourself strategically.
3. Break those segments down into individual corporate targets. List all the companies you could sell to within each segment.
4. Figure out who to talk to at each company. Are they in procurement, technology, leadership, elsewhere?

You can tweak this process according to your sector and segments and whether you sell to businesses or directly to consumers.

Now you’re almost ready to make your plan—but wait, says O’Shea: It’s not about coming up with a sales process and unleashing it on these potential customers. Instead, find out how your target buyers make their decisions and what drives their behaviours. “Map your sales process to how your customers buy—not the other way around.”

For example, some may prefer to make quick, seamless purchases online, while others need more interaction and support. 

“It’s about reverse engineering to find the ideal sales process for the customer,” he says.

Do you need a business development specialist?

At the smallest of small companies, business development may be handled by the founders, who are the face of the operation in the early days and tend to wear many hats. But as the business grows, there will likely be a tipping point, says O’Shea, where that’s no longer practical.

That’s when you may find yourself looking to hire a business development specialist or team. Choose contenders who have people skills and are tech savvy. Even though buyers’ habits are shifting, with some preferring online transactions, someone in a business development role should still be comfortable picking up the phone.

“The sales function is always built on the extrovert,” says O’Shea. “Do they have to be as loud and pushy as salespeople were 25 years ago? Probably not, but they have to be able to talk to people.”

They also need to be comfortable using the technologies and platforms that are essential components of business development today. For example, LinkedIn is an obvious tool for establishing connections, starting conversations and becoming a known resource in your industry.

What technologies should you use?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is also a key component of the business development toolkit today. It helps businesses capture customer data that can yield useful insights.

“Everybody, and I do mean everybody, should be using a CRM,” says O’Shea. “It’s critical to document the communications and conversations you’re having with customers and how. Where did the customer come from? What was the source of the lead? Did they land on your website and then hit the contact form? Did they call you? Did you meet them at a trade show?”

CRM can also track customer demographics along with features like location, industry and company size. Even free or low-cost CRM tools may have reporting functions that can provide trend analysis and other valuable business intelligence over time.

Caveat: Getting all this useful data into the CRM in the first place can be time-consuming. Make sure the people doing it are still spending most of their time developing customer relationships, says O’Shea, “otherwise you’re shooting yourself in the foot.”

More business development tips

The single biggest thing to avoid in business development, says O’Shea, is anything your customer may find off-putting. For that reason, most of O’Shea’s advice comes down to variations on knowing your customer.

1. Consider demographics. For one example, says O’Shea, a customer’s generation may offer clues about how they prefer to be contacted:

• Baby boomers are still likely to answer a phone call.
• Generation X customers are hybrids—they’ll pick up the phone, but are equally happy with online contact.
• Millennials are “digitally native human beings,” most of whom prefer online contact (though many will still pick up a call).
• Gen Z is “one thousand percent” digital. “Don’t even think about dialling the phone,” says O’Shea. “You may get a one-star review on Google just for thinking about it. It’s just not a medium they are comfortable with at scale.”

2. Conduct regular market research. You might wonder how you’re supposed to know how a customer prefers to be approached if you’ve never contacted them before. You can:

• Ask the customers you already have how they prefer to be reached.
• Set up surveys, consult your networks, and read up on industry trends.
• Put your CRM to work and see what insights it yields.

3. Keep on top of trends—for example, cold calling is likely on its way out. “Cold outreach”—which was once the mainstay of sales and business development—is now at the top of many people’s dislike lists, including cold emails, cold texts, “cold everything,” says O’Shea, meaning any interaction the customer didn’t invite or wasn’t expecting.

In addition, the spam blockers and firewalls that prevent cold emails and calls from reaching their intended targets are getting higher and thicker. If you need to employ a cold outreach strategy, just understand what you are stepping into and ensure you get the real data about its effectiveness. This could include recording calls and noting the quality of the meetings that get booked.

4. Don’t go all in on a single sales approach, such as all online or all trade shows. Hedge your bets by using more than one.

Ultimately, says O’Shea, “Know your customer inside out and upside down. If you can do that, you will find yourself in a much better place.”

Next step

Discover how to boost your sales in today’s changing environment by downloading BDC’s free guide, Revving up Your Sales.