Helping organisations is the reason for our existence. Providing business development support is one of the key areas where we can assist our clients. Since our inception, we have helped many business owners with business development support. This includes across a number of different industries including security, retail, technology, property and many more.
In this post, we will explore the ways in which we have delivered business development support to various clients. Business development can mean many things to many people but the overriding reason for business development is to implement growth and add benefit. It’s as simple as that. However, growth requires the tools and knowledge to ensure that growth is achieved.
We adopt a project approach to business development whereby we understand the requirement or needs of the client and then plan and implement a project that will see those requirements come to fruition. By using a project-based approach we are able to clearly identify, define and monitor the progress of any growth strategy initiated. After all, we are project consultants!
Business development support should be a welcome service for many organisations. Maybe the organisation has little or no knowledge of how to develop or grow its business and needs a high level of support. On the other hand, there could be a good level of experience and knowledge within the organisation although they have hit a stumbling block and just require an external viewpoint with a certain business development project. Whatever the need, Kent Project Consultants can assist and help to develop the business or project.
Business development encompasses a wide scope of ideas, activities, and initiatives that a business owner and management implement with the goal of making the business better. (Investopedia, 2023)
We all have good intentions for our business but unfortunately, business development requires much more than good intentions. It requires a multitude of skills and knowledge to ensure the best chance of growth. This may include being a creative thinker, having experience in the world of business, understanding the world of sales and marketing, being an analytical thinker, being able to think strategically and so on and so on. There are many attributes that make a good business development person. Knowledge is key though, and having experience in running a successful business and learning from yourself. Luckily, the mistakes and successes navigated by our staff allow us to be best placed to help other companies. In addition to this is our approach to providing business development support, which is highly beneficial to the client. We believe SMEs shouldn’t be tied into lengthy contracts or governed by bureaucracy, so we adopt an agile project-based approach to business development support.
We have already identified that business development consists of many areas of support. Let us focus on one area which is classed as the ‘bread and butter’ of business development and that is ‘Sales’.
It involves pursuing opportunities to help your business grow, identifying new prospects, and converting more leads into customers. Business development is closely tied to sales — business development teams and representatives are almost always a part of the greater sales org. (Hubspot, 2023)
It is difficult to deny that sales-orientated strategies help any business to grow, having people with the skills and experience in sales is crucial for many organisations. They are the ones identifying and prospecting the leads and by doing so helping to increase revenue which in turn fuels growth. Add the marketing professionals into the mix and then you start to create an effective sales and marketing team that feed into the business development strategy. So, we can see from this that having a sales team alone is not the sole answer to growth and that much more is needed. Identifying the need for a sales team or a marketing executive would be part of the Project Management Plan (PMP) and so forms part of the overall strategy.
Another factor that can sometimes be a barrier for smaller organisations to implement growth is the multitude of other tasks they may be involved with, those we would class as Business-As-Usual. It may be that some organisations only have the resources to manage the day-to-day business tasks and so never get around to even thinking about business growth. This kind of example should be the main catalyst for considering business development support as it allows for additional resources, albeit external resources. Having a project consultant to undertake the business development strategy means that your organisation can start to grow and at the very least have some kind of strategy put in place. No focus on business development means that an organisation will fail to grow and this could mean revenue falls, profitability drops, stakeholders become unhappy, and the business falls short of its potential.
We have already mentioned sales and marketing and how this can assist in business growth. Now we will take a look at other areas which will assist in identifying and implementing business growth.
Strategic Partnerships For Better Business Development Support
Business development is not just about selling products or services. Sometimes, you will need to build strategic partnerships which will help support your growth. Knowing whom to partner with and for what reason are some of the first questions that need to be answered. This may require analysing the marketplace and identifying those organisations where you could form strong strategic partnerships. In addition to this, its understanding how to approach an external organisation and state your case. This is where we really start to get into the politics of business and start to develop strategic insight. By having experienced management consultants to support you through this then you have a better chance of creating strategic partnerships which allow your business to flourish.
Vendor Management
Business growth may require using additional vendors and so it is important to understand those vendors. It may be that there is a network of vendors and they may be deeply intertwined, meaning that if one vendor fails then others could follow suit. In this day and age, it is beneficial to ensure each vendor has been vetted to ensure that their policies and procedures are sufficient for your needs, not to mention that their values align with those of your own organisation. Supply chain compliance is for another post but it is something that is vital for any organisation and an area where we can assist.
Summary
We could write for hours on the subject of business development but it would be much more beneficial to sit down with a potential client and speak openly. So, if you are an organisation looking for trustworthy and experienced business development support then feel free to contact a member of our team. We are happy to talk with organisations from any industry, including security, retail, learning & development, property, oil & gas and many more. We are confident we can offer some level of support and are always exploring new projects.