Executive summary

Business Development

Every company that wants to grow has a need to be on the loop in its industry or sector to find new costumers or retain the ones it has and sometimes, just marketing and/or sales, are not enough to achieve that goal. Business development is about creating opportunities for the value of the company to persist over the long term and it is an interaction of a combination of customers, markets and relationships that create these opportunities for growth. It is also an encompassing combination that uses strategy, personality and knowledge that aims at improving the value of the company. That is why a professional that can help on business development providing his/her services (not simply sales or marketing) in that matter is a valuable asset for any company looking for its growth.

The key success factor for becoming a good business developer is to believe on the company that you represent and the service/s or product/s that the company sells; to have knowledge of the market or sector you want to develop that business in and finally, to have a social personality that allows you to interact with people on any level (either vertically or horizontally) such as providers, sub consultants, clients, competitors, politicians, authorities, press. This, obviously, also means to have the right contacts or to be able to create the best contacts agenda for the company. Most of the BD efforts rely on underlying foundation of strong professional relationships based on trust, respect and mutual appreciation of each other.

At the end, business development is nothing but business relationships and the capacity to interact with all the pieces (either within the company or external) that compose the strategic development of a company. This is basic to enabling the flow of value for the long term and something that the marketing department alone or the sales department alone usually are not capable to perform for obvious reasons, then it is when a business developer may bring on the table the solutions to achieve the final goal: the growth of the company but not only financially but also in prestige, quality of clients and reputation. These solutions brought by the BD specialist always integrate the strategic business development plan of the company (budget, goals, schedule), the marketing department and the sales department.

Also, my personal opinion is that every single employee in the company needs to get involved and be engaged to that business development strategy. They need to know and somehow participate of the growth of the company because then it is easier to reach the goals that the business developer uses as a key success factors to develop the business (quality of the service/product, timings, professionalism, experience of the team, excellent customer relationship management). Having said that, I would define business development as a necessary and key element in a company to guarantee the permanence of the company on the highest position on your market’s ranking and to, also, guarantee the organic growth of the company.

Service Methodology

My previous professional experience before I became into a business development expert are sales, finance, marketing and strategic and project management and the service methodology I use is first to analyze the company and its actual situation, the services/products that offers and the company’s needs and expectations both, in results and timing; then I analyze the market and finally I prepare the business development plan (BDP) for the first year.

All the information I need to analyze the company and i