Business Development – Why the Focus?

February 7, 2012

Business development… more than just a marketing plan

If you seek marketing advice from a consultancy and their only suggestions involve advertising and promotions, i.e. spending, spending, spending (above-the-line marketing), walk out the door. Any marketing consultancy worth their salt, will suggest business development strategy as a leading priority…

Think about it – there’s no point having the slickest branding; hilarious advertising, and attention grabbing promotions if there’s no conversion, nor repeat business. It’s like putting on a concert at a vacant stadium. The exercise is redundant.

Business development involves attracting customers, making them clients for life, and having them sell your business for you. It involves firstly having a strategic marketing plan in place to attract the business, and then having sales processes in place to grow the business.

As a most basic example, how frustrating is it to check out a new restaurant that’s been all over the media (advertising, publicity, promo deals) only to then be disappointed by its service, and/or given no further incentive to return?  You don’t want this disappointment experienced in your business. You want a purchase, you want ongoing engagement, and, you want them to rave about you to everyone they know.

And that’s what Business development is. It’s growing your business. A strategic marketing plan creates leads for the business development process to convert to new sales resulting in growth for your company.

At Marketplace we don’t just give you a marketing plan and leave you to it. We look at what’s going on behind the scenes, we look at what happens during the sales process, and we look at what you do to convert the lead. Then, we give you the methodology to improve all three (i.e. a 90 day comprehensive business development plan) to ensure maximum business growth.

Remember: marketing creates opportunities. Business development converts the opportunity to new business for your company.

If you want to know more, get in touch. Let’s get started.