The changing face of business development
We are all aware of the massive changes that businesses have had to go through in the past year since the Covid-19 lockdowns began – with changes in working, marketing, sales and business practices.
It is likely that in the science, technology and engineering sector some of these changes are here for good, even once the working restrictions are lifted.
However, these changes are not often reflected in the job descriptions and marketing approach to business development roles. With a changing business environment, surely business development should be evolving accordingly?
Then and now
In the past for those working in business development, their day rotated around a sea of face-to-face meetings, with most business carried out through targeted networking and face-to-face events such as annual conferences.
This method of working could be targeted for precisely the industry leaders your business needed to meet but were often restricted by time and location.
Today, however, working practices are different with all these networking events and sales meetings moving online. This can mean that location is no longer a factor which can expand the number of people who you can meet and network with on a weekly basis.
Is your business development team equipped to adapt to selling in the virtual conference room or social media, without falling into the aggressive pitfalls of the hard sell?
Working remotely means that it is more important than ever to be highly organised themselves at handling more (online) meetings in a day and to be excellent at filling in the details promptly on the CRM. Anyone who has worked in or with sales teams know that these are often the most challenging activities to enforce.
Crossed industries
Working online means that it is potentially easier to access people who in the past were hard to meet – perhaps from other industries that you hadn’t previously considered.
This is especially relevant in a world where there emerging technology breakthroughs are converging and crossing sectors. The new breed of business development role may need to have much more cross-sector experience, or at least see the wider picture to spot the opportunity in an area outside of their immediate expertise.
Business development skills needed now
This new way of working means the role is changing. Reliance on traditional sales skills is not sufficient for the modern business development executive.
They also need to be better organised, online literate, able to see the bigger picture and identify how opportunities from unusual quarters can be beneficial to business growth and be able to act on it.
If you would like to speak with Priddey Marketing about improving business development techniques give us a call today on +44 1235 606077, or fill in our contact form.