Business Development Planning What is Business Development
The role of “Business Development” is a mix between a pure “sales” role and that of a Public Relations Officer and a Key Client Manager. Each organisation will set different objectives of its business development staff that may include some of the following tangible and non-tangible goals: Achieve product or service sales Prospect for new clients Initiate direct marketing campaigns Participate in relevant community activities Maintain and develop relationships with existing key clients Be active in business network groups Offer public speaking services Initiate sales calls including cold calling High level communication skills and good planning skills are essential in business development.

Business Development Targets
The business development function, like any other department, should have clear targets on what is meant to be achieved. A component of these targets may be a sales budget that outlines what the expectations are for the next year’s sales. The sales budget can be developed top down (last years results plus anticipated changes) or developed bottom up by the sales department (identifying this years opportunities). There are a number of ways to achieve increased sales targets: increase sales from existing customers find new customers for your product increase cross-selling ie existing customers take a wider range of products launch a new product (or product extension) to new and existing clients. Other targets may also exist that set objectives for other aspects of the function eg key client satisfaction results key client attendance at promotional events cross selling ratios successful participation in specific events referrals due to participation in events direct marketing response rates qualitative measurement of participation in events eg satisfaction ratings at public speaking events