Lately, Business development seems to be a trend. There are many terms, describing what is business development. Further to Mr Scott Pollack’s article published in Forbes, I finally got myself agree with someone! Thank you, Mr Pollack and yes its all about creating a long term value.
Business Development (BD) is NOT about sales, it is all about creating a long term value between the company and the client. I will go a step further and add to the following article of Mr Pollack, that its all about creating a culture within the company of “authentic care” for the customers. We don’t sell them products, thinking how much money we will earn but we provide them services /products that will make people lives better. As I have described in many articles and video, one important factor is the ability to adjust. We adjust our strategy based on people’s needs, therefore our business development strategy. If a company does not have BD strategy? Then, thats not good isn’t it? Because how we will serve our clients, if we don’t their needs? If we don’t know the client and see him/her as a human being? People are not numbers, although we are getting there in some cases unfortunately.
When my team was approached for developing or creating companies’ Business Development strategy, I must say that there were many times, that I turn down their proposals. Why? Definitely it wasn’t because, I didn’t want the clients, but simply I couldn’t see the value offered to people, and the most important was that the company couldn’t understand that. We need to cultivate the culture of “we love and respect our customers, truly”, in order to apply an efficient business development plan.
When we have the same alignment with companies, then our strategy is guaranteed! Either we are working with a company or individual with a person. Nowadays, everyone needs BD even if you are self employed, its similar being an “agent” for artists.
“Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.
There is elegance in simplicity, but perhaps this definition leaves you wanting more. At its heart, business development is all about figuring out how the interactions of those forces combine together to create opportunities for growth. But a theorem requires a proper proof, so let’s break that statement down:
Long-Term Value
First, what do I mean by “long-term value?” In its simplest form, “value” is cash, money, the lifeblood of any business (but it can also be access, prestige, or anything else a company seeks in order to grow). And there are plenty of ways to make a quick buck for you or your company. But business development is not about get-rich-quick schemes and I-win-you-lose tactics that create value that’s gone tomorrow as easily as it came today. It’s about creating opportunities for that value to persist over the long-term, to keep the floodgates open so that value can flow indefinitely. Thinking about business development as a means to creating long-term value is the only true way to succeed in consistently growing an organization.” S.P.
In my companies, we treat our clients’ the same way that we want to be treated with respect, love and our best performance. That is a not discussable rule in Nadia Themis corporations.
Business Development strategy is Successful, when a client keeps coming back for more!
Thank you
Nadia Themis
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