Business Development can be described as “The activity of pursuing strategic opportunities for a particular business or organization, for example by cultivating partnerships or other commercial relationships, or identifying new markets for its products or services.”-Dictionary
“In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives, and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions.”-Investopedia
A person in the business development role works to grow a company’s profits by attracting new customers and by increasing the spend of existing customers. Additional tasks may be:
-Client research for pitching and presenting to target audience
-Planning & Proposal Writing
-Generating Leads for increased sales
-Sales Follow-up and maintaining customer relationships by providing a superior customer experience
When developing your marketing strategy, it should be inclusive of “Push & Pull” strategies.
A Push Strategy can be described as “A promotional strategy where businesses attempt to take their products to the customers. The term push stems from the idea that marketers are attempting to push their products at consumers.”-Small Business Chronicle The goal is to bring what you offer to customers in your marketing. Social media channels are considered to be “push” sources because they’re great for launching new or niche products. This could include email marketing, social media marketing, and targeted ads. Another example would use of a landing page with a call to action within it.
A Pull Strategy focuses on getting the customers to come to you, where marketers are attempting to pull customers in. Common sales tactics used for pull marketing include mass media promotions, word-of-mouth referrals, and advertised sales promotions. From a business perspective, pull marketing attempts to create brand loyalty and keep customers coming back, whereas push marketing is more concerned with short-term sales. Pull marketing is best for when you want to draw consumers to your product or service. According to Hubspot, “To decide which method best fits your business, think about how you want to approach consumers. If you are trying to get the word out about your business, a push strategy will most likely be the way to go. If you’re a marketer building brand buzz in your market — perhaps about a specific product or service — pull would probably be best.” Push and pull can also work together. Customers need a push for demand to be created and a pull to satisfy that demand.
In summary, as a consultant, you will need to start with an effective business development strategy that includes you having identified your target audience and a method for presenting and following up with that audience. When incorporating online marketing inclusive of social media, email, ads, etc., implementation of an active push and pull marketing strategy should be used to support the development and growth of your business.