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As a Business development Professionals you will be required to develop and evaluate the performance of the organizations and look for areas of improvement. Your focus should be on building and maintaining relationships with associates and partners, as well as identifying opportunities for growth in other channels. Moreover, the process of business development involves implementing strategies and opportunities to promote growth and increase revenue.
Roles and Responsibilities as a Business Development Manager
Even though Business Development roles and responsibilities may change over time and as per technological advancements, some of the job roles include –
- As business development professional you will be required to review and qualify leads.
- You will also be required to identify and communicate with prospects.
- Also, you will be required to proactively look for new business opportunities.
- As a working professional you will be required to stay up-to-date with the latest market trends.
Let us hear from Ms Karuna Kochar who has over 15 years of experience in the Business Development area. She has also been a TEDx Speaker, a published author and a Youth mentor.
Q1. How has your experience been in the business development domain?
Answer: There has been a lot of change in business development since I started working. I believe I was in the middle of the transition between how it was and how it is today. Previously, it used to be just about sales. You just needed to pick up the phone, call your prospects, set up a meeting, meet up with the person and close the deal. However, today we can reach people across the globe and business Development itself has segregated into different regions like sales, development of partners, branding, and marketing.
My career course has been extremely varied. I have worked in the domestic market, recruitment, retail, in a bank in Australia, entrepreneur where I learnt Business Development in the local market. It has been an interesting journey since it helped me to understand how each market works.
Q2. Business Development depends a lot on building strong relationships. What is the most important skill in building relationships?
Answer: When we are Business Development people, there are two things to remember, VALUE and people don’t buy products, people buy from other people. Today anything and everything has multiple options so as a Business Development person, what you bring to the table also matters apart from your product. Hence, it’s important to make sure the person needs to like you before the person can buy the product you want to sell.
Q3. What are the most important soft skills when working on basic psychology to help connect better with the stakeholders?
Answer: Communication skills are very important. But along with it, communicating at the right time is equally important. If you are still writing long emails, or still drafting long introductions for yourself, you might fall on your face. You need to be concise and communicative and focus on how much can you tell in how little time. You should be able to introduce yourself in 30 seconds. You should be able to tell the person why they need to buy from you in just 3 basic points.
Q3. How important is customer research when it comes to business development?
Answer: It is extremely important. You cannot just go unprepared to sell your product. You need to understand the customer before trying to determine if they want your product. Today, thanks to Google, it is a matter of minutes to understand the entire history and presence of any organisation. If you know 5 things about an organisation, you can always have better conversations. So, make sure to list these 5 things before taking the conversation further.
Q4. We must keep up with technology or we will lose our relevance. How true it is in the field of Business Development?
Answer: It is very important. Especially with the pandemic, dependency on technology has shot up. Previously, it was okay if you were not tech-savvy, as long as your other skills are up to the mark. But now, it is not true. Today you need to be comfortable with technology and understand what is currently happening in the world or else you might lose the edge that other people might have. So it is good to upgrade yourself and stay up to date. keep understanding up to date. you at least need the basics right.
Q5. What is your opinion about the Digitalization of business development and what steps should be taken towards it?
Answer: Business Development is more about personal relationships, one way to build them is through your digital world. It’s the easiest and fastest. If I have to fix up a meeting with someone far away from me, it’s as easy as reaching out on Linkedin or emailing them. However, that is only the first step. It’s only what happens after that that matters. Digitisation can only give you access to the room, but your personality is what will keep you in the room. Hence, digitisation is great, but don’t rely completely on it.
Q6. Today, companies are using various tools for business development. Also, new tools are constantly coming up in the market. What tools does one need to be successful in business development?
Answer: There are multiple ways to get your work done. The competition will keep increasing and more CRM tools will come in. Personally, I still work using salesforce even though there are multiple new tools available now. It totally depends on which company and what time finds what is relevant. The tools are just a means to gather information. It helps put it in a better format. They are all fairly simple to use and make the work lot easier to manage.
Q7. Networking changed a lot over the last few years. What according to you are the Pros and Cons of Online Networking?
Answer: First of all, It makes meeting people easier. If you have a decent background and people on LinkedIn it’s easy to get a conversation with them. However, the cons are that you can completely lie and people still believe what they see in your profile and vice versa. Also, there’s nothing like a personal meeting. The screen takes away 30-40% of your personality that you can show in real life. So even though the online world is really beneficial and attractive, it can never replace the power of meeting someone face-to-face.
Q8. What are the key strategies that companies or executives in business development should focus on for success?
Answer: We are done and dusted with being salespeople. No more calling up and closing deals. Now, it’s time we start asking more questions and start understanding what the other person needs. The best word to use is value setting. We have stopped having conversations. We are scared that the other person will say NO to us. We need to take a step back to understand people by asking relevant questions, getting the right answers and then pitching for a sale. We are too scared and nervous. We are scared that if we ask questions to this person, they might hang up. It doesn’t work that way anymore.
Q9. How do the new developments align with the business development and marketing initiatives in an organisation?
Answer: Off late, Business Development has branched out into so many different things like marketing, branding, sales, and networking but at the end of the day, it should head down to one thing, making sure your marketing and your Business Development work hand in hand. This is the gap that I notice in the market now. Marketing develops the entire go-to-market strategy and the Business Development team has its own strategy. A successful company will always put branding and Business Development all in one line. Achieving this is not easy because usually marketing and Business Development have a kind of soft-ego fight between themselves. There is always an unsaid competition. However, if a company tries to weave marketing, branding and Business Development into one and make sure that the marketing department is sending out a pitch in the market and the Business Development team is following the same pitch, your effectiveness should be four-fold.
Q10. What are the key skills one needs to be a successful business development professional?
Answer: It is very important to work on yourself. There is no easy replacement for personality. So focus on developing your personality. Make sure you are confident. Believe in your product. You can’t sell if you do not believe in it. Make sure u understand it well before you can sell it. Communication skills also play an important role. Know that talking jargon and big words do not make u seem intellectual. Talking simply will get your message across more effectively.
Q11. What advice would you give to aspirants who wish to join this field?
Answer: Invest in yourself and figure out if you really want to do this. Also, if in case you are an introvert, do not let that affect your decisions. You can be successful in business development by being an introvert. Listening also is a very important quality. make sure you develop it. Focus more on listening than on talking. Lastly, business development is an extremely competitive field. It is very easy to lose focus and give up. However, if you know for sure that this is where you want to make your career, then never give up. Don’t let the world determine whether you can do this or not. You decide what you want to do by yourself.
