The progress of any business should not stop at a fancy website and a few regular clients. The question is if you are not developing your business, then who is…the answer unfortunately is no one!

Business development should be part of the business owner’s regular agenda. It is an important task that is so often ignored. No business can survive by being stagnant; new developments emerge every day in all industries and any business that snoozes is bound to lose out.

So what do you need to do to make sure your business is continually at the cutting edge of your industry? How do you penetrate the existing market and keep attracting customers to your business? How do you keep abreast of your customer needs and keep your business relevant to its external environment?

5 Steps you need to consider for Business Development

Keep Abreast of Industry News

Products and services change daily and so does the needs of your customers. You need to keep abreast of industry news in your niche areas. This will allow you to know how to adapt and present your products to the ever-changing demand of your clients. As technology continues to advance, so does people’s requirement, everyone wants things faster, better, compact, easier, cheaper and a lot quicker.

Assess your Products Regularly

It is important that you analyse your product line on a regular basis. For example, if you have 6 products in the market place, you need to identify which of them equates to Stars, Questions Marks, Cash Cows or Dogs, a model based on the BCG Growth Share Matrix.

Stars – a cash generating product that needs constant investment to stay ahead of competitors. Cash Cows – products that generate high profit with minimal investment Dogs – a bit of a slow coach that ties up capital in a mature market Question Mark – inability to dominate its market makes it an uncertain product which could fail or succeed.

Analysing your products helps you identify the ones you need to redevelop, adapt or discontinue. This process needs to be carried out on a regular basis to ensure the business invests its funds in products where return is likely expected.

Watch the Competition

The competition is always watching and you should do the same. You may not always catch up with the latest trend in your niche market but keeping an eye on your competitors business’ actions will help. It is worthwhile to join forum or groups in your industry where information is shared and exchanged. You can also attend networking meeting where you can meet other people in your industry to raise business concerns and learn about new developments.

Take Stock of Business Activities

To keep your business profitable you should take stock of your business activities.

Is your marketing strategy working? Are you just distributing leaflets on a regular basis or engage in email marketing daily without checking on the results. If your client base is not increasing then you might need to change your strategies.

How many new customers do you gain every month? Is it increasing or reducing at a particular time of the year? Your business might be seasonal which implies you may have to concentrate your efforts and marketing tactics on your best season or introduce other products to your product line.

Keep in Touch with Your Customers

Your customers are your main asset and you need to understand their needs to make sure you give them what they want.

A lot of businesses keep doing what they know to do whether the number of their customer increase or not. Good patronage is a good indicator of the benefits your products provides. Make sure you get feedback from your clients about your products and services. You can also send surveys to your customers so you can gauge the effectiveness of your service.

It is no secret that business development experts are really geniuses at not letting everyone in on their secrets of creating quality business plans. One will agree that is makes sense not share the secrets of your trade, particularly when you are making a lot of money off it. Thankfully, being able to come up with a good professional development plan is not a hard or impossible task.

Here are a couple of reasons why business development experts do not want to share everything:
• They want to continue making money off you
• They do not want you to know that they do not have a technology advantage over you
• They want to still remain relevant in the business

Here are 9 secrets that business development experts don’t want you to know

1. Anyone can create a business development plan
All you need to do is state your business and personal goals on paper and this will serve as your roadmap – giving you a sense of direction. You do not have to even attend college in order to create a great business plan.

2. Identifying a feasible market sector for your product/service is key
You want to go into business in order to turn a profit, but if no one buys your product or service what is the point of going into business? In a good business plan, you will clearly explain why people need the product and or service that you are providing.

3. Research is easy
Most people think that carrying out research for professional development is very difficult. Thanks, to the internet you can get information from the comfort of your home. You can also get resource material from the local bookshop or library.

4. Business plans can be written in plain simple English
Many business development experts do not want you to know that you do not need to use big words in order to create a winning business plan.

5. Finding out your monetary needs is important
Entrepreneurs need to know the cost of keeping their company in business.

6. Always pay attention to the tiniest detail
Professional development experts always present business plans that clearly have well dotted i’s a crossed t’s.

7. Taking advantage of a negotiating tool will give you an edge
Taking advantage of negotiating tools will give entrepreneurs an edge over their competition and make it possible to attract funds on their own terms as opposed to their financial backer’s terms.

8. Selling yourself is also part of creating a winning business development plan
In order to raise funds to get your business started, you will also need to come up with a strong marketing plan to sell yourself and your company to financial backers.

9. There are free tools on the internet
You can get really good business development tools on the internet for FREE!

So you see; you can also create a professional development plan all by yourself.

Most successful business executives or those in the marketing field choose to update their skills from time to time, using the latest practices to help draw in new clients and interest to the business. One method of learning these latest skills and techniques would be to attend a Business Development Certification course, which is offered completely online for the maximum level of convenience. This is an ideal course for anyone in the public relations, sales, or marketing fields, who need to learn more about how they can improve their personal business development strategies in an ever-changing market.

One factor that will be included in any Business Development Certification course is the topic of client management. This is something that is not always covered in more basic business courses, but is extremely important in the context of maintaining client relationships and growing these along with your other business practices. The topics of business development planning and execution also figure prominently into this. The power of persuasion is important to cover, so that you know how to steer client and public opinion in the right direction.

Much of this information will be covered in other business and communications courses, but the difference with a Business Development Certification is that you will then have more tightly refined levels of expertise. This is also a credential that you can put onto your business cards and resumes, which will help you stand out from the competition. With a deeper knowledge of authority positioning, you can feel better equipped to handle team members and all levels of management, while growing your company. These communication and leadership skills are considered to be essential building blocks of any successful business plan, and will be covered in depth in this type of course.

With a stronger feel for how networking works, participants of a Business Development Certification course can improve the way that they are able to market their products, sell their business, and grow their client base. These main focuses are meant to help you learn how to develop and implement strategy at any level of business. With such a competitive current marketplace, it’s vital to find new ways to stand out from the crowd. This type of certification is one good way to be sure that you are doing everything in your power to grow your business and develop it with a clearheaded strategy.

Gaining an edge in today’s business world requires a combination of different skills, networking ability, and confidence. Whether you are new to the game or wish to brush up on the latest knowledge that is available out there today, you may wish to look into the various business development certifications that could help you launch your career. The subject matter covered in this type of course is relevant to anyone in sales, marketing, public relations, or business development, and could be applied both to business and non-profit ventures. The key is to first identify what skills you already possess, and what you could use some work on.

With that information in mind, you can then compare and contrast various programs that offer business development certifications. Some are oriented specifically for beginners, while others will give even a seasoned professional something new to think about. A major focus of business development is learning how to get organized, so that you can implement new strategies in the most effective manner possible. Leadership and communications skills are also extremely important for anyone in the world of sales and marketing, as you will be required to convey your business’s strengths to others on a daily basis. This includes the use of new media as well as traditional oral and written communication factors.

There are online business development certifications which make the entire process of earning your new credentials easy, as you can fit this into your own personal schedule. One reason that many people state for not going back to school is that they don’t have the time to make this happen. However, these certifications can be earned in a matter of months, without having to worry about commuting time, and can be completed on your lunch breaks, weekends, or whenever else you may have some free time.

Learning how to maintain a business relationship once you’ve cultivated it is another important component of any business development certifications training program. Follow up is everything in business, and no matter how good you are at capturing initial interest, this won’t be worth anything if you aren’t then able to also hold on to your clients for future business interests. That includes learning how to satisfy them with marketing efforts, and to make clients feel like they are a part of the business’s growth and development as well. All of these topics should be covered in any worthwhile development course.

In today’s business world, it’s no longer enough just to have a good idea. You then need to be able to have the skills and current working knowledge of the marketplace to put this idea into practice and help develop your plan. One way to gain the type of skills that are necessary to do this is by obtaining business development certifications. These are short term programs that give you an intensive focus on the types of marketable job skills that you need, particularly for marketing and public relations practices.

One of the most important skills that a person can have is that of organization. Many people underestimate just how important it really is to be able to organize your clients, business responsibilities, and personal calendar, and how this plays into business development. Any course that leads to official business development certifications will delve deeper into this topic, to give people a better idea of how to make their time work out in a more productive and efficient manner. Management techniques and leadership skills are also vital, even for the introverted. Communicating effectively with your employees at any level of management is important for the organization as a whole.

Another facet of communication that will play into effective business development certifications is how to communicate with your clients. Keeping a pipeline of clients and learning how to hold their interest for ultimate customer satisfaction is the difference between those companies that offer a good service but are only moderately successful, and those that offer a moderately useful service but are extremely successful. While attracting client interest in the first place is a clearly important component of developing your business model, you will then also need to learn those tactics that will keep your clients interested and will ensure that they return for more business down the line.

Added to this is the need to learn about strategic marketing practices. Even if you are not working in the marketing department at your job, if you are involved in public relations or sales practices at all, this will be a topic that comes up. With new advancements in technology and internet marketing tools, if you don’t’ have a current set of knowledge you may be left behind by competitors. For this reason, new marketing techniques and development strategies will also be covered in any business development certifications courses that you might take part in.

Business development coaching is a service which offers business leaders a chance to analyse and reflect upon their own business practices and to set targets and take action to achieve success as a result of the findings made. Business coaching can therefore be described as a process that facilitates learning and development within business and thus has the potential to improve performance. Consequently, the aim of business coaching is to enable entrepreneurs to reach their full potential.

Business development coaching explores the requirements, motivations, skills, desires, and opinions of business leaders to assist them in making a lasting and fulfilling change to their business. Business coaching uses questioning techniques to aid an individual’s own thought processes. The purpose of this is to enable the individual to conjure up solutions and possible actions by themselves, for the good of their business.

Business coaching involves the creative application of a range of tools and techniques, including one-to-one and group training. Business coaches aid individuals in evaluating the outcome of business development training through objective measures. This allows clients to assess their achievements.

In order to carry out their role effectively, business coaches require a sound knowledge and understanding of reflecting and analysing business practice and the skills and techniques needed to set targets and reach them. Business coaches do not typically possess direct knowledge and experience of their client’s own role within a business. However, skills-focused coaches are likely to have prior experience of working in a similar role to that of the clients that they work with.

Organisation development and the requirement to provide employees with the guidance they require to change roles in the workplace often inspire companies to take advantage of business coaching. In the past, business coaching was typically considered to be for business leaders only. However, it is now considered a highly regarded professional and personal development tool for all.

Coaching programmes for business can enhance morale, productivity and motivation. In addition, business development training has been proven to reduce staff turnover throughout organisational change. Modern business coaching differs from traditional forms of training in that it is designed to suit the recipient’s personal needs and learning style. It fine tunes an individual’s existing skills and is able to focus on interpersonal skills which cannot be easily transferred during traditional training.

In order for business development coaching to be at its most effective, a business leader is first required to determine the type of coaching services they require – be it specialist or general coaching – before enlisting professional help. While business development coaching is popular with organisations, an increase has been seen in the number of individuals seeking private coaching. Some recipients of private coaching seek career change while others desire to maximise their potential within their existing company or to improve the equilibrium of their work and home lives.

There are a lot of factors that actually influence professional development. Sadly, there are also a lot of myths that surround being self employed. Gathering the facts about starting your own business before you even draw up your business development plan can assist you in facing up to the challenges that may come your way.

Here are some of the facts and myths about business development:

Myth: Not everyone can become business owners because business owners have very special traits that will make them succeed in business.

Fact: Some people believe that they do not have the trait to own a business – anyone can own a business! There is certainly no magical potion that you will need to take in order to get the “special trait” that business owners supposedly have. The two things that business owners have in common is that they work hard and they are persistent.

A lot of people launch their own businesses because they feel that they are not doing what they should be doing, career wise. They simply create their own professional development because the conventional labor market does not suit them.

Myth: Just create a great product and the money will just roll in

Fact: This is the biggest mistake that a lot of upcoming business owners make in their business development plan. It is important that one carry out a research on the market demand for the product that they plan to sell before they launch it into the market. One needs to understand that no matter how awesome their product is, if they do not get the support of the market, their business will be doomed to crash and burn. It is impossible to attain professional development when you only get to sell your products to immediate family members and a few friends.

Myth: Small business owners take extreme risks

Fact: Smart business owners know how to minimize and manage risks. They also clearly understand that the assured-for-life, secure corporate jobs are virtually non-existent in the labor market today. A lot of small businesses are financed through personal funds, family, friends, second mortgages, small business loans and credit cards.

Myth: Having a good website will boost your sales

Fact: Just having website is not enough. You will need to ensure that people actually know that your website exists. More and more websites are launched online every single day, so you will need to ensure that your site is easily located by your target audience. You will need to include good internet marketing tools in your business development plan in order to get your target market to visit your site to know more about your product and services.

Myth: There are loads of business owners with convincing overnight achievement stories

Fact: Though success in business may seem to be instantaneous from an outsider’s POV (point of view). But strategic planning (and other important factors) is the key to professional development. Business owners have done the research and know that they have to work extra hard in order to succeed in their business venture.

Do you even know what business development is? Don’t knock it until you understand it. And I’m also addressing sales professionals as well, who perceive the business development process as synonymous with the sales cycle. It isn’t.

Business development involves understanding your current and potential markets, the customers within these markets, and developing products and deliverables to meet their needs. Business development is about how well you know your customers, their mindset, and context in which they make decisions. The sales cycle occurs somewhere in the middle, nearing the end, of the business development process. And it doesn’t happen unless you’ve developed a business case for a solution.

Business development takes time and a lot of data. Some qualitative. Some quantitative. Some technical. Some non-technical. It takes dialogue, using those not-so-soft skills, to establish the context for the need for solution placement. It takes dialogue to establish the historical and cultural context which generated the problem for which your client is seeking a solution. It takes understanding and appreciation of the people involved in the equation. Timing is all-important as well. And timing may not be so much a focus on your ability to design and deliver the solution as much as it involves the time it takes for your customers and prospects to make that all-important decision to do business with you.

So where do you fit into this equation? Are you an order-taker anxious to rush off to the lab or cubicle and “fix” things and design a solution that appears to fit your client’s needs? Are you an order-taker who is anxious to rush the sale so you can fulfill your quarterly quota? After all, selling them anything is better than selling them nothing. Yeah, right, you guess. Are you an implementer with a bit more patience to listen to customers, and a bit more technical acumen to gather data and establish the background for why your client or prospect has that need? Will your patience wear thin once you drag your prospect’s feet over the coals one more time, get them to admit that pain point, so you can pounce all over them with your solution which you feel is so very critical for them to place? (Hint: you are a more patient version of the order-taker and what you feel is important really is not that important to your customer).

Do you enjoy the collaborative potential of the relationship you are building with your clients and prospects? Are you on the same page? Do you easily communicate both technically and non-technically? Do your conversations uncover larger contexts in which longer term solutions need to be created? Are there flickers of innovative thinking involved? Are you fascinated by these conversations, learning as much from your clients and prospects as they, in turn, receive from their perceived value in doing business with you?

Regardless of whether you are a technical or non-technical professional, it’s all about your ability to participate in all aspects of the business development cycle. There is a lot of data and analysis that goes into the business development cycle. Are you comfortable researching, reading and interpreting data? Are you confident in presenting your findings and facilitating round table discussion?

News flash: no one comes out of engineering or business school with the full package. Somewhere along the line individuals decide to stop waiting for someone to throw them a life line. They fine tune their expertise, cross train and self-direct their careers. Business development for technical professionals. Somehow, this is not an illogical or counterintuitive concept for me. Who better to be the stewards of a new sales paradigm than the folks best able to gather and interpret the data, deliver their findings in an objective manner and innovate?

Think about it. Did I just describe you?

The private labeled bottled water industry is exciting with tremendous growth opportunities and the ability for suppliers to offer their customers and strategic partners creative, effective advertising solutions.

But like any business, care is required to develop the business in a profitable way and the best way to do this is to establish a focused business development effort that utilizes the tools and techniques established by successful business.

The first step is to define the concept “business development”.

Definition:

Business development “includes a number of techniques designed to grow an economic enterprise. Such techniques include, but are not limited to, assessments of marketing opportunities and target markets, intelligence gathering on customers and competitors, generating leads for possible sales, follow up sales activity, formal proposal writing and business model design.

Business development involves evaluating a business and then realizing its full potential, using such tools as marketing, sales, information management and customer service. For a sound company able to withstand competitors, business development never stops but is an ongoing process.” (source: Wikipedia)

From this definition it is clear that business development is more than closing the sale and each technique requires detailed planning and follow up.

Using the concepts of business development, it is possible to establish a profitable private label water business but it takes considerable initial and continuing effort.

The following case study involve a fictional Bottled Water company that entered the private labeled bottled water business. For discussion purposes it will be called ABC bottler (“ABC”)

Unique Value Proposition:

An initial challenge is the development of a Unique Value Proposition that answers the question “Why should I buy from you”.

After a review of the market and the competition it was determined that private labeled bottled water was a powerful, cost effective, advertising vehicle but because a customer’s brand was affected, high product quality and customer service was required. ABC’s Unique Value Proposition was established and stated:

“ABC will provide powerful and cost effective advertising and brand promotion for its customers based upon the highest quality consumable private label water, label design and customer service.”

Marketing and Target Markets:

Field and internet research was conducted with the basic question being: What are the characteristics of industries are most likely to use our product at a price that is profitable to us. Key characteristics were developed:

Prospects that provide a quality product or service. Industries operating in a competitive market environment where product/service differentiation was critical. Prospects that required drinking water for customers, clients or prospects. Prospects that maintained a quality brand image. Initial research indicated that the following industries were initially high potential targets:

Hospitality (Hotels and Spas) Banking Mortgage Brokers Real Estate Ski Resorts

Sales Channels and Market Access:

It was decided that two channels would be used to go to market – direct selling and e-commerce. An e-commerce site was developed that allowed customers to design their own label for the bottles or provide an existing design consistent with the customer brand strategy. Search Engine Marketing and Optimization techniques were used to promote this channel.

A direct sales staff was formed to develop and close sales opportunities and these efforts were supported by a direct mail campaign and networking with local chambers of commerce, local trade associations and lead sharing groups.

The sales effort, after a series of initial false starts and disappointments matured successfully as we reviewed and revised the fine points of our effort.

Product Quality and Customer Service:

ABC’s corporate strategy for all products was to stay at the high end of the market and this was particularly true for private label bottled water where the market is characterized by cutthroat competition and many low quality vendors who are slashing prices and selling on price rather than quality.

ABC focused on three areas of quality:

Water purity – ABC used a steam distillation/ozonation process that guaranteed 99.9% pure water that tasted delicious. Label Design Quality – ABC used an in house professional designer to guarantee label design quality. Label Print Quality – ABC used laminated label stock that was extremely durable and water proof and used digital or flexo printing technology to guarantee quality.

Customer service was particularly important as ABC established a reputation for delivering on time and correctly. If mistakes occurred, and they did, ABC adopted a no questions asked guarantee. ABC established a reputation as a reliable vendor for its customers.

If you are starting your own business it is important to come up with a business development plan. You might just sit in front of your computer for hours without having a clue as to how to write a business plan. Don’t sweat it, you are not the only one to have faced this challenge.

Here are 10 easy steps to take towards putting together a professional development plan.

Step 1: Determine Why You are Writing a Business Plan
Prepare a short paragraph that explains the reasons why you are creating a business plan and the reasons why the business plan will be awesome. Are you trying to raise funds? Starting a new business? Strategizing to annihilate the competition? Looking for strategic partners? Whatever your reason, please know that it is vital that you are committed to writing your business plan.

Step 2: Get a Sample of a Business Plan
Go to your local bookstore or library, or simply browse the internet for resource materials. Find out how a professional development plan looks like, what it is and what it is not. Prepare an outline which will include the key sections and sub-sections that you will want to appear in your business plan.

Step 3: Gather all The Information you will Need
Look through the files in your computer, filing cabinet, storage boxes and even your phone in order to get all the information you will need concerning the business you want to start. You should also consider press releases, marketing pieces, related articles, past financial statements, industry journals, vital notes and websites or ideas that have been gathered over time.

Step 4: Put Down your Thoughts
This perhaps, might be the best part of writing a business development plan. Type out your ideas, thoughts, questions and list of things you need to do into every section of your professional development plan.

Step 5: Create a Rough Draft
This is the part where all your thoughts and ideas begin to take shape. Simply move through the whole outline, section after section. Start a Business Development Plan To-Do List in order to keep close track of the topics that will need detailed research, back-up information or statistics. Print out a copy after you are done and go over it a couple of time and making revisions as you go.

Step 6: Do your Research
Carryout research and get solid information to support the claims that you have made in your business plan.

Step 7: Think Numbers
Start preparing your financial statements. If you state a specific marketing system in your business plan’s marketing section, you should include the corresponding expenses in the financials.

Step 8: Create a final draft
Most times finishing can be the most difficult part of completing a professional development plan. Double check your draft for spelling and grammar errors.

Step 9: Set a timeline
In order to ensure that you complete your business development plan, ensure that you set a timeline that you will not be able to ignore. Make an arrangement with a person whom you are not pretty close with, if possible, a professional acquaintance – this way, it would be more difficult and very uncomfortable for you to call and delay.

Step 10: Polish your professional development plan to excellence
The remarks you get from the people who have read your plan will help you improve the sections of your plan that will require attention. Search for any other information that you may require, include the ideas suggested by your readers and clarify points or sections that were not properly conveyed.