Write a business development plan
Now that you’re in the growth stage of your business, set things in motion with a business development plan.
A business development plan sets goals for growth and explains how you will achieve them. It can have a short-term or long-term focus. Review and revise your plan as often as you can. And keep building on it as your business evolves.
How to write a business development plan
Your business development plan is your roadmap to growth, so make it clear, specific and realistic.
What to include in a business development plan
- Opportunities for growth: Identify where growth will come from – whether it’s in creating new products, adding more services, breaking into new markets, or a combination of these.
- Funding plan: Determine how you’ll fund your business growth. How much capital do you already have? How much more do you need and how will you get it? Check out our guide on financing your business.
- Financial goals: Work out what revenue, costs and profits you’ll have if things stay the same. Use those numbers as a basis for setting new, more ambitious financial goals.
- Operational needs: Identify what things about your business will need to change in order to achieve growth. Will you need extra people, more equipment, or new suppliers?
- Sales and marketing activities: Figure out what sales and marketing efforts will effectively promote growth and how these efforts will change as the business gets bigger and better. Make sure your sales and marketing plan is sturdy enough to support your growing business.
- Team needs: You may need people to take on some of the tasks you’ve been doing. Think about what parts of running the business you enjoy most – and you’re good at – and what parts you might want to delegate to others. And give some thought to the culture you want to develop in your business as it grows. Check out our guide on hiring employees.
A sample business development plan
Avoid these common business development mistakes.
- Thinking short-term instead of long-term
- Underestimating how much money it will take to grow
- Not budgeting enough money to cover the costs of growth
- Focusing on too many growth opportunities: think quality, not quantity
Micro-planning can keep you focused
You may want to create some micro-plans for specific growth projects so their details don’t get overlooked. And you can build in some KPIs to measure your progress and successes. As your business grows, take note of your progress and make periodic adjustments to your business development plan to make sure it’s still relevant.
Support is out there
Remember you’re not the first to go through this. Seek out mentors, advisors or other business owners who can help you with your planning. Your accountant or bookkeeper may also be able to help or point you in the direction of the right people.
Xero does not provide accounting, tax, business or legal advice. This guide has been provided for information purposes only. You should consult your own professional advisors for advice directly relating to your business or before taking action in relation to any of the content provided.
Growing your business
Are you ready to drop the hammer and take your business to the next level? Let’s look at how to grow.
Before you leap into growth, reflect on where you’ve come from. Find out the stage of business growth you’re at.
Understanding your business performance will help you grow. Check out common examples of small business KPIs.
Increasing sales revenue is one obvious way to help grow your business. But how do you sell more?
You can grow your business by selling more things to more people, or fewer things to fewer people. Let’s look at how.
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Business Development Plan: What is it & How to Create a Perfect One?
As a business owner, you obviously want to expand your business and increase your network.
But the question is, how to get started on it?
It’s simple! A business development plan is the first step you need to take.
A business development plan is much more than a piece of document. It is what defines your current positioning and helps you devise and implement a strategic plan.
That, in turn, doesn’t just bring in sales, but also goodwill and long-term relations with your stakeholders.
Having a business development plan is like living a healthy lifestyle – it will only offer great things in return but it does demand a little effort and time.
Whereas, a business with no such plan is bound to misplace time, energy and suppress its growth.
So, let’s learn a little more about this business-altering plan. Have a seat because we’re in for a ride!
What is a Business Development Plan? (Definition)
A business development plan is a detailed strategic plan on how to develop your business by implementing various ideas, tactics, and strategies that assist a company in scale better in every sphere of the business. This business development plan is what defines your current positioning and helps you devise and implement a strategic plan to grow in the market.
Simply put, it is the development of long-term value that a firm enjoys from all of its stakeholders.
A business development plan is a guide to bring everyone in the organization on the same page and get them to work towards a common goal.
For your firm to not just be complacent and make big leaps in the industry, a business development plan is a must!
Now, let’s see how this development plan is beneficial for your firm…
How Creating a Business Development Plan is Beneficial?
1. helps a business boost sales.
Profitability is one of the key metrics to judge a business’s growth.
Devising a strong business development plan helps a business to understand the markets that are the most profitable and which plans need to be pursued first.
Business development plans also involve documenting your firm’s revenue model and all of its pros and cons.
This way, you can better assess what changes need to be made in your revenue model and what other streams can be added to it.
Read more: Business Letters: Definition, Types, Format, and Tips!
2. Presents Expansion Opportunities
Expansion into new markets is always a coveted opportunity for any business.
Business development is all about staying ahead of current trends and curating plans to make the expansion possible.
It’s this research that makes you better acquainted with the best target audiences and customers for your firm and thus paving way for entering new, undiscovered markets.
3. A Better Understanding of your Consumer
As discussed earlier, a good business development plan requires assessing a company’s key demographic and target markets.
It acts from a customer’s perspective so that the business can bring forward a solution to a problem large enough to make profits.
This way the focus turns to the “customer is king” model which works to promote loyalty among customers towards your brand.
4. Improves Company Image
When business development plans are created, it’s not only the customers that are analyzed but also the daily working of the firm.
A business developer can use this information and assimilate it into marketing campaigns.
By keeping potential customers in mind, a firm can address how they strive daily to help satisfy the needs of their customers.
This makes for a solidified marketing campaign.
Now that we know why a business development plan is so crucial, let’s get to creating one!
How to Create a Business Development Plan? Follow these Steps!
Step 1. revisit your vision.
When you started your business, you probably asked yourself the “Where do you see yourself a year from now?” question.
Well, the business development plan starts right there! This is the focal point for all your inspiration.
It defines what YOU want from your firm, and that’s why it’s necessary to think-free and dream high.
Do you want to have a certain amount of sales?
Do you want to win the best local business award?
Whatever it is. Start right here. Articulating what you think you need to reap from your business is where it all starts.
It’ll serve as a baseline to get your firm going and keep you motivated despite hardships.
Step 2. Assessing your Business
The next step is to evaluate your own business.
Conduct SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and what markets you can venture to.
Align these with your vision, check where you’re slacking and what you need to do to achieve your vision.
For example:
Acme, a beauty brand has the vision to become an international firm in the next two years. Let’s say that their strengths are:
- It resonates well with the customers.
- It is low cost and produces good profit margins.
Whereas their weaknesses are:
- Their marketing plans are not as effective as they need to be.
- Sales haven’t been picking off lately.
This way they can focus better on what needs to be tweaked and work towards attaining their vision.
Read more: Business Documents: Definition, Types, Benefits & Steps to Create Them!
Step 3. Define your Target Audience
“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”
Sums it all up, doesn’t it?
Without knowing your exact audience, there is no way to make it through in any industry.
A business development plan looks forward to deciphering this and assessing changing trends which helps you find the best-fit audience.
For more details on how you can identify your target audience, check out our blog:
(Linking our target audience blog here once it’s published online)
Step 4. Identify Competition
Knowing what other competitors offer will act as a great tool to understand how your business stands out.
Assess what pricing policies they use, what marketing campaigns they’ve undertaken, and what worked for them.
This way you can identify the best strategic moves for your business moving forward!
Read more: Business Report: What is it & How to Write it? (Steps & Format)
Step 5. Deliberate New Ideas
From the evaluation you’ve done so far, start setting priorities for what you think needs to change.
And then depending on those, start listing what all possible solutions could help solve them. Mention anything and everything you think would work.
For example: Let’s consider our previous example of Acme which was lacking on its marketing fronts. Now their possible solutions could be:
- Beginning a new marketing campaign.
- Hiring a campaign manager.
- Starting blogs or email marketing.
- Advertising in beauty magazines.
Thus, a firm can tackle all its issues by listing down every possible way to address them.
This brainstorming session may seem far-fetched but can lead you in the right direction and help you find the most accurate solution to your problems.
Step 6. Setting a Goal
Once you’ve devised a plan, it’s important to set dates.
For example: If you plan to begin a marketing campaign, make sure it gets started by a certain date and yields results by a certain date.
Only when you set smaller goals, you’ll be able to achieve your vision.
These goals will set you and the people in your firm into motion and serve as a reminder as to what’s expected of them.
Step 7. Assess your Business Plan
Although many firms overlook this part, it’s utterly crucial.
Now that you have implemented your plans and you’re ready to achieve your vision, it’s time to assess it.
Monitor the impacts and document all of it as you go, so when you get back to it a year from now, you’re more informed about what went wrong and what yielded shining results.
Read More: Reasons Why You Should Write a Business Plan!
Now you’ve not only created your development plan and assessed it, but you’ve also got ideas and insights into what you need to include in your next one!
Sounds like a concrete business documentation plan may require an even faster and smarter tool!
Well, it’s time for you to meet Bit.ai…
Bit.ai : The Ultimate Tool for Creating a Business Development Plan
We know that creating a business development plan is a complex task and it seems like it requires highly proficient documentation skills…
Well, let us break that bubble for you!
With Bit, you can make documentation fun and exciting and create the perfect business development plan for your business.
Working with Bit is very simple. With its integrated and interactive tools, it will take you much less time to create documents and you’ll get solid results too!
Don’t believe us? Check out some of its amazing features:
- Real-Time Collaboration: When working on a document as comprehensive as a business development plan, it’s obvious that you’ll be working with a team. At such times, it’s more important than ever to have a seamless collaboration experience! Bit facilitates exactly that with its real-time collaboration feature that lets you work on the same document together, comment to exchange ideas, and chat on the side.
- Fully Responsive Templates : Want to create an exciting development plan? Bit has you covered. With its fun and awesome templates that are fully responsive on every kind of device, you are bound to have an exhilarating experience!
- Sleek Editor: A business development plan is deemed to have corrections and require edits and thus a sleek editor like Bit’s would be a handy tool to allow interruption-free editing!
- Sharing and Permissions: A development plan is a vital plan for any business and only needs to be accessed by the right people. Bit supports features like document tracking, password protection, file access restrictions, etc. which help secure your document and lets you decide who gets to access it.
- Real-time Insights: With its trackable links, you can keep an eye on who viewed the plan, for how long, and more. Bit has you covered in offering accurate and powerful insights!
- Smart Workspaces: When working with multiple teams, it’s important that everything is as organized as possible. Bit’s smart Workspaces helps you do just that! Not only can you efficiently work with different departments and teams, but you can also store information of varied kinds in a neat manner.
- Content Library: Bit has a powerful content library that you can use to save and access all your images, videos, and other digital content you might need in your business development plan.
- Rich Media Integration: One of the ways to make your development plan more comprehendible and accessible is to make it interactive. Bit lets you do that! You can add videos, social media posts, music, cloud files, presentations, maps, charts, surveys/polls – basically every kind of rich media in your Bit doc.
- Client Portal: Bit provides a smooth experience for your team and clients to review your business development plans. All you need to do is invite clients into your workspaces by giving them ‘guest access’. The ‘guests’ aka your clients can get two types of access to the documents: comment-only and read-only.
Trust us when we say that no documentation tool out there is as robust as Bit. It even offers a free account for up to 5 users and we think you should absolutely give it a try!
Our team at bit.ai has created a few awesome business templates to make your business processes more efficient. Make sure to check them out before you go, y our team might need them!
- SWOT Analysis Template
- Business Proposal Template
- Business Plan Template
- Competitor Research Template
- Project Proposal Template
- Company Fact Sheet
- Executive Summary Template
- Operational Plan Template
- Pitch Deck Template
We know that everyone craves success but only very few have the patience and perseverance to reach that peak of glory.
A business development plan may not scream success when you’re creating it, but it’s a stepping stone that will take you there!
It will constantly acquaint your organization with its long-term goals, and help it strategize and execute its plans in a resounding manner.
We hope that we’ve gotten you all fired up to get started with your business development plan. Follow our steps and you’re ready to rock!
Don’t forget to let us know how it goes by tweeting us @bit_docs. We’d be happy to hear from you!
Further reads:
13 Business Goals You Must Set In 2021
Formal Report: What is it & How to Create it!
Growth Plan: What is it & How to Create One? (Steps Included)
Market Orientation: What is it & How Does it Work? (The Complete Guide)
15 Business Intelligence Tools & Software Every Business Needs!
Tactical Plan: What is it & How to Create an Effective One?
Unique Selling Proposition: What is it & How to Create Your Own?
KPI Report: What it is & How to Create a Perfect One?
Marketing Research: Definition, Process & Tools!
11 Best Text Editors For Windows, Mac, Linux & More!
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About Bit.ai
Bit.ai is the essential next-gen workplace and document collaboration platform. that helps teams share knowledge by connecting any type of digital content. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can work visually and collaborate in real-time while creating internal notes, team projects, knowledge bases, client-facing content, and more.
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Business Development Planning
Business development planning process: step by step, business development planning template/example, .css-1rpxuvi{position:absolute;left:0;top:-85px;} what is business development planning, business development planning definition.
A business development plan is a written document showcasing the business’ aims, both long-term and short-term, and how they intend to reach them.
While business development planning itself doesn’t ensure success and growth, implementing the plan means your business will be putting its best foot forward. That said, the business development plan can and should be revised and reviewed at every step.
The business development planning process can often take longer than collating the plan itself — but it’s worth taking your time on! A great business development planning process ensures that the strategies discussed are universally accepted in the business.
Here are the broad steps that any business development planning process should follow:
Define goals
Management may have huge goals for the business but it’s important to be realistic too. You could debate one, three, five, and ten-year goals so your company has a roadmap of how to achieve those larger aims. These SMART goals then need to be broken down into action plans for daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly steps.
Create a customer profile
It’s no good having a product if you’ve no idea who you’re selling it to. Many businesses have multiple customer or buyer personas but simply put, think about what many of your customers have in common. What is their age, occupation, location, etc?
Set up marketing channels
A business doesn’t have to be on every channel, so focus on which channels work best for you. Think about your customer profile and where your customers spend their time online? Do they use specific social media channels, mailing lists, or online marketplaces?
Establish KPIs
Your key performance indicators should be stated in a business development plan. Invest in any software needed to track them and ensure your team knows what are the key figures they should be pushing to improve.
Collate and share
Once every department has had their input, it’s time to collate this information and then share it company-wide. Add this document into new onboarding packs so every new employee knows what is expected of them and where the business is headed.
Every business development plan is different, but every plan should also include the following areas:
Mission statement
Also known as an elevator pitch, a mission statement is a short paragraph detailing what the business does. It’s what you’d say at networking events or at investor meetings to explain to others where you are and where you want to be.
Long- and short-term goals
Financial milestones are the most obvious goals to include in your business development planning template, but many businesses are also looking to other areas, such as sustainability and diversity. It’s no longer enough for a business to make lots of money, so look at the business as a whole.
SWOT analysis
Looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats currently for your business allows you to make strategic decisions based on the current environment. Update your SWOT analysis annually to see if you have adapted.
Department breakdown
Each department should have their own section in the plan, from operations to marketing, HR to sales. How will each department ensure they’re working towards the aims of the business?
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- What Drives Development Activity?
Business Development Ethics
Why is new business development important, what are the key skills for business development executives, how can i be successful in business development, what should a business development plan include, the bottom line.
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What Are the Basics of Business Development?
In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives, and activities that help make a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions.
“Business Development Executive,” “Manager of Business Development,” and “VP, Business Development” are all impressive job titles often heard in business organizations. Sales, strategic initiatives, business partnerships , market development, business expansion, and marketing —all of these fields are involved in business development but are often mixed up and mistakenly viewed as the sole function of business development.
Key Takeaways
- Business development encompasses a wide scope of ideas, activities, and initiatives that a business owner and management implement with the goal of making the business better.
- Business development can include many objectives, such as sales growth, business expansion, the formation of strategic partnerships, and increased profitability.
- Successful business development impacts every department within a company, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, human resources, accounting, finance, product development, and vendor management.
- Business developers should be aware of new market opportunities, possibilities for expansion, competitor developments, and the current sources of the company's revenue.
Understanding the Basics of Business Development
Business development activities extend across different departments, including sales , marketing, project management, product management, and vendor management . Networking, negotiations, partnerships, and cost-savings efforts are also involved. All of these different departments and activities are driven by and aligned with the business development goals.
For instance, a business has a product or service which is successful in one region, such as the United States. The business development team assesses further expansion potential. After all due diligence , research, and studies, it finds that the product or service can be expanded to a new region, such as Brazil.
Sales personnel focus on a particular market or a particular (set of) client(s), often for a targeted revenue number. In this case, business development assesses the Brazilian markets and concludes that sales worth $1.5 billion can be achieved in three years. With such set goals, the sales department targets the customer base in the new market with their sales strategies.
Marketing involves promotion and advertising aimed towards the successful sale of products to end customers. Marketing plays a complementary role in achieving sales targets. Business development initiatives may allocate an estimated marketing budget. Higher budgets allow aggressive marketing strategies like cold calling , personal visits, roadshows, and free sample distribution. Lower budgets tend to result in passive marketing strategies, such as limited online ads, print ads, social media ads, and billboards.
Strategic Initiatives or Partnerships
To enter a new market, will it be worth going solo by clearing all required formalities, or will it be more sensible to form a strategic alliance or partnership with local firms already operating in the region? Assisted by legal and finance teams, the business development team weighs all of the pros and cons of the available options and selects the one that best serves the business.
Project Management/Business Planning
Does the business expansion require a new facility in the new market, or will all the products be manufactured in the base country and then imported into the targeted market? Will the latter option require an additional facility in the base country? Such decisions are finalized by the business development team based on their cost- and time-related assessments. Then, the project management /implementation team swings into action to work towards the desired goal.
Regulatory standards and market requirements vary across countries. A medicine of a certain composition may be allowed in India but not in the United Kingdom, for example. Does the new market require a customized—or altogether new—version of the product?
These requirements drive the work of product management and manufacturing departments, as decided by the business strategy. Cost consideration, legal approvals, and regulatory adherence are all assessed as a part of a business development plan.
Will the new business need external vendors ? For example, will the shipping of a product need a dedicated courier service? Will the firm partner with any established retail chain for retail sales? What are the costs associated with these engagements? The business development team works through these questions.
Negotiations, Networking, and Lobbying
A few business initiatives may need expertise in soft skills . For example, lobbying is legal in some locales and may become necessary for penetrating the market. Other soft skills like networking and negotiating may be needed with different third parties, such as vendors, agencies, government authorities, and regulators. All such initiatives are part of business development.
Business development is not just about increasing sales, products, and market reach. Strategic decisions are also needed to improve the bottom line , which includes cost-cutting measures. An internal assessment revealing high spending on travel, for instance, may lead to travel policy changes, such as hosting video conference calls instead of on-site meetings, or opting for less expensive transportation modes.
Management can implement similar cost-saving initiatives by outsourcing non-core work, such as billing, accounting, financials, technology operations, and customer service. Strategic partnerships needed for these initiatives are a part of business development.
What Should a Business Developer Know?
Since business development involves high-level decision making, the business developer should remain informed about the following:
- The current state of the business in terms of SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
- The current state of the overall industry and growth projections
- Competitor developments
- Primary sources of sales/revenues of current business and dependencies
- The customer profile
- New and unexplored market opportunities
- New domains/products/sectors eligible for business expansion, which may complement the existing business
- The long-term view, especially with regards to the initiatives being proposed
- The cost areas and the possible options for cost-savings
The business development scenario discussed above is specific to a business expansion plan , whose impact can be felt by almost every unit of the business. There can be similar business development objectives, such as the development of a new business line, new sales channel development, new product development, new partnerships in existing or new markets, and even merger and acquisition (M&A) decisions.
For example, in the case of a merger, significant cost savings can be accomplished by integrating the common functions of the manufacturing, finance, and legal departments of the two firms. Similarly, a business operating from five different offices in a city can be moved to a large central facility, resulting in significant operating cost savings. However, would this lead to employee attrition, if the new location isn't convenient for everyone? It's up to the business development team to assess such concerns.
In essence, business development involves high-level decision-making based on a realistic assessment of all potential changes and their impact. Through new ideas and initiatives, it aims to improve the overall business prospects, which drive the functioning of the different business units. It is not sales; it is not marketing; it is not partnering. Instead, it is the eco-system encompassing the entire business and its various divisions, driving overall growth .
While it's common for startup companies to seek outside assistance in developing the business, as the business matures, it should aim to build its business development expertise internally.
The Right Fit for Business Development
A business developer can be the business owner(s) or the designated employee(s) working in business development. Anyone who can make or suggest a strategic business change for a value-add to the business can contribute towards business development. Businesses often encourage employees to brainstorm innovative ideas, which can help in improving the potential of the overall business.
Businesses also seek help from external incubator firms , business development companies (BDC) , and small business development centers (SBDC). However, these entities assist in business establishment and the necessary fine-tuning only during the early stages of business setup.
What Drives Business Development Activity?
Due to the wide-open scope of business development and activities, there are no standard practices and principles. From exploring new opportunities in external markets to introducing efficiencies in internal business operations, everything can fit under the business development umbrella.
Those involved in business development need to come up with creative ideas, but their proposals may prove to be unfeasible or unrealistic. It's important to be flexible. Employees charged with business development should try to seek out and take constructive criticism, and remember that it's a process.
Business ethics involves implementing appropriate and fair practices regarding issues such as corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities. Laws and regulations often set the standard for business ethics, which companies can then choose to follow and build on in order to earn trust and loyalty from consumers and market participants.
New business development is important for generating jobs, developing key industries, and keeping the economy moving forward.
Development executives need to have leadership skills, vision, drive, and a willingness to work with a variety of people to get to a common goal.
Having a vision and putting together a good team are among the factors that help predict success in business development. But a successful developer also writes a good business plan, which becomes the blueprint from which they build their success.
A business development plan, or business plan , describes what a business's objectives are and how it intends to achieve them, including goals, start-up costs, and targeted milestones.
Business development may be difficult to define concisely, but it can be easily understood using a working concept. An open mindset, willingness for an honest and realistic self-assessment, and the ability to accept failures are a few of the skills needed for successful business development. Beyond the ideation , implementation, and execution of a business development idea, the end results matter the most.
The brightest minds in business development should be ready to accommodate a change in order to achieve the best results. Every approval or disapproval is a learning experience, better preparing these professionals for the next challenge.
St. Cloud State University. " St Cloud State University Strategic Plan-SWOT Analysis ."
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10 Common business development activities
by Lucia Piseddu | Oct 6, 2021
Common business development activities you should be doing. Check this shortlist to organize your work and get results.
If you work in business development and you often wonder what activities you should be focusing on, you came to the right place. And you will be happy to know that you’re not the only one to struggle to create a successful plan of action.
In fact, we found out that the majority of business development pros have a hard time even explaining what they do. Why is that?
The main reason is that business development tends to be quite complex as a field. As a quick recap, we define business development:
A set of tasks and processes meant to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations in a sustainable way.
I know…it’s not very straightforward, right?
And that’s the issue with business development. In a field in which you have so many choices, it becomes easy to freeze and not be able to focus on the right activities.
Nevertheless, good business developers exist and the only reason why they are successful is that they identified the right business development activities they should be doing.
We got curious and wanted to understand their recipe for success, so we interviewed thousands of them and they helped us map out for you the 10 most common business development activities you should be working on.
Here is the shortlist:
- Research, research, research
- Ecosystem mapping
- Spot growth opportunities
- Idea generation
- Experimentation ideas
- Lead generation
- Prospecting
- Project management
- Strategic partnership management
- Analyze data
Let’s dive deeper into these common business development activities that will help you become a better business development pro.
1 – Research, research, research
The first step to create a successful plan of action is to spend time understanding your environment. It’s important you allocate part of your time researching your market , industry, competitors, and of course…customers!
After all, you can’t be successful at something you don’t fully understand.
Run complete market research or whenever available, read the one your company already did in the past. Ask dumb questions to Google to understand the size of your market, the relevant trends, and anything in between that can help you move forward.
Of course, you’re not alone trying to conquer the market, so make sure you dedicate time to analyzing your competitors. Your competitors are a great source of inspiration and can help you identify new growth opportunities.
A cool trick you can use when researching your competitors is to look at the negative reviews of their customers. You’ll find golden opportunities to differentiate yourself and provide something your customers want.
Last, of course, you need to research your customers and really understand what they need and find out how your product or service actually helps them.
2 – Ecosystem mapping
Second, in the list of most common business development activities is ecosystem mapping. Once you have a clear idea of how you position yourself in the market, you need to identify relevant stakeholders that can help you achieve your goals.
Think about all the potential individuals and organizations that can bring you closer to your end customers and work on building strong relationships with them. Generally speaking, you should look at institutions, media, companies offering complementary services to yours or influencers.
But of course, each company is a story on its own, so you need to dig deeper and find specific stakeholders relevant to your case. And of course, it’s not just about you finding quick ways to get results.
Building an ecosystem means understanding what your stakeholders need and making sure you can bring value to their organizations.
A well-developed ecosystem amplifies your impact on the market and will help you get results quicker.
3 – Spot growth opportunities
One of the most common business development activities is, of course, spotting growth opportunities. That’s pretty much the reason you’ve been hired for.
Although, also one of the most difficult to wrap your head around. How does that work? How do you find opportunities? What’s an opportunity anyway?
Opportunities are literally everywhere, but you need a process to be able to actually see them. One best practice is to look at new trends emerging in the market and think of ways your business can benefit from them.
For example, earlier this year, the whole world went crazy on Clubhouse, the app where you could listen to real-time conversations and interact with your favorite people.
It grew extremely fast going from 2 million users in January 2021, to 10 million just 5 months later. Of course, many companies jumped on it, increasing their reach basically overnight. Good business developers like our student Erica Pew saw the opportunity too.
She used Clubhouse to establish herself as the go-to person in the events space in the UK. Erica went on to be nominated for the BD100 Awards , a prestigious accolade in the UK creative industry, and landing a position as Client Service Director for an award-winning Creative Event Agency.
Don’t stop at trends. Talk to your customers, analyze content on social media, go to events, analyze old unsuccessful deals, ask your partners, and so on. The main point is that you need to think out of the box and not restrict yourself to safe activities you’ve been doing forever.
Get creative and let opportunities come to you!
4 – Idea generation
Now that you have identified some good opportunities, you need to think of ideas to realize them in real life. Keep in mind that an opportunity by itself doesn’t mean you’ll grow your business. You need to leverage the opportunity and adapt it to your specific case.
You might be thinking: I’m not very creative, I don’t get the famous great ideas under the shower…what do I do?
The good news is that idea generation is a process and there are plenty of tools you can use to come up with great ideas. For example, you can use mindmaps to lay down your thoughts and connect different concepts into innovative ideas.
Another tool you can use is collaborative innovation which consists of discussing topics with others who might have different views than you. The combination of the different insights will help you reach new, unexplored conclusions.
Or, if you like freedom, you can try the Blue-Sky Thinking approach which literally means brainstorm without any sort of limit. The idea behind this approach is to help you remove boundaries and look at your challenges in a differen way.
The only thing that really matters when it comes to idea generation is to keep an open mind and use creative thinking.
Listen to this podcast for inspiration: Creativity in business development
5 – Experimentation
Idea generation is the first step of another common business development activity which is experimentation. Because although your ideas might look great, you can only know they work if you test them.
Experimenting means dissecting your idea, understanding what you want achieve with it and prepare a plan of action to execute on it. And of course, you need to make sure you monitor your experiment to see if you’re getting closer to your goals.
There are many types of business development experiments you can run. For example, you can open up a new channel that you never tried before to reach out your audience. Or you can improve your emails and run some A/B tests to see what works best with your stakeholders.
Once you have some results from your experiments, make sure to scale the activities that brought you the best results and ditch the ones that were not successful.
Whatever you do, make sure you have a process in place to validate your assumptions!
6 – Prospecting
Next in the list of common business development activities is prospecting which is the process of looking for contact information of relevant stakeholders and getting in touch with them.
Prospecting is also one of the activities that gives the most headaches to many business developers. It’s very common to contact hundreds of people and not really get results. This usually happens when you don’t have a clear target in mind.
The key to successful prospecting is having a clear customer profile in mind and knowing exaclty what are their pains and needs. You also need to create great value propositions which help your prospects understand how your product or service can help them achieve their goals.
There are many strategies you can use when prospecting and the most used are cold calls , cold emails and cold outreach on social media. And of course, there are plenty of tools you can use to automate some parts of the process, for example finding email addresses of phone numbers.
One of our favourite tools is Hunter but you can find an extensive list of business development tools at this link . But we recommend you to do the process manually first and only when you get good results, automate it.
Tools are great to enhance what works, but if your process sucks, they will only harm you: use them with care!
7 – Lead generation
Lead generation is one of the most common business development activities and it means generate interests from relevant stakeholders in what you do. In short, it’s not enough to have a long list of emails that you contact every day.
To be a lead, your contacts need to express a genuine interest in your product or service.
Lead generation can either be outbound or inbound. Outbound leads are generated when you contact relevant stakeholders, while inbound leads are the ones that contact you first.
There are benefits in both processes. Having an outbound lead generation process will give you control and will help you better forecast your results. You can always contact more people or imrpove your approach and it’s entirely up to you.
One big downside of outbound lead generation is exactly timing. Because not all companies you contact may need your service right now and this comes with rejection, which can be tough on many of us. But it’s important not to take rejection to heart. If you struggle with that, probably this article will help you put things in perspective .
On the other hand, inbound lead generation will give you more relevant leads who are currently looking for your solution. This makes the process easier as it removes the timing barrier. They’re there for you and your job is to educate them and help them find the right solution.
An effective business development strategy includes both processes. Make sure you have a good balance!
8 – Project management
Business developers need to be excellent project managers. This is because you will work on many different tasks involving many different people. As a business developer, you need to have great time management and organizational skills.
Besides, you need to be great at communicating with other departments or external stakeholders in order to achieve your targets. Of course, you should also be great at documenting processes so that you can easily scale the activities that bring the best results.
As usual, there are many collaborative tools you can use to help yourself. Our favourite is Trello which is very intuitive and easy to use to manage complex projects. Our tool stack includes also Miro , Hubspot , and Canva helping our business development team have a clear overview of their tasks and better collaborate with the marketing and design team.
9 – Partnership management
As a business developer, the essence of your role is in building and maintaining partnerships. It’s important to build a solid process for partnership management so you can achieve your target.
Finding the right partners always start by setting clear goals for yourself in order to find the best stakeholders that will help you reach them. Once you set your goals, you can get in touch with potential partners and identify the best ones.
Strategic partnerships involve a good deal of negotiation and building trust, so you need to be good at asking questions, active listening and of course, negotiation! Partnerships can really help you skyrocket your results, but only if they are win-win.
You need to find out what’s important for your partners and create a proposal that makes both of you satisfied.
10 – Analyze data
Last in the list of common business development activities is analyzing data. Very often business developers feel like they have to justify their roles because they don’t seem to have results. You know, when your boss is constantly asking you what you’re actually doing and you have no clue of how to handle it!
That’s never a good position to be in, but there is a solution which is looking at the data and let them speak for you. Of course, when you work on many different tasks, many of which long-term, it can be a daunting task.
However, there is a way to measure any business development activity and the secret is to identify tangible KPIs for each of them. Basically, you need to attach a number!
For example, if your job is to find partners, then you can measure how many potential partners you contact in a month and how many of them actually decide to work with you.
After keeping track of your activities, consolidate the findings into reports so you can get a better overview of your activities. From here, you can optimize your efforts to be more effective, accurate, and efficient.
If you would like to learn an easy step-by-step process to measure your activities and show your value to your boss, all you have to do is to watch our webinar on this topic.
But that’s not all!
By joining our on-demand webinars, you’ll get access to 1000+ hours of practical and actionable content delivered by experts in the field. You will improve your skills and you will learn how to generate more leads and increase revenue for your business.
So your boss will never question your presence again!
Start your free trial here !
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How to Develop a Strategic Plan for Business Development [Free Template]
Updated: August 25, 2021
Published: April 01, 2021
Business development. It’s usually confused with sales , often overlooked, and only sometimes given the strategic focus it deserves. Having a business development strategy, however, is crucial to long-term success and ensuring that everyone in your company is working toward a common goal.
But how do you develop a business development plan? Pull up a chair and stay awhile, I’m diving into that and more below.
Business Development
Business development is the practice of identifying, attracting, and acquiring new business to further your company’s revenue and growth goals. How you achieve these goals is sometimes referred to as a business development strategy — and it applies to and benefits everyone at your company.
It’s not unusual to mistake business development with sales, but there’s an important distinction between the two. Business development refers to many activities and functions inside and outside the traditional sales team structure. In some companies, business development is part of the larger sales operations team. In others, it’s part of the marketing team or sits on its own team altogether.
Ready to dive in? Here are the key business development strategies you’ll want to implement.
Business Development Strategies
- Understand your competitive landscape.
- Choose effective KPIs.
- Develop long-term customer relationships.
- Implement customer feedback.
- Keep your website content and user interface fresh.
- Speed up your response time.
- Leverage a sales plan to identify areas of growth.
- Implement a social listening strategy.
- Sponsor industry organizations, conferences, and events.
Free Strategic Planning Template
Fill out this form to get the strategic growth template., 1. understand your competitive landscape..
Before you can develop a strategic plan to drive business growth, you must have a solid understanding of the competitive landscape in your industry. When you know who your ideal customer is and what problem they are looking to solve with your product or service, research who else is providing a viable solution in your industry.
Identify other companies operating in your space. What features do their products have? How competitive is their pricing? Do their systems integrate with other third-party solutions? Get crystal-clear on what the competition is offering so you know how to differentiate your product to your customers.
Featured Resource: 10 Competitive Analysis Templates
Download the Free Templates Now
2. Choose effective KPIs.
How will you know if your business development efforts are successful? Ensure you can measure your goals with relevant, meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the health of your business. The result of these metrics should give you a strong indication of how effective your business development efforts are.
Featured Resource: Sales Metrics Calculator Dashboard
Download the Free Calculator Dashboard Now
3. Develop long-term customer relationships.
Do you engage with your customers even after the deal has been closed? If not, it’s time to develop a plan to keep your buyers engaged. Building long-term relationships with your customers pays off. A grand majority of a company's business comes from repeat customers, and returning customers are cheaper to convert. Indeed, it’s famously known that it costs five times more to convert new customers than it does to sell to returning customers.
Not only are repeat customers easier to sell to, they can also provide valuable feedback and insights to help you improve your business. Additionally, customer testimonials can be used for valuable content that can attract your next buyer.
4. Implement customer feedback.
If and when you have customers who are willing to provide feedback on your sales process and offerings, make sure you hear them out and implement it. Your customers offer a unique, valuable perspective because they chose your product over the competition — their insights can help shape your strategy to keep your business ahead of the curve.
5. Keep your website content and user interface fresh.
When was the last time your company had a website refresh? Can you ensure that all links are working, that your site is easy to navigate, and that it is laid out and intuitive for those who want to buy from you?
Keeping your website up-to-date and easy to use can make or break the sale for customers who know they are ready to buy. Don’t make it too difficult for potential customers to get in touch with you or purchase your product directly (if that suits your business model).
6. Speed up your response time.
How fast your sales team responds to your leads can make or break your ability to close the deal. If you notice your sales process has some lag time that prevents you from responding to prospects as soon as possible, these could be areas to prioritize improvement.
7. Leverage a sales plan to identify areas of growth.
No business development strategy is complete without a sales plan . If you’ve already established a plan, make sure to unify it with your business development efforts. Your plan should outline your target audience, identify potential obstacles, provide a “game plan” for sales reps, outline responsibilities for team members, and define market conditions.
While a sales plan primarily affects your sales team, it can inform the activities of your business development reps. A sales plan can help them understand where the business needs growth — whether it’s in a new vertical, a new audience, or a new need that’s recently come to light in the industry.
Not sure how to create a sales plan? Download the following template to get started.
Featured Resource: Sales Plan Template
Download the Free Template Now
8. Implement a social listening strategy.
While social listening is mainly used in a marketing and customer service context, it’s also an essential practice for business development. There are more than 4 billion social media users worldwide. Naturally, social media is one of the best places to hear directly from consumers and businesses — without needing to reach out to them first.
In business development, you can use social listening to track what the general public is saying about your brand, industry, product offerings, product category, and more. It can help you identify key weaknesses in the industry, making it a prime opportunity to be the first to address those pitfalls.
Use a social listening tool to pick up on trends before they gain traction.
9. Sponsor industry organizations, conferences, and events.
A key facet of business development is reaching potential customers where they are. One of the easiest ways to do that is by sponsoring industry organizations, conferences, and events. This strategy will guarantee that your business development reps get valuable face-to-face time with your business’ target audience. The additional visibility can also help establish your business as a leader in the field.
Now that you understand what business development entails, it's time to create a plan to set your strategy in motion.
How to Develop a Strategic Plan
When we refer to a business development strategic plan, we’re referring to a roadmap that guides the whole company and requires everyone’s assistance to execute successfully and move your customer through the flywheel . With a plan, you’ll close more deals and quantify success.
Let’s go over the steps you should take to create a strategic plan.
1. Download our strategic plan template .
First, download our free growth strategy template to create a rock-solid strategic plan. With this template, you can map a growth plan for increasing sales, revenue, and customer acquisition rates. You can also create action plans for adding new locations, creating new product lines, and expanding into new regions.
Featured Resource: Strategic Plan Template
Download the Template Now
2. Craft your elevator pitch.
What is your company’s mission and how do you explain it to potential clients in 30 seconds or less? Keeping your elevator pitch at the forefront of all strategic planning will remind everyone what you’re working toward and why.
Some people believe the best pitch isn’t a pitch at all , but a story. Others have their favorite types of pitches , from a one-word pitch to a Twitter pitch that forces you to boil down your elevator pitch to just 280 characters.
Find the elevator pitch that works best for your reps, company, and offer, and document it in your business development strategy.
3. Include an executive summary.
You’ll share your strategic plan with executives and maybe even board members, so it’s important they have a high-level overview to skim. Pick the most salient points from your strategic plan and list or summarize them here.
You might already have an executive summary for your company if you’ve written a business proposal or value proposition . Use this as a jumping off point but create one that’s unique to your business development goals and priorities.
Once your executives have read your summary, they should have a pretty good idea of your direction for growing the business — without having to read the rest of your strategy.
3. Set SMART goals.
What are your goals for this strategy? If you don’t know, it will be difficult for your company and team to align behind your plan. So, set SMART goals . Remember, SMART stands for:
Featured Resource: SMART Goal Setting Template
If one of your goals is for 5% of monthly revenue to come from upsells or cross-sells, make this goal specific by identifying what types of clients you’ll target.
Identify how you’ll measure success. Is success when reps conduct upsell outreach to 30 clients every month, or is it when they successfully upsell a customer and close the deal? To make your goal attainable, ensure everyone on your team understands who is responsible for this goal: in this case, sales or business development reps.
This goal is relevant because it will help your company grow, and likely contributes to larger company-wide goals. To make it time-based, set a timeline for success and action. In this case, your sales team must achieve that 5% upsell/cross-sell number by the end of the quarter.
4. Conduct SWOT analysis.
SWOT is a strategic planning technique used to identify a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Before conducting a SWOT, identify what your goal is. For example, “We’d like to use SWOT to learn how best to conduct outreach to prospective buyers.”
Once you’ve identified what you’re working toward, conduct market research by talking with your staff, business partners, and customers.
Next, identify your business’ strengths. Perhaps you have low employee turnover, a central location that makes it easy to visit with prospects in person, or an in-demand feature your competitors haven’t been able to mimic.
Featured Resource: Market Research Kit with SWOT Analysis Template
Download the Templates Now
Your business’ weaknesses are next. Has your product recently glitched? Have you been unable to successfully build out a customer service team that can meet the demands of your customers?
Then, switch to opportunities. For example, have you made a new business partnership that will transition you into a previously untapped market segment?
What are the threats? Is your physical space getting crowded? What about your market space? Is increasing competition an issue?
Use SWOT results to identify a better way forward for your company.
5. Determine how you’ll measure success.
You’ve identified strengths and weaknesses and set SMART goals , but how will you measure it all ? It’s important for your team to know just how they will be measured, goaled, and rewarded. Common key performance indicators (KPIs) for business development include:
- Company growth
- Lead conversion rate
- Leads generated per month
- Client satisfaction
- Pipeline value
6. Set a budget.
What will your budget be for achieving your goals? Review financial documents, historical budgets, and operational estimates to set a budget that’s realistic.
Once you have a “draft” budget, check it against other businesses in your industry and region to make sure you’re not overlooking or misjudging any numbers. Don’t forget to factor in payroll, facilities costs, insurance, and other operational line items that tend to add up.
7. Identify your target customer.
Who will your business development team pursue? Your target market is the group of customers your product/service was built for. For example, if you sell a suite of products for facilities teams at enterprise-level companies, your target market might be facilities or janitorial coordinators at companies with 1000+ employees. To identify your target market:
- Analyze your product or service
- Check out the competition
- Choose criteria to segment by
- Perform research
Your target customer is the person most likely to buy your product. Do your homework and make sure your business development plan addresses the right people. Only then will you be able to grow your business.
8. Choose an outreach strategy.
What tactics will you use to attract new business for your sales team to close? You might focus on a single tactic or a blend of a few. Once you know who your target market is and where they “hang out,” then you can choose an appropriate outreach strategy.
Will your business development plan rely heavily on thought leadership such as speaking at or attending conferences? Will you host a local meetup for others in your industry? Or will your reps network heavily on LinkedIn and social media?
If referrals will be pivotal to your business’ growth, consider at which stage of the buying process your BDRs will ask for referrals. Will you ask for a referral even if a prospect decides they like your product/service but aren’t a good fit? Or will you wait until a customer has been using your solution for a few months? Define these parameters in your strategy.
Upselling and Cross-Selling
Upselling and cross-selling are a cost-effective way of growing your business. But it’s important that this tactic is used with guardrails. Only upsell clients on features that will benefit them as well as your bottom line. Don’t bloat client accounts with features or services they really don’t need — that’s when turnover and churn start to happen.
Sponsorship and Advertising
Will your BDR work with or be on the marketing team to develop paid advertising campaigns? If so, how will your BDRs support these campaigns? And which channels will your strategy include? If you sell a product, you might want to feature heavily on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re selling a SaaS platform, LinkedIn or Twitter might be more appropriate.
What’s your outreach strategy? Will your BDRs be held to a quota to make 25 calls a week and send 15 emails? Will your outreach strategy be inbound , outbound , or a healthy combination of both? Identify the outreach guardrails that best match your company values for doing business.
Strategic Plan Example
Let’s put all of these moving parts in action with a strategic plan example featuring good ol’ Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Elevator Pitch Example for Strategic Plan
Dunder Mifflin is a local paper company dedicated to providing excellent customer support and the paper your business needs to excel today and grow tomorrow.
Here are some additional resources for inspiration:
- Elevator Pitch Examples to Inspire Your Own
- Components of an Elevator Pitch
Executive Summary Example for Strategic Plan
At Dunder Mifflin, our strengths are our customer service, speed of delivery, and our local appeal. Our weakness is that our sales cycle is too long.
To shorten the sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4, we need to ask for more referrals (which already enjoy a 15% faster sales cycle), sponsor local professional events, and outreach to big box store customers who suffer from poor customer support and are more likely to exit their contract. These tactics should allow us to meet our goal in the agreed-upon timeline.
- How to Write an Incredibly Well-Written Executive Summary [+ Example]
- Executive Summary Template
SMART Goals Example for Strategic Plan
Dunder Mifflin’s goal is to decrease our sales cycle 5% by the end of Q4. We will do this by more proactively scheduling follow-up meetings, sourcing more qualified, ready-to-buy leads, and asking for 25% more referrals (which have a 15% shorter sales cycle already). We will measure success by looking at the sales pipeline and calculating the average length of time it takes a prospect to become closed won or closed lost.
- 5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples]
- How to Write a SMART Goal
- SMART Marketing Goals Template
SWOT Analysis Example for Strategic Plan
Strengths: Our strengths are our reputation in the greater Scranton area, our customer service team (led by Kelly Kapoor), and our warehouse team, who ship same day reams to our customers — something the big box stores cannot offer.
Weaknesses: Our greatest weakness is that our sales team has been unable to successfully counter prospects who choose big box stores for their paper supply. This results in a longer than average sales cycle, which costs money and time.
Opportunities: Our greatest business opportunity is to conduct better targeted outreach to prospects who are ready to buy, ask for more referrals from existing customers, and follow-up with closed lost business that’s likely coming up on the end of an annual contract with a big box store.
Threats: Our biggest threat is large box stores offering lower prices to our prospects and customers and a sales cycle that is too long, resulting in low revenue and slow growth.
- How to Conduct Competitive Analysis
- How to Run a SWOT Analysis for Your Business [+ Template]
- SWOT Analysis Template and Market Research Kit
Measurement of Success Example for Strategic Plan
We will measure success by looking at the sales pipeline and calculating the average length of time it takes a prospect to become closed won or closed lost.
Budget Example for Strategic Plan
You've laid out the SMART goals and the way you'll measure for success. The budget section's goal is to estimate how much investment it will take to achieve those goals. This will likely end up being a big-picture overview, broken down into a budget by a program or a summary of key investments. Consider laying it out in a table format like so:
- Budgeting Templates
- How to Write an Incredible Startup Marketing Budget
Target Customer Example for Strategic Plan
Our target customer is office managers at small- to medium-sized companies in the greater Scranton, PA area. They are buying paper for the entire office, primarily for use in office printers, custom letterhead, fax machines. They are busy managing the office and value good customer service and a fast solution for their paper needs.
- How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
- Make My Persona Tool
Outreach Strategy Example for Strategic Plan
Networking, sponsorships, and referrals will be our primary mode of outreach. We will focus on networking at regional paper conferences, HR conferences, and local office manager meetups. We will sponsor local professional events. And we will increase the volume of referrals we request from existing customers.
Create a Strategic Plan for Business Development
Without a strategic plan, you can invest resources, time, and funds into business development initiatives that don’t grow your business. A strategic plan is crucial to align your business development and sales teams and have everyone working toward the greater good of your company.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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Plan your business's growth strategy with this free template.
City of Santa Clara
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What is the Zoning Code?
The City’s Zoning Code regulates land uses within the boundaries of Santa Clara. The Code establishes zoning districts (e.g., Single-Family, General Office, Downtown Commercial) that are applied to individual properties consistent with the General Plan land use designations. For each of the zone districts in the city, the Code identifies land uses that are permitted, conditionally permitted, and not permitted. It also establishes standards such as minimum lot size, maximum building height, and the minimum distance buildings must be set back from the street. Provisions for parking, landscaping, lighting, and other rules that guide the development of projects in the city are also included.
Zoning Code Goals
The overall goals of the Zoning Code are to promote the city’s growth in an orderly manner and to promote and protect the public health, safety, peace, comfort, and general welfare in conformance with the 2010–2035 General Plan (PDF, 50 MB) .
To access the City of Santa Clara's Zoning Code, click on the following link: Zoning Code .
What is Your Zoning?
To find out zoning information for your property you may do one of the following:
- Search by property address or Assessor's Parcel Number (APN) using our interactive map: MAP Santa Clara .
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Hillcrest Design Overlay District update
The Hillcrest Residents Association (HRA) formed a committee in 2018 to look at the Hillcrest Design Overlay District (DOD). That committee has worked over the years to develop what they believe is a compromise on a package of changes to the DOD. The HRA has requested that the city now amend the Hillcrest DOD to include the recommendations produced.
There will be a community meeting at the Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church on Thursday March 23, 2023, to provide copies of the request and receive comments on the proposed changes. There will be a short presentation of the proposed changes given at 6 PM and again at 7 PM. You are welcome to drop in at any time and leave a written comment.
The requested changes have been scheduled for a Public Hearing before the Little Rock Planning Commission at their April 13, 2023, meeting the Planning Commission meets at 4 PM at the Centre at University Park, 6401 West 12 th Street. Any written comments received prior to the day of the meeting will be shared with the Commissioners.
Proposed Changes to the Hillcrest Design Overlay District
Statement of Purpose - The purpose of a Hillcrest design overlay district (district) is to help maintain the built environment in a neighborhood that is rich in history and architectural character and consists of both a vital residential area and a thriving commercial sector. In order to preserve and enhance those qualities compatible design and scale of buildings, parking areas, signage, landscaping, streetscapes, and street furnishings are required such that the friendly pedestrian-oriented, “small town” nature of the neighborhood is continued.
While Hillcrest’s diversity of scale makes it difficult to establish criteria to fit every circumstance, through these guidelines for buildings, the district intends to prevent incompatible and poorly planned projects, discourage out-of-scale new and remodeling construction, and avoidable teardowns that undermine Hillcrest’s unique historic character and its living and working environment. Such incompatible construction has the potential to destroy the very attributes that have attracted people to the neighborhood since its beginning as Little Rock’s first suburb.
Proposal 1
Incorporate Side Yard Setbacks.
- Modify HDOD to include minimum combined side yard setback equal to 28% of the average lot width, with a minimum side yard setback of 10% of lot width per side, the minimum requirement not to exceed a total of 17.5 feet.
Proposal 2
Modify Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for Reuse of Existing Structures.
- Add a definition for “reuse existing structure”. To qualify as a reuse of the existing structure, the front three (3) sides and associated roof framing, up to the back wall, must be retained as the exterior front portion of the house.
- Modify HDOD to establish the FAR for Additions to Existing Structures, as follows:
- Single story - 37% (currently 37%)
- Two-story – 45% (currently 50%)
- Basements and attics located within the reused portion of a structure are not counted against the FAR.
Proposal 3
Create Floor to Area Ratio (FAR) for Sites Without Existing Structures, or for Sites where there is not a “reuse of the existing structure” as defined in Proposal #2, as follows:
- 37% for single-story, and 40% for multi-story structures, to include all heated and cooled space other than basements, or the size of the immediately preexisting structure, whichever is greater.
Proposal 4
Establish Typical Sidewalk Width and Locations.
- Repair or replace any existing sidewalk as per municipal code 30-48.
- Install a sidewalk if half or more of the block, determined in linear feet, has a sidewalk, the width to be 4' or to match existing walk, whichever is greater.
Proposal 5
- With regard to any non-residential zoned property.
The HDOD should require an entrance facing the street. When a building is located with frontage on two streets, the entrance shall face the street having the higher classification according to the city master street plan. In the instance that development occurs at the intersection of two collectors and one being Kavanaugh Boulevard, the entrance shall face Kavanaugh Boulevard.
With regard to the existing DOD ordinance § 36-434.14 (A), it appears there is a drafting error that would allow unlimited floor area for houses on lots larger than 10,000 sq. feet, which was never intended. The committee recommends deleting the last sentence in that section to rectify the problem, which currently reads:
“Any lot of record or any combination of lots creating a zoning lot of record exceeding 10,000 sq. feet in existence at the time of the adoption of this section shall have a FAR as described for lots exceeding 8,000 sq. feet.”
Copy of Hillcrest Design Overly District
Hillcrest Design Overlay District Little Rock : Code of Ordinances, Chapter 36 - Zoning, Article V – District Regulations, Division 13 – Hillcrest Design Overlay District (Sec. 36-434-10 through Sec. 36-434-16).
Current Code with proposals inserted "in red" where appropriate.
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What is business development? Strategy, plan, and skills
Understand business development so you know what your bd department does and how to best use their skills..
By Donny Kelwig, Contributing Writer
Last updated January 11, 2023
- Sales strategy
Anyone working in business development knows that it can be tough to explain. If someone asks you what you do for a living and you say, “Business development” or “biz dev,” you’ll probably get a quizzical look.
So if you don’t have a thorough grasp of what business development is, don’t worry—you’re not alone. The best way to understand biz dev is to break it into clear pieces.
Keep reading to explore business development in all its facets, including how to create a business development strategy.
- Business development definition
- Biz dev strategy overview
Business development definition and variations
Business development (BD) is a strategy used to find new prospects and nurture them to help drive business growth.
According to Forbes , business development is “the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.” That’s a simplified definition, and it still faces the hurdle of trying to encompass the massive range of responsibilities that go into BD. Every effort involved in business development is an activity that helps make a business better. But one could argue that that definition describes every action of every employee.
So, what makes business development different?
The easiest way to understand BD is to look at it as the umbrella that works to improve all other departments. Though BD isn’t sales, it helps improve sales; it’s not marketing, but it improves marketing.
Sales vs. business development
When it comes to sales development , there’s a more significant focus on researching and identifying leads and pushing them through the sales process to close a deal.
Business development involves finding new ways to grow and forming partnerships that can help open doors to fresh markets and opportunities.
What is new business development?
New business development means an existing company is developing a plan to introduce a new product or service under a new business model in a relatively unknown market. It’s aligned with business development because it seeks to expand and generate more revenue for the company. It has its own title because it can be a radical and risky approach.
Unlike normal business development, new business development takes the company outside its comfort zone and tries a tactic the company hasn’t previously attempted.
Example: A sit-down restaurant that exclusively serves dine-in guests employs new business development when it starts offering delivery or partners with a food delivery service like Grubhub.
Business development representatives and their roles
Employees who work for your biz dev department are called business development representatives , or BDRs.
BDRs work with nearly all your departments as they search for and implement new strategies, targets, prospects, and tactics for your company. Since BDRs work with many people and have varied skill sets, they need to come to the table with specific experiences and qualities.
Given the wide scope of responsibilities, it’s impossible to list all the activities that go into business development. That said, here are the key tasks your BD team will likely focus on:
- Researching industry trends, company history, competitors, and prospects
- Stakeholder mapping
- Identifying growth opportunities
- Brainstorming strategies
- Experimenting
- Lead generation and qualification
- Prospecting
- Cross-departmental project management
- Partnership management
- Data analysis
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Business development strategy overview: How to create one in 10 steps
BD activities revolve around implementing a business development strategy. But how do you create that strategy?
All BD strategies begin with a plan and goals—start developing your own business development strategy by following the steps below:
1. Craft an elevator pitch
You need a concise 30-second pitch for any plan, including a BD plan. Want to go the extra mile? Craft several sales pitches and see which ones are most effective. You’ll be able to pitch while simultaneously conducting market research.
An elevator pitch summarizes what your business does, who you serve, and how your business differs from competitors. The goal of your elevator pitch is to open up the conversation about how you can serve your customers. When crafting your pitch, here are some best practices to follow:
- Use clear language
- Be specific
- Include a call to action
2. List your SMART goals
The SMART system is a great tool for business development goals. SMART goals are those that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. For example, a good SMART goal for a business development strategy could be:
“I will aim to improve first-response time for customer issues by increasing the number of customer service staff from 10 to 15 people in the next three quarters.”
By following the SMART system, you’ll keep your goals aligned with those of other departments and ensure they’re achievable with your current resources.
3. Perform a SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s an effective tool for business development because it helps you pinpoint your growth areas. The best way to use SWOT is to pick a specific aspect of your business to analyze. When conducting a SWOT analysis, keep these questions in mind:
- What needs do our services/products solve for a customer?
- What is our value proposition?
- Are there any obstacles in the way of achieving goals?
You can also pair this with a positioning statement to help guide your analysis.
Example: If you’re looking to launch a new product, you can look at what your company does well, what it does poorly, where it might be missing opportunities, and what other companies might be doing better.
4. Define your audience
Next, define your target audience—this can help you determine who you want to attract as potential new clients. While you want to get specific about who to target, avoid getting so specific that you run out of prospects. You can do this by:
- Analyzing competitors
- Creating personas
- Identifying industry trends
5. Conduct market research
Perform research to determine who your competitors are and what your customers want and need. You should know your customers’ problems and how you can solve them.
You can gain valuable insights into your audience’s needs through customer surveys . Eighty percent of companies that see year-over-year growth use surveys to collect customer experience data. Here are tips for creating a survey:
- Determine the goal of your survey
- Make sure your questions are unbiased
- Send surveys through relevant channels
- Keep them short and to the point
6. State your KPIs
To evaluate your plan’s success, you need to identify measurable data points through which you can document positive (or negative) outcomes. You can do this through key performance indicators ( KPIs ).
Depending on what you’re assessing, these KPIs can range from revenue changes to leads and conversion rates. The important thing is that you choose specific KPIs to complement your plan. Some biz dev KPIs include:
- Opportunities created
- Proposals sent
- Sales activities performed
- Client acquisition rate
- Deals closed
7. Plan a budget
Possibly the most important aspect of your plan is your budget . Your company must be able to afford your plan before approving it and starting implementation.
Keep your proposed budget realistic, but don’t be afraid to push. After all, if your plan works, you should be able to make that money back. Be sure to include these elements in your business budget:
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
- Income statement
8. Focus on strong customer service
High-quality customer service should be top of mind—it could be the difference between a customer choosing you over a competitor.
Maintain good customer support with existing customers, too, to ensure you build a lasting relationship with them. Plus, if they continually have positive experiences with your team, they may refer other contacts to your business.
9. Incorporate a sales plan
A business development strategy isn’t whole without a sales plan . A sales plan helps outline your sales strategy and includes:
- Your company goals and objectives
- A strategy on how to achieve those goals
- Team roles and responsibilities
- Performance monitoring and benchmarks
Although this is centered around the sales team, it can provide your biz dev team with helpful insights.
10. Implement a process
Once you have a solid plan, implementation ideally becomes a mere matter of assigning and supervising. The steps for implementation are going to vary based on your plan’s parameters, but here are a few things to keep in mind when you launch:
- Hold regular meetings: Lead cross-departmental status meetings to keep everyone on the same page.
- Streamline communication: Centralize communication and simplify data access with appropriate software, including lead generation software and sales force automation (SFA) .
- Don’t rush it: Remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Business development is about long-term growth, so look at trends rather than sweating over the roller-coaster of monthly numbers.
- Ensure your BD plan aligns with individual department plans: Sales managers are also responsible for setting goals for their team, and those goals are just as important as yours. Clear communication and SFA software can ensure your goals aren’t working against each other.
Use a CRM to align your business development plans
Business development is all about facilitating communication between departments to achieve new business goals. The best way to align your company with a unified vision is through a CRM.
With a simple CRM like Zendesk Sell , communication between your business development team and all other departments becomes effortless. Plans can move and adjust in real time in response to everything from marketing clicks to sales tracking . (If you’re new to the CRM world, we’re happy to walk you through it with our CRM software explainer .)
Your BD team already has a thousand things to juggle every day, so why make their lives harder? Request a demo of Zendesk Sell today to keep your biz dev team—and your business—ahead of the competition.
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What Is Development Planning?
You may have come across health enthusiasts sharing their personal transformation stories on social media platforms. Some even highlight the…
You may have come across health enthusiasts sharing their personal transformation stories on social media platforms. Some even highlight the routines they followed to achieve their ideal body type. What’s common among a majority of individuals is that they have an end goal and a proper plan in place to meet the end goal.
No matter what you want to achieve in life, setting realistic goals and tracking your progress helps to a great extent. Even in businesses, both employers and employees engage in planning and development to achieve positive outcomes in multiple ways. Read on to see the meaning and importance of development planning in management and the difference it’s capable of making in one’s life.
Defining Development Planning
Why create a career development plan for employees, create your own professional development plan, making the right decisions.
It isn’t easy to define development as it’s a complex issue, taking different forms in different contexts. At the macro-level, development is linked to growth and empowerment. In a professional context, development planning is the collection of milestones and goals that a person or organization plans to meet withing a certain period of time. The milestones are time-based benchmarks that help measure progress. A professional development plan usually includes criteria to gauge whether goals have been met or not.
When organizations make planning and development a priority, there are several advantages that come along with it:
- Writing important details down not only helps in focusing on strengths but also devising a plan that can help organizations work on what matters most
- Planning helps define success; it helps organizations gauge how they’d like to grow in the coming years and what are the milestones they’d like to achieve in the long run
- It helps organizations make tangible changes as they can track and analyze numbers, gauging whether the changes discussed in the plan have been put in motion
This is why businesses need to understand how to approach development planning and dedicate their resources towards it.
Why Create A Career Development Plan For Employees ?
When personal goals align with the overall business goals, focusing on development planning becomes easier. Businesses can play a pivotal role in creating a career development plan for employees and getting them more involved in the overall mission and growth.
Here are some useful ways in which businesses can help employees focus on professional development:
1. Mentoring
This method is widely utilized by senior management, who guide their junior colleagues to embrace essential foundational skills. This one-on-one teaching process typically includes critical thinking, communication, strategic management and long-term vision articulation.
2. Working Groups/Workshops
This method gives people a chance to interact internally (with peers and coworkers) as well as externally (consultants and agencies). Workshops are a great way to learn about new things and meet new people. Meanwhile, working groups help sharpen teamwork and collaboration skills.
3. Career Planning
Organizations should aim to create a more employee-driven workplace culture. If there’s room to discuss future or alternate career paths, people may volunteer to take up tasks that benefit their careers. Some may also be motivated to work and collaborate with other teams to learn a spectrum of multidisciplinary skills.
While these strategies are helpful in ensuring that all individuals have a fair chance of accessing opportunities for growth and advancement, building a plan requires effort. Let’s look at these simple yet effective tips to create a career development plan for employees :
1. Business Goals
Organizations should take some time to understand what a team needs to achieve in the long run. For example, if a business depends on external funding and sponsorship, then it makes sense to invest in a sales program. However, every development goal for employee success should be realistic and measurable.
2. Gaps In Skill Sets
If there are visible gaps in a team’s skill sets, it’s wise to optimize the development plan(s) to meet business needs. Interacting with the teams and getting feedback can help check for any obstacles that may hamper their performance.
3. Professional Training Programs
Employee development programs promote excellence in the workplace as they address the gaps in competency and proficiency. Online upskilling and reskilling programs are convenient tools for knowledge enhancement. Picking programs that are impactful and encourages every team member to step outside their comfort zone is essential.
4. Willingness Vs. Potential
Just because someone has the potential to do something doesn’t mean that they’re ready to do it. Managers and team leaders need to make sure that they don’t push their teams too hard. If someone’s mind isn’t in the right place, they may end up being counterproductive. It’s important to check if people are open to the long-term change(s) that are about to be implemented.
5. Cross-Departmental Training
A majority of departments in an organization like to function independently. What most leaders fail to see is that departments function better when they’re interdependent. Collaboration and cross-functional performance actually improve engagement and productivity. Cross-departmental training helps identify common objectives and encourages departments to support one another.
While planning and development are important tenets of a successful organization, they’re equally essential for the employees involved. Personal development is a transformational step towards improving your physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual and financial state in life. It’s a process of becoming the person that motivated you to work towards self-improvement in the first place.
Let’s look at some personal development plan examples that’ll explain the concept better:
- Skill Enhancement: There are two skill enhancement processes—personal and interpersonal effectiveness. Interpersonal skills focus on how you interact with others and develop relationships. Personal effectiveness skills like goal-setting, time management, decision-making and stress management benefit you at an individual level.
- Mental Conditioning: The process of building and strengthening our mind is known as mental conditioning. We’re able to focus on our objectives by visualizing what we want to achieve. This helps maintain a positive focus, improving self-image and self-confidence. Some mental conditioning techniques like meditation, breathing exercises and relaxation activities have proved useful in boosting concentration and bettering performance.
- Habit Creation: A habit often refers to routine behaviors or tendencies that are automatic and without intention. It’s difficult to break out of habits but it’s not impossible. To make our lives more enriching we can also create new habits and bring about positive changes.
Having a personal professional development plan makes room for leadership capacity-building. Leadership skills are necessary for not only helping the organization grow in the desired direction but also advancing your career in the most optimal way. Here’s how you can create an effective leadership development plan and pursue your career goals more rigorously:
1. Communicate Frequently
Communication is essential to break the ice and build a rapport with colleagues. Show your coworkers that you’re open to conversation and healthy arguments. Listen attentively and disagree respectfully if someone challenges your existing beliefs and opinions.
2. Work Collaboratively
Be proactive when it comes to teamwork and collaboration with other departments. Different perspectives give way to new learning experiences. Moreover, you’re encouraged to be more productive when you share and discuss common objectives and timelines.
3. Be Open To Feedback
Receiving honest and constructive feedback is one of the best ways to grow in your career. Whether you’re a team leader or a team member, make sure you provide as well as receive feedback from your peers. You’ll get clarity on your performance and progress.
4. Attend Training Sessions
If you feel that your performance is affected because of gaps in your competencies, be open to training programs. You can always upskill to catch up with emerging business demands. Moreover, your employer will appreciate the added efforts you make towards driving organizational goals.
5. Evaluate Your Success
Your personal leadership development plan should have checks and balances that help you gauge that you’re headed in the right direction. Here are some critical indicators you should look out for:
- Your quality of work is improving
- You’re increasingly delegating responsibilities (wherever possible)
- You’re continuously learning and planning
Personal development is a conscious process of improving oneself in various aspects of life. It’s a constant pursuit of growth by developing skills, competencies and knowledge. The ultimate goal is to be a self-fulfilled person. When combined with professional development, it helps you gain clarity on your priorities and work harder to achieve your goals.
The more you work on your skills and abilities, the more you discover your hidden potential. You learn to push your boundaries and explore new things because you know how best to utilize your knowledge. The process is empowering as it lets you take control. Since there is constant improvement, you feel more confident and motivated. Your productivity increases and your performance gives you satisfaction.
At the heart of good planning and development lies critical decision-making. If you want to make sound decisions that lead to desired outcomes, try Harappa’s Making Decisions course. This impactful online course on decision-making will equip you with frameworks to process, reflect and include multiple perspectives for informed decision-making. Identify obstacles like biases, peer pressure and uncertainty that stand in the way of good decision-making. Start your free trial today!
Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as Examples of Personal Development Plan , Tips for Career Development , How To Make A Business Plan , and Individual Development Plans For Employees to classify problems and solve them efficiently.
5 Essential Components for Business Development Strategy Plans
- March 3, 2022
Leaders in the business development world are not likely to share the exact same opinions when it comes to the definition of business development. While all leaders in the field are familiar with the task, specific roles and experiences can easily set a precedent for what exactly business development is to them. One of the more commonly recognized definitions of business development can be described as the process of using existing relationships, markets, and consumers for the purposes of long-term organizational value formation, or in more basic terms, the creation of long-term value for a business.
Why Business Development Strategy Planning Is Valuable
The building blocks of a strong business development strategy can be utilized as a set of guidelines that can lead your team forward when looking to generate valuable prospects that will support the long-term goals of the business. If your business lacks a business development strategy, a significant amount of time and resources can be unnecessarily spent on prospects that lack the value your business is looking for.
The number one goal of a new business development strategy planning is to grow your company. Promoting growth within your business is not always an easy task, but what you can gain from doing so can be very valuable. Below are a few of the many reasons why business development strategy planning is so valuable.
- Strategic business development planning can build relationships.
- Strategic business development planning can increase your business’s revenue and lower its costs.
- Strategic business development planning can enhance and promote your brand’s voice and image.
- Strategic business development planning can introduce your company to new and untapped markets.
Creating A Unique Business Development Strategy Plan
Below are the most important steps a business can take when looking to create a well-founded new business development strategy.
1. Defining Your Business’s Goals
When there is not a strategic business development plan in place, there is a much higher chance for key business objectives to slip through the cracks and not be achieved.
Though well-defined goals are vital, these goals can cover a wide array of objectives. For example, business development goals can be related to the sales process or marketing process, internal, external, or many other things.
A great method to utilize when defining goals for your business is the SMART method. The SMART method is a great method for defining development goals that are actually achievable rather than being idealistic. SMART goals consist of goals that are:
When you have a fully realized understanding of the goals that you are aiming to achieve accompanied by realistic plans on how to achieve these goals, the probability of success can dramatically increase. Rather than focusing on the number of goals a business is trying to achieve, spend time focusing on the quality of these goals. It is more valuable for a company to work towards 5 important goals rather than 500 inessential goals.
2. Identifying The Target Audience Of Your Business
The first stage in creating the optimal business development strategy is a clear understanding of the business’s target market/target audience. Remember that if you as a business are trying to market to everyone, you’re not reaching anyone closely. An important thing to remember is that while a company does not need a large audience, they do need a high-quality audience. It is considerably easier for businesses to develop a successful marketing plan and new business strategy after these categories have been clearly defined.
Business development is not typically a process that happens quickly. This is why understanding how the developed relationships your business makes can lead to future sales. This is why fostering relationships with prospects that are a part of your target audience can be so valuable.
Those in the world of business understand that customers react better to personalized and informed business development strategies rather than ones that feel disconnected and impersonal. This is why in so many cases buyers tend to make their purchases from the company that they feel better aligns with them. Whether it be B2B or B2C, buyers want to know that what they are being sold aligns with their interests.
3. Performing Quality Market Research
After your target audience is well defined, understanding their needs as much as possible can be very helpful. Before establishing a relationship with your target audience, these essential questions should be answerable:
- What significant issues do they face?
- What particular services could benefit them?
- How are they currently going about problem-solving?
- How does your offering aid their problem-solving?
Once there is an answer to these vital questions, understanding both your competitors and potential clients becomes more manageable. It is crucial to easily identify what sets your business apart from the competition. This is a competitive advantage, and clearly communicating your business’s competitive advantage to potential customers is key.
4. Determining The Best Marketing Channels To Utilize
The following stage in the business development strategy is to set your overall revenue targets for the year and then understand which channels will best assist you in meeting those goals.
Common marketing channels such as networking, advertising, and referrals are often the most frequently used in terms of business development strategy.
Anyone in the business world understands how important networking is. Networking can be described as exchanging knowledge, ideas, and information with other individuals, typically in an informal or social setting. While face-to-face networking is still prevalent among some, the transition to networking through social media sites has made connection-making more accessible than ever. Thanks to platforms like LinkedIn, you can connect with people start a dialogue without an in-person meeting. This solid business development tactic comes with pros and cons; while it is less time-consuming and less expensive, relationships can sometimes be harder to establish and maintain.
Advertising
While traditional paid advertising has its advantages, digital advertising is slowly but surely becoming the clear front-runner in terms of successful business development tactics. Digital advertising can be tricky, but what is so nice about these steps for creating a unique business development strategy is that by the time your business is ready for updates in advertising, your target audience will have already been clearly defined. Knowing your target audience is vital in the world of advertising. If your targeted demographic is more active on social media services, that’s where the advertising budget should point towards.
Referrals are always welcome, and they can be a great channel to use when implementing a business development strategy. An existing relationship with a customer that is positive has the possibility to create a multitude of potential clients. But it is vital to remember positive relationships with existing customers do not guarantee referrals. Referrals are great but not always the most consistent channel to utilize.
There is a wide variety of marketing channels that businesses can utilize when implementing a reliable business development strategy plan, and sometimes choosing which ones to focus on can become overwhelming. Essential factors to consider when choosing which marketing channels to focus on include (but are not limited to) budget, time commitment, and available resources. While not all of these factors can make or break a business development strategy plan, the more informed you are, the better equipped you become when it comes to tough decision-making.
In order to be best prepared for all circumstances, there is value in reevaluating the plans your business has for marketing on a consistent basis.
5. Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Key performance indicators (often referred to as KPIs) are a successful business development strategy tool as you can easily use them to quantify performance. The number one thing to remember with key performance indicators is that they need to be practical and attainable for them to work accurately. Once these KPIs are established, you can find many different software programs that will aid you in the tracking and measuring process.
Summarizing The Components of A Business Development Strategy Plan
When understanding the differences between a business plan and a business development plan, remember that a business plan is more broad and foundational. In contrast, a business development plan should act as a more detailed blueprint for the success of business growth.
The 5 steps for creating unique business development processes are:
- Defining Your Business’s Goals
- Identifying The Target Audience Of Your Business
- Performing Quality Market Research
- Determining The Best Channels To Utilize
- Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
A Great Business Development Strategy Plan Takes Time
The creation of a unique business development strategy can easily take your business to the next level. While the process can be seen as time-consuming for some, the benefits that can come from it are often unparalleled. Remember that you get what you give and that the more effort you put into developing a truly unique business development strategy plan, the higher the likelihood for success becomes.
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How to write a business development plan: a step by step guide.
So we’ve already tackled how to write the infamous business plan , but now that you’re in the growth stage of your business – what’s next?
Many business owners will look to write a business development plan with the aim to make their business better. Running a business is never a stationary job, you constantly have to be looking to grow and improve.
But what exactly is a business development plan and how do you write one? Let’s find out.
Here’s What We’ll Cover:
What Is a Business Development Plan?
How to write a business development plan, key takeaways.
A business development plan is a document put together by the business owner with the aim to grow and improve their business. The plan will set goals for growth and explain how you will achieve them.
A business development strategy can have a short-term or long-term focus, or both. They should also be constantly reviewed and revised as things shift and your goals may change.
A health plan is one that builds as your business evolves.
A standard business development strategy can be split up into 6 different sections, each one with a different aim and purpose. These sections are:
You should always be looking to grow your business. In this section, you will identify where growth will come from. For example, whether it’s new product development, adding different services or breaking into new markets. Your main business development goals should always point towards growth.
According to a U.S. Bank study, 82% of small businesses fail because of poor cash flow management and understanding. That’s why it’s vital that you have a constant eye on your funding and your bottom line.
You need to understand how you’ll fund your business development. So in this section, you should lay out your current capital, and how much more you will need to sustain growth.
3. Financial Goals
You should have a good idea of your current revenue, costs and profits. These numbers can then be used as a starting point for setting new, more ambitious revenue goals. This is for when you have expanded and developed your business.
4. Operational Needs
When growing a business, your operational needs will change. For example, what started out as a two-person job can develop into needing a whole team of people. So in this section, you will need to identify what things about your business will need to change to accommodate and promote growth.
5. Sales and Marketing
No business can succeed without a strong and stable sales team and marketing team. As your business grows, so will your sales and marketing needs. So you will need to take the time to figure out your target market and what sales and marketing efforts will promote growth. You should then put all of your focus on those efforts.
It’s vital that your sales process and marketing strategies are strong and sturdy enough to support a growing business.
6. Team Needs
Every strong business needs a strong team around it. When you started your business, it’s likely that you shouldered a lot of the jobs and responsibilities. As your business grows, you’ll soon come to realize that you can no longer do this alone.
So as a business developer, you need to think about what jobs and tasks you are best and most effective at. You should then correctly delegate the other responsibilities to the appropriate team members. This is often a good way to figure out if you have the right team around you. If you dread the thought of offloading tasks to your team, you may not have the trust in your team that you should.
Business development plans may seem like a relatively daunting task. But once you figure out the basics then they can almost write themselves.
You need to have an open mindset, a realistic approach and the ability to accept some potential failures.
Expanding and developing a business is hard work, but with the right plan in place, you are giving yourself the best chance possible.
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Start » strategy, what is business development .
Business development, also known as biz dev, encapsulates a combination of sales, marketing, and networking activities that add value to your brand.
By: Emily Heaslip , Contributor
Business development, colloquially known as biz dev, is a broad term that essentially refers to creating value for your business. Biz dev commonly involves activities such as increasing revenues, expanding your business, improving profitability through partnerships, and making strategic business decisions that benefit your bottom line.
Because business development is such a broad term, it’s often used interchangeably with sales or marketing. But understanding the ins and outs of business development can help you make better decisions and create a strategy that takes your business beyond its competition.
[Read more: How to Boost Sales With Biz Dev ]
Key business development activities
Business development encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. Someone who works in biz dev would help the sales team by qualifying leads and pinpointing potential prospective clients. Business development representatives have deep knowledge of who your target customer is: They understand that not every potential customer is going to be the right fit for your business, and can discern which prospective customers are worth sharing with your sales team. These people work at the top of the sales funnel , bringing opportunities to the desk of your sales representative.
A business development manager would also proactively seek new brand opportunities. This includes networking, researching your competition and industry trends, and talking to current customers to learn more about your business’s unique value proposition.
[Read more: Why Online Networking Matters for SMEs ]
Beyond sending qualified leads to your sales team, the business development team would help ensure satisfaction throughout the sales process. “Once a [business development representative] researches the prospect or begins interacting with them, ensure they tailor all communication towards the prospect,” wrote Hubspot . “Customizing all content sent their way shows them they’re being listened to and cared for. These actions are professional and leave a strong impression.”
Business development representatives have deep knowledge of who your target customer is: They understand that not every potential customer is going to be the right fit for your business, and can discern which prospective customers are worth sharing with your sales team.
Do you need a business development plan.
Some business owners put together a business development plan that outlines your goals and strategies for growth. A biz dev plan differs from your core business plan in that it is focused exclusively on opportunities for growth. It might include sections such as:
- Financial goals : What revenue, costs, and profits do you hope to achieve?
- Funding : Do you need capital to fund your business growth?
- Operational and team needs : What expertise and resources do you need to grow?
- Sales and marketing : How will these functions contribute to your growth goals?
Organizing your business development strategy with these elements in mind can help you prioritize resources, create a reasonable timeline, and set expectations for your sales and marketing teams.
Top business development tactics
Business development isn’t just for large enterprises. Small business owners need biz dev too. And you don’t need expensive sales software to get started with business development.
First, focus on improving your networking. Networking is less about collecting business cards and more about fostering genuine relationships with business leaders around you. Expand your networking effort to meet people and potential partners online and in person, and put effort into building those relationships over time.
Next, improve your inbound marketing by offering demos or consultations for prospects and leads. You can film these and offer them via email to targeted groups, or host in-person workshops at your storefront and see who shows up. Make sure you collect the contact information of those who participate and follow up with them later to start building a connection. Nurturing prospects is both a sales tactic and important biz dev activity.
“The point of lead nurturing is to provide any information needed about your product or service so your prospects can decide whether or not they want to make a purchase,” wrote Hubspot .
Finally, empower your team members to participate in business development. If your workers are hourly, offer to compensate them for time spent learning about the industry, going to networking events outside of work hours, and coming up with new ways to reach prospective customers. Incentivize sales referrals to expand your network.
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10+ Business Development Plan Examples [ Marketing, Construction, Research ]
Business development plan, 10+ business development plan examples, 1. business development plan template, 2. service business development plan template, 3. marketing agency business development plan template, 4. marketing business development plan, 5. job/business development plan, 6. construction business development plan, 7. university business development plan, 8. strategic business development plan, 9. research business development plan, 10. global business development plan, 11. business development action plan, what to avoid in making a business development plan, why is positioning important, what are some of the typical marketing channels that can be considered when writing for a business development plan.
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Former Panthers site entrance, large home lots near Lake Wylie among Rock Hill plans
By John Marks
Development plans in Rock Hill include what would have been the Carolina Panthers headquarters, large residential lots near Lake Wylie and business space.
The city planning commission will meet March 7.
That agenda includes several annexation and rezoning cases. The commission will make recommendations ahead of a Rock Hill City Council final decision on each.
Here’s a look at what’s on the table:
▪ Rock Hill applied to annex two properties that were part of the failed Carolina Panthers headquarters project. The 228 Mt. Gallant Road and unaddressed parcel, also on Mt. Gallant, combine for almost 7 acres.
The unaddressed site would’ve been an entrance to the Panthers property. It was used to hold items for construction until the project halted last year. The other Mt. Gallant property has a building on it that was used as an office for the Panthers development. The city acquired the property along with the larger Panthers site through bankruptcy proceedings.
The two-parcel annexation plan didn’t come with details on how the city might use or develop the land. A required zoning change with the annexation would give the properties a general industrial zoning.
▪ Catawba River Investments applied to rezone more than 93 acres near Lake Wylie for a large lot subdivision. The property is off Mt. Gallant Road at Foxridge and Nautilus roads, beside and across from Mt. Gallant Elementary and Dutchman Creek Middle schools respectively.
The property is wooded except for about 35 acres in a Duke Energy power line easement. The site is near the Museum of York County. Three years ago the applicant requested an 80-lot subdivision that didn’t happen. Now the plan is for lots at 10 or more acres, for buyers who may want more rural home sites.
▪ South Fork Ventures applied to annex 23 acres at Celanese Road and Trexler Lane. The property runs both sides of Celanese, near the city airport. Commercial development plans for the site include office, retail and self-storage.
The wooded property also has frontage on Ebenezer Road. Concept drawings show a two-story self-storage facility and single stories for remaining buildings. Access would come from Ebenezer and Trexler, not Celanese.
The 80,000-square-foot storage facility would be to the north, off Trexler. It includes outdoor storage that could be used for boats, RVs or other parked vehicles. Two flex buildings, at 12,500 and 7,500 square feet, also are to the north of Celanese, off Trexler.
South of Celanese, a 22,000-square-foot office or professional building would back up to two outparcel spaces at more than an acre each. The plan doesn’t show what would go on those outparcels, along the Ebenezer side.
▪ Landover One, affiliated with Warren Norman Co. , applied to annex and rezone almost 8 acres on Sharonwood Lane and India Hook Road. The company asked that a decision be deferred to a later planning commission meeting. The zoning change would make the entire property commercial.
▪ An annexation plan for two Cherry Road properties would allow a new auto repair site. The properties at 2147 and 2153 Cherry Road sit across from the city wastewater facility. The new use would replace a former restaurant and former barbershop in two buildings at those sites.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023, 2:31 PM.
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Infra development is the driving force of country's economy: PM Modi
Prime minister said, "gati shakti national master plan is going to change the face of india's infrastructure and its multimodal logistics".
Topics infrastructure | Narendra Modi | PM Gati Shakti Master Plan
IANS | New Delhi Last Updated at March 4, 2023 15:03 IST
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" Infrastructure development is the driving force of the country's economy", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday while expressing confidence that India will emerge as a developed nation by 2047 by following this very path.
Noting that PM Gati Shakti Master Plan is a critical tool that integrates economic and infrastructural planning with development, the Prime Minister said, "Gati Shakti National Master Plan is going to change the face of India's infrastructure and its multimodal logistics."
Prime Minister Modi made the observation during a Post Budget Webinar on ' Infrastructure and Investment: Improving logistic efficiency with PM Gatishakti National Master Plan'.
Addressing the gathering, he expressed happiness that hundreds of stakeholders took part in the webinar along with more than 700 CEOs and MDs by recognising its importance. He said that this year's Budget will give new energy to infrastructure.
"Infrastructure has a significant role to play in the sustainable development of any country along with development while keeping the needs of the future in mind", the Prime Minister remarked.
He underlined that those who have knowledge of history related to infrastructure are well-versed with this fact. He cited the construction of Uttarapath by Chandragupta Maurya which was carried forward by Ashoka and later upgraded by Sher Shah Suri.
Prime Minister Modi informed that it were the Britishers who turned it into G T Road. "The importance of highways has been acknowledged for centuries in India", the Prime Minister said.
Referring to riverfronts and waterways, the PM cited the example of the Ghats of Banaras which were directly connected to Kolkata via waterways. He also gave the example of the still operational, 2 thousand-year-old Kallanai dam of Tamil Nadu.
Noting the obstacles that came in the way of investments in the infrastructural development of the country by previous governments, the Prime Minister highlighted the prevailing mentality that poverty is a virtue. He underlined that the present government has not only been successful in eliminating this mentality but also in making record investments in modern infrastructure.
The PM informed that India's Capex has increased 5 times compared to 2013-14 and the government is moving with a target of investing 110 lakh crore rupees under the National Infrastructure Pipeline. "This is a time of new responsibilities, new possibilities and bold decisions for every stakeholder, he emphasised.
Prime Minister Modi noted that the results of the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan are becoming visible. "We have identified the gaps that were impacting the logistics efficiency. That is why, in this year's Budget, 100, critical projects have been prioritized and 75,000 crore rupees have been allocated.
He asked the participants to find ways to develop a mechanism for an advanced forecast of the needs of their sectors as various materials are needed for infrastructure development.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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First Published: Sat, March 04 2023. 15:03 IST
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Proposals are invited for Consultancy Service for the Development of a National Manpower Plan for the Ministry of Planning and Development.
Proposal documents are available from Monday to Friday during office hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (local time) at the following address:
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DBP supports PH Development Plan
Published March 4, 2023, 1:40 PM
by Emmie V. Abadilla
The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is expanding its funding support for industries under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), announced new President and Chief Executive Officer Michael O. de Jesus.
The state-owned bank rallies behind the government’s “servicification,” of high-growth industries, such as information and communications technology, creatives, tourism, logistics and technology start-ups.
“DBP is one with the National Government in filling the financing gap for emerging and sunrise industries anchored on innovation and technology,” he reiterated.
The state-owned bank could also provide credit to digitalize private firms and businesses, as well as local government units to widen their market reach and scale up in the global value chain, De Jesus explained.
DBP’s developmental mindset and experience in bankrolling pioneering high-impact projects in infrastructure, tourism, transportation, logistics, and health care could serve as a template for these initiatives, he maintained.
“The recent ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership makes it imperative for Philippine firms and businesses to enhance their competitiveness,” according to the President.
“DBP can readily provide its resources towards that end,” de Jesus stressed.
“We are in a prime position to support the goals outlined in the PDP, the country’s economic development roadmap.”
DBP is the eighth largest bank in the country in terms of assets.It provides credit support to infrastructure and logistics micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) the environment, as well as social services and community development.
The bank is one of the oldest financial institutions nationwide, established primarily to fund post-war recovery and rehabilitation efforts.
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A business development plan sets goals for growth and explains how you will achieve them. It can have a short-term or long-term focus. Review and revise your plan as often as you can. And keep building on it as your business evolves. How to write a business development plan
What is a Business Development Plan? (Definition) A business development plan is a detailed strategic plan on how to develop your business by implementing various ideas, tactics, and strategies that assist a company in scale better in every sphere of the business.
A business development plan is a written document showcasing the business' aims, both long-term and short-term, and how they intend to reach them. The business development planning process requires all departments to work together for a common goal, often to expand commercially and increase profits, and will include the various steps to ...
Business development encompasses a wide scope of ideas, activities, and initiatives that a business owner and management implement with the goal of making the business better. Business...
What is a business development plan? A business development plan is a document that helps you implement your business development strategy in a step-by-step method. It involves a lot of research on the market and customers. But also, other aspects such as your competitors and buyer persona.
Business & Development. More than 12,000 businesses and an employment base of over 106,000 have come to Santa Clara to find their mission. Low utility rates, innovative infrastructure and dynamic development are just a few reasons businesses thrive in the center of what's possible.
Business development is the process of implementing strategies and opportunities across your organization to promote growth and boost revenue. It involves pursuing opportunities to help your business grow, identifying new prospects, and converting more leads into customers.
Spot growth opportunities. Idea generation. Experimentation ideas. Lead generation. Prospecting. Project management. Strategic partnership management. Analyze data. Let's dive deeper into these common business development activities that will help you become a better business development pro.
Business development is the practice of identifying, attracting, and acquiring new business to further your company's revenue and growth goals. How you achieve these goals is sometimes referred to as a business development strategy — and it applies to and benefits everyone at your company.
To find out zoning information for your property you may do one of the following: Search by property address or Assessor's Parcel Number (APN) using our interactive map: MAP Santa Clara. Contact the Planning Division at 408-615-2450 or [email protected] Once you identify your zoning designation, continue to the links below for the ...
Planning and Development; Police Department; Public Works. Administration. Parking Enforcement; Meet the Director; Building Services; ... Business Planning and Development Hillcrest DOD. CITY OF LITTLE ROCK. 500 W Markham St. / Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 501-371-4510 [email protected] ...
Business development is all about facilitating communication between departments to achieve new business goals. The best way to align your company with a unified vision is through a CRM. With a simple CRM like Zendesk Sell, communication between your business development team and all other departments becomes effortless.
At the macro-level, development is linked to growth and empowerment. In a professional context, development planning is the collection of milestones and goals that a person or organization plans to meet withing a certain period of time. The milestones are time-based benchmarks that help measure progress. A professional development plan usually ...
The 5 steps for creating unique business development processes are: Defining Your Business's Goals Identifying The Target Audience Of Your Business Performing Quality Market Research Determining The Best Channels To Utilize Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) A Great Business Development Strategy Plan Takes Time
A business development plan is a document put together by the business owner with the aim to grow and improve their business. The plan will set goals for growth and explain how you will achieve them. A business development strategy can have a short-term or long-term focus, or both.
interviewed. We define "organisational development" as investments in a range of critical efficiency and growth-oriented capabilities. Our toolkit collaborators helped to develop a list of 13, such as strategic clarity, finance and accounting, fundraising, and legal compliance. (See "13 Organisational Development Capabilities" on page 5.)
Business development is a process that involves identifying, planning and implementing strategies for company growth. Business development practices focus on increasing sales and innovating the ways a company finds and retains customers.
Based in Miami, FL and reporting to the Sr Mgr Transformation & Program Delivery, the Integrated Business Planning Intern will provide support to the Shared Services Transformation and Program Delivery team. Under the direction of the IBP leadership team, this role will promote best in class IBP ways of working as well as use data and insights ...
Business plans help you run your business A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You'll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It's a way to think through the key elements of your business.
The mission of the Planning Office is implemented through four areas of service. Public Information: We provide land use and demographic trend information to decision makers, developers, land owners, community organizations, businesses, investors and members of the general public.. Planning: We initiate and manage planning studies relating to growth management, resource conservation, and other ...
Business development, colloquially known as biz dev, is a broad term that essentially refers to creating value for your business. Biz dev commonly involves activities such as increasing revenues, expanding your business, improving profitability through partnerships, and making strategic business decisions that benefit your bottom line.
A business development plan is a type of document that provides an outline of the method of implementation set on a particular development strategy. It can be a plan, a practice or a firm. It covers most of the business aspects of which it includes marketing, sales, services and more.
Development plans in Rock Hill include what would have been the Carolina Panthers headquarters, large residential lots near Lake Wylie and business space. The city planning commission will meet ...
Pacific Business Development Manager. Date: 09-Feb-2023 Location: Suva, Fiji Company: Plan International The Organisation. Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children's rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child.
Prime Minister Modi noted that the results of the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan are becoming visible. "We have identified the gaps that were impacting the logistics efficiency. That is why, in this year's Budget, 100, critical projects have been prioritized and 75,000 crore rupees have been allocated. He asked the participants to find ways to ...
We are currently looking for an enterprising quota carrying Director, Business Development (With focus on Customer development that opens and closes new sales) to help achieve our expanded mission ...
Proposals are invited for Consultancy Service for the Development of a National Manpower Plan for the Ministry of Planning and Development. Proposal documents are available from Monday to Friday during office hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (local time) at the following address: Ministry of Planning and Development. Procurement Unit
The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is expanding its funding support for industries under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), announced new President and Chief Executive Officer Michael O. de Jesus. ... ["business","business-news","business"] [3184082,3184001,3183811,3183802,3183772,3183760,3183460] Load More. Trending Now .