What is "Business Development"?

There are a lot of ways to define business development but one common definition is simply "the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and partnerships in order to grow that organization."

Business development is all about figuring out how the interactions of those 3 forces (customers, markets, and partnerships) combine together to create opportunities for business growth. For example, the focus of a business development manager or VP of business development at a company like Nike is specifically on how they can get either new customers to buy more Nike products, new partners to sell more Nike products, or how they can find a new market that Nike can enter with their existing products or a new product line. The business development team will focus on implementing whichever strategy will create the most "long term value" for Nike and they will often work with other departments like Marketing and Legal to make sure the strategy is implemented properly and as quickly as possible.

Let's look at another example where you own your start-up. If you owned a lemonade stand and you hired a business development manager to help you grow your business, here are some things they might try to do:
They could help you find new markets to open more lemonade stands outside your neighborhood.
They could help you partner with a large chain of super markets that might buy your lemonade and sell it in their stores.
They could help you partner with a lemon farmer who could sell you more lemons at a cheaper price so you could open more stands faster.
They could help you build a relationship with local businesses or schools that might want you to sell your lemonade at lunch-time to their employees or students which would bring you more customers.

All of these strategies would hopefully create more long term value for your lemonade business so you could continue growing the company. I hope you found this answer helpful.

As someone who has had the Business Development title on my business card, Ms Wigenton gave a very good answer. Business Development is basically a sales role, although it tends to be more strategic. For example, if sales people find prospects by cold calling via the phone or knocking on doors, business development people find channel partners and other companies that can provide introductions and referrals as a way to find new prospects. In other words, they find ways to make multiple sales from one contact rather than just one sale. I believe the title is seen more frequently in Business-to-Business companies than in companies that sell to consumers.

Business Development is Sales and Relationship Management.

Hello,

Good question,

Business Development is a team within the sales organization. Most companies have a "Sales Development Department" What happens is a Sales Development Rep is someone who identifies leads and qualifies them for a Account Executive or Sales Rep in hopes they can close the sale. So the Business Development Team may consist of Sales Development Rep/ Account Executive then a Account Manager

1) Person who finds and qualifies a sales lead
2) Person who has call with prospect and tries to close deal
3) Person who manages the account after they already purchased product from the company

Hope this helps

Business development is a combination of strategic analysis, marketing, and sales.Business development is the process of marketing, sales, and development strategies for your company. All businesses need to focus attention on the creation of marketing and business expansion. While there are people who devote their professional lives to stand alone business development tactics for other companies, some businesses prefer to do the work themselves.

As the title says, it creates business relationship with other companies. Business development may create partnership with the other company, sharing of knowledge, creating of join venture company.

Business development jobs are interesting if you want to be involved in connecting companies to leverage their strengths. You will also get to know many people in different industries which in the future it may become your asset.

Great answers across the board! I definitely agree and would only help clarify that in my experience channel partners are usually 3rd party companies that help sell your company's products or services. Business development professionals in your company manage the relationships with these partner companies and assist with the official agreements between the different parties to ensure mutually beneficial results (i.e. more sales for all parties). That, of course, is on top of Business Development being also associated with direct Sales activities or relationship initiation and management with direct customers.

Hi Clareta,

There are a few types of business development that I have seen evolve in the past few years. The first is more of a sales type of role, where salespersons may be contacting potential businesses which may find value in a product or service that is offered. The second type is as a consultant and help the business create a growth model that is sustainable. Last is a relationship management type of role where a person would be involved in project management to be the relay among teams/companies to help provide insight and analysis of trends.

Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships

Business development is combination of Lead generation, Sales & relationship management

Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.