While many of us will recognize a good, well-thought-out marketing campaign when we see one, the single, basic truth about world classmarketing campaign development is that it is easy to say, but hard to do. It is hard to do because we all like to take short-cuts. I hear the lament all too often: “I’m over-worked don’t have the time to think strategically.
A sound organization aiming to withstand competitors never stops business development but engages in it as an ongoing process. However, business development is often related to growth although sometimes the optimal marketing strategy and objectives could be about downsizing the activity in an existing market or decreasing the sales volume of a selected line of products or services.
In a sales role, business development could concentrate on developing strategic-channel relationships or on general sales. This emerges from analysis of the varied job descriptions found in job-search engines, especially in the UK. In the US, the term “capture management” appears as an alternative job or role title, typically used when describing business development as an operational function to support the selling function of a company.
Business-development professionals frequently have had earlier experience in financial services, investment banking or management consulting; although many find their route to this area by climbing the corporate ladder in functions such as operations management or sales.
