Business development plays a key role in the growth of every business. It is the aspect of business that deals with establishing growth opportunities and strategic partnerships that can in due time, reflect the value and bring about exponential growth for a business.
Although in recent years, more small businesses are beginning to incorporate business development into their organizations. Certain avoidable mistakes still prevent them from actualizing the full potential of business development.
Mistakes in Business Development
Some of the mistakes made by startups and SMEs in their business development activities are simple everyday activities that can be easily addressed. They include;
- Pursing Small Deals
Strategic partnerships are very important in the business development process, but focusing a lot of time, energy, and resources on small deals is very detrimental to the growth of a business.
Small deals are synonymous with small rewards, but like big deals, they take approximately the same amount of time and energy to close, especially when it is related to a B2B partnership. Reserve the energy used in pursuing small deals and go after deals that can create substantial value for your business.
- Not Thinking Long Term
The best strategic partnerships are those whose value for your company isn’t just felt 1-3 years, but those that can span 5-10 years and counting. Thinking and strategizing this far into the future will put your company in a position of long-term growth.
- Being Too Focused on Selling
Although sales are important in every business, it becomes a problem when the primary focus of the business development team becomes only to sell. The mindset of the business development team is to create different opportunities aside from sales to add value to the business. Their focus should be on designing models that solve problems for the business and the prospective partner.
- Being Too Desperate
Desperation is one action that has affected the quality of deals by many startups and small businesses. Because some businesses see an opportunity for growth partnering with another organization, they become too desperate to get a deal and this comes at their own expense. In some cases, the other party takes advantage of this weakness in the negotiation process and closes a deal that isn’t mutually beneficial.
Before going into a negotiation with a prospective partner, it is important to have your terms of negotiation and a baseline to which you cannot exceed in order not to be exploited.
- No Lead Generating System
Just like in sales, you want to have a pipeline of steady-flowing leads that can be of value to your business. To achieve this, you have to build some type of lead-generating system. This system should work with your industry and can generate for you quality leads at all times.
The above are simple mistakes in business development experience in most early-stage startups and SMEs. Taking note of these mistakes and avoiding them can create exponential growth for your business and save you valuable time and resources in other aspects of the business.
