What is a Bizdev vs Business Developer?
The “Business Developer” is also known as the Development Manager.
The Business Developer is a fine connoisseur of business, but he is not a salesman. He has a much broader function.
What distinguishes him from the classic salesman is his constant search for new opportunities in the market and the development of effective and sustainable strategies to increase the company’s turnover.
Ses rôles :
• It detects new opportunities for the development of a structure on the market in order to participate in the growth and increase of the company’s turnover.
• It establishes the strategy for the next few years to expand the company’s activities.
• He must always have in mind the medium and long term development of the company, be attentive to the market, anticipate opportunities (change in legislation, arrival of a competitor, opening of a market).
• He must have a global vision of the sector.
• He/she is attached to several departments and therefore to several teams. Everything depends on the sector of activity and the projects. To better deploy his strategy, he can work with the different departments of the company, namely sales, marketing, finance and/or legal, but also with other departments such as human resources and quality services.
Ses objectifs :
• Researching new types of products or services that the company could produce by highlighting bridges between the current activity and the targeted future activity.
• Attract new customers by implementing innovative marketing strategies and targeting the needs of future customers.
• Enter markets where the company is not yet present.
• Master all the points to know about your company: its needs, its financial situation, its products, its production capacity, its existing customers and especially its employees. From this analysis come the actions and evolutions to be carried out.
• He will carry out an audit of the internal capacities, surveys and simulations.
• To tackle the external environment of the company.
For this, he will proceed to the study of the market and will measure its attractiveness.
• He will diagnose the customer portfolio as well as the strength of the competitors.
•From these observations and analyses, he will be able to elaborate a first action plan.
Ses missions :
The Business Developer, the Sales Manager and the Sales Representative are all valuable players in promoting the growth of a company. However, their missions are quite distinct and specific.
The sales manager and the commercial will focus more on the realization of short-term contracts while the missions of the Business Developer will be broader and will act on the medium and long term.
The missions of the BD:
• Find new levers for the growth of a company
• Search for methods to perpetuate growth in the long term
• Provide solutions and implement projects to develop the turnover in a direct way by looking for new customers and/or products or in an indirect way by marketing and communication.
• Open new markets or propose new products and services to existing customers.
• Analyze and target the strategic orientations in order to constitute the development plan.
Once the contract is signed, the business developer does not carry out the project. The sales people take over and deal with the technical-commercial offer. The BD will continue to follow the implementation of the contract remotely.
Ses qualités :
Because of his transversal function, the Business developer evolves in the middle of several departments. He will act with different sectors of the company: commercial, legal, financial, administrative, human resources, quality…
He must define himself and be perceived as an added value by bringing new wind and innovation.
The Business Developer must have strong commercial skills.
He must :
• Have a real knowledge of the sector of activity for which he/she works,
• Master the workings of the company and its market.
• Be curious about the latest innovations and new methods,
• Demonstrate autonomy and great relational skills,
• To be attentive to partners and the market in order to find the best offers! Being able to listen is 90% of the job!
• Know how to negotiate,
• Be able to analyze a market, be strategy-oriented and have a long-term vision,
• Master the different technical aspects of his job,
• Know the sector in which he/she works in order to understand the existing stakes in the relationship between the company and its customers.
• Be creative and imaginative in order to find new ways to generate sales.
• Be able to evaluate, adapt and readjust the actions to be implemented according to the evolution of situations,
• Adhere to the company’s values.
