American Express, June 2020
Business development serves an important function for companies, and the results depend on the strategies a company chooses.
Crafting a well-thought-out business development plan can help your organization identify its goals and generate a punch list of tasks for your team to accomplish to help achieve growth.
Conducting a SWOT analysis is a good place to start. This means identifying the company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Consider what the business does well, along with its limitations, capabilities and competition.
Next, choose a metric by which to measure the company’s success. In addition to tracking revenues, the business might also gauge its growth based on leads generated, number of employees, geographical footprint or new customers.
Finally, determine who will be responsible for business development. Consider growth-minded resources who are skilled at networking, relationship building, sales and negotiating to make sure you have the right people to carry out this essential role.
Many successful businesses make business development a priority, and having your company set out to create its own business development plan may put your organization in a strong position to thrive.
