My hobby horses are stabled securely within a safe place in the back of my mind most of the time. But occasionally, they become active in response to something I see or hear.
As visible as a horse of thoroughbred breeding, a hobby horse of mine emerged this week when someone told me they worked in business development, which is sales.
What!
Business Development is not sales! I replied, and my hobby horse romped before us.
Sales and business development are very different.
Sales is a short-term and transactional way of generating revenue within a defined start-and-finish process.
Sales tend to be cost and price-driven within a push, push delivery mode to compete for market share.
Business development looks for ways to change, improve, and add value.
Business development creates sustainable long-term value using your ideas, initiatives, and improvement activities to deliver value and outcomes that solve issues and problems for people.
Well, run and performed business development will help you align your strategy and value proposition to focus on engagement and relationships with prospects over a longer-term pipeline.
Helping you position actions and culture gives the client the confidence to pull you towards their future success.
Sales and business development have their place.
Please help me keep my hobby horse safe in the stables.
Business development is not sales!