Business Development: The Secret Key to Long-Term & Sustained Growth

If you’re growing a business, you’ve probably heard you’re supposed to “network.” But, if you’re anything like me, this advice has always felt vague. If you’re already overwhelmed with day-to-day responsibilities, a long night out small talking with strangers can feel counterproductive. You might also struggle to see the point when sales seem to offer a more straightforward path to growth. 

While sales is obviously a critically important function of any business, the real key to long-term and sustained growth lies in a form of focused and intentional networking, known as business development. And no one I know has more insight on this topic than my colleague John Dinkel, owner of Dinkel Business Development.   

With John’s 25 years of experience in sales and business development to steer us, we’ve created a guide that will help you understand why business development is such an overlooked yet crucial aspect of the business growth process. In this article, we’ll dig into: 

• What is Business Development? 

• The Difference Between Business Development and Sales 

• Why You Need to Be Doing Business Development 

• 3 Core Business Development Activities You Can Start Doing Right Now 

What is Business Development? 

“When I talk about business development, I mean creating strategic opportunities to generate revenue,” says John. “We coach our clients to focus on building long-term mutually beneficial relationships with partners, prospects, and clients.” 

Essentially, business development is a broad range of activities aimed at expanding your business’s reach and fostering long-term growth.  

“The goal of these activities is to help clients get in front of a prospect or a partner so that they can start delivering value,” John explains. 

Some of the key activities that fall under the business development umbrella are:  

• Relationship Marketing: Identifying and fostering long-term relationships with clients, customers, business partners, or influencers within your industry.    

• Identifying New Opportunities: Finding new markets, customer segments, or business ventures that align with your company’s goals.  

• Developing Strategic Partnerships: Forming strategic alliances with other businesses to enhance your industry presence.   

• Creating Referral Channels: Establishing methods to ensure that clients and strategically aligned business partners consistently refer you new opportunities. 

The Difference Between Business Development and Sales 

Many business leaders are unaware of the distinction between business development and sales and may even use these terms interchangeably. Although there is some overlap, both have distinct focus areas and functions within an organization. Understanding this difference can be key to grasping what might be missing from your growth strategies.  

Business Development: 

• Focuses on long-term relationship building and strategic partnerships to generate leads 

• Identifies areas for market expansion.  

• Creates referral systems where current clients, partners, or centers of influence continually refer you to new clients. 

• Requires networking and long-term strategic thinking. 

Sales: 

• Focuses more closely on taking a prospect through the sales process. 

• Qualifies sales leads, communicates value propositions, negotiates, and closes deals. 

• Most often requires direct customer interaction to understand potential customer needs and influence their purchase decisions. 

• Salespeople must have strong selling and closing tactics, often learned through sales training programs.  

Although they have separate functions, sales, and business development should ideally work in harmony. Effective business development practices will create new opportunities for sales teams to pursue, and insights from the sales process can be used to hone in on new potential business development partnerships and areas for market expansion. 

Why You Need to Be Doing Business Development 

“If you’re a CEO or business leader, you are the best business developer your company can have,” John says. “This is because no one knows more about your business than you do.”  

The truth is, regardless of whether you love to chat with strangers or are more of an introvert, you are the one with the most passionate belief in your company and the services or products you offer. So, no one can articulate the vision and purpose of your business the way you are able to.  

“Even in situations where a CEO or business owner is very hesitant to be the face of the company and wants to pass that responsibility onto someone else, I always say, ‘I hear you, but for your own personal development, you need to be out there building relationships,’” John tells me. “Because, ultimately, you are the best person to tell that story.”  

Additionally, very few people in your organization are likely to have access to the owners, CEOs, and other decision-makers that you are likely to have.  

“Business owners love to talk about their businesses,” explains John. “And they have great stories to share. But they especially love to share them with other business leaders, so access is key here.” 

3 Core Business Development Activities You Can Be Doing Right Now 

So, you understand the critical nature of business development and have practiced your elevator pitch in the mirror but are unsure where to begin. Here are three main areas where you can focus your efforts right away.  

1. Connect with Centers of Influence  

Centers of Influence are individuals in your network where there is mutual trust, you’re giving each other value, you know each other’s business and they are networking with your potential targets. When you have a good center of influence network, you essentially have advocates in the marketplace that are helping to generate referrals for you because you’re doing the same thing for them. To create these connections, follow John’s advice and do the following: 

• Identify and Nurture Relationships: “One of the first things to do is look back over the past two or three years and identify all the people who have referred business to you. These are your initial centers of influence, and you already have built-in trust and knowledge with them. They’ve already shown that they trust you and they know your business. It’s crucial to nurture these relationships by meeting with them on a regular basis and giving them value.” 

• Provide Value: “To build strong centers of influence, you need to provide them with value. This can be done through introductions, sharing valuable information, or inviting them to events where they can meet potential clients. The key is to always ask questions about their business to find out where you can help and deliver for them, and hopefully, they will eventually do the same.” 

• Build Trust: “It’s essential to keep nurturing these relationships. This could mean regular check-ins, lunches, or even quick Zoom meetings to stay connected. No need to be too formal with this; you can just reach out and say, “Hey, it’s been a while. Would love to meet up for lunch and learn more about what you’re doing these days.” To create a long-term mutually beneficial relationship, there must be trust and familiarity.”  

2. Ask for Referrals 

“Building these types of deeper relationships with your clients positions you to request referrals and expand your business through their networks. And many people just never make that ask,” John explains. 

The data backs up John’s claims. According to multiple sources, 83% of customers are willing to give a referral after a positive experience, but only 29% actually do so because sales people usually don’t ask for it​ (TrueList)​​(WebinarCare)​. 

“If I’m working with a company and I’m really pleased with them, most of the time, I’m happy to give them a referral because I love their work, and I want my colleague to experience the same.” 

3. Network  

As we circle back to that vague concept of networking, let’s have John help us reframe what this term means in a business development context. “You never know where you’re going to meet your next client. Networking can happen at a child’s soccer match, a casual conversation at a bar, or any number of everyday situations. Even when I go to a networking event, I’m not there to make a sale or close deals. I’m just there to make friends and build relationships. Lead with questions about what they do and how their business operates and let the conversation flow from there.” 

This mindset, paired with an understanding of the distinction between sales and business development, can hopefully give you a more long-term and manageable view of how to “network” and develop business relationships. As John tells us, “I’m always meeting new people and adding new centers of influence to my network, and ultimately, some don’t work out. So, finding the right people takes time and involves trial and error. It’s not going to happen overnight. But clients of mine who put in that time and develop those relationships see great results.” 

If you’re looking for some instruction and accountability when it comes to developing your business or just have further questions about the concepts discussed here, get in touch with John Dinkel at john@dinkelbd.com. 

Or, if you need assistance or advice with the technology side of your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to Krister Dunn at kristerd@reliabletechnology.com.