Business development is a hybrid profession - a response to a marketplace that became weary of so many salespeople parading through front doors, entering back doors and prying open every chink in the walls of companies with money to spend. "People love to buy but hate to be sold." So measures have been put in place to make it hard for salespeople to simply call business people and sell their stuff.
Marketing and sales have become more interdependent and the trend is that these two functions are becoming intertwined. Sales are still where most of the glory is when it comes to impressing the boss. Sales rules because businesses live on cash flow and new business is lifeblood to organizations. But sales work has changed to business development (think relationships) and effective business development must utilize marketing principles and tactics to open doors to new business opportunities. A salesperson must get his message out to prospects who are truly in the market to buy.
Every salesperson's computer can now be a broadcasting and receiving station, i.e., a media outlet. And guess what? Airtime is free. Paying for a boost with advertising is always an option but one can reach thousands in a target audience by spending only time; learning and using the free tools: Social media, email and networking. Many thriving businesses have been launched with no marketing budget.
If you already have a computer, internet connection, cell phone and car then you have the infrastructure to effectively grow a business. The only thing else you need is time and willingness to work hard. It's really wonderful to implement an effective marketing campaign which makes business development efforts much easier (think warm inbound leads), all with no need to spend media dollars. Those dollars can be invested instead toward service improvements which will make your clients the best sales force you could want.
Chuck Sink is president of Chuck Sink Link, Hopkinton, N.H.