As a professional, you know that no two days are alike in sales and business development. You’re quick to adapt to new situations, and you have great instincts about people. While you’re big-goal oriented, you also recognize how important it is to get the details right. It’s time you took a deeper look at sales and business development roles
As a sales professional, I support the organization’s business in uncovering, nurturing, and closing sales opportunities. Working hand-in-hand with a variety of leaders, I focus my highly skilled efforts in securing and fostering relationships with potential clients and key decision-makers to uncover opportunities, develop effective sales strategies, manage the pursuits process, and serve as an adviser to the pursuits team throughout the process.
Here, I am:
- Exposed to a range of opportunities, clients, and account teams.
- Developed highly sought after skills that have taken me far beyond my initial expectations.
- Gained more varied and valuable experience with client teams and pursuits to continue refining my sales approach.
- Met inspiring, intellectually stimulating people and work.
Impact on the company’s profits
As a business and sales developer, I contribute to a company’s success by bringing in more revenue, and I do so in different ways and within different time frames. The busibess sales development function involves creating a Run Book, reviewing leads, researching them, determining which ones are most likely to convert and handing those off to an Account Executive to close.
My focus is on what the customer needs or a solution for the problem the customer has. or client can buy from the company. I establish tepor and a professional relationship to give the company new audiences to sell to in the future.
For example, in a recent role as a business sales development representative for a company that makes strategic product roadmapping SaaS tool, so as to communicate product roadmapping and for comminating product strategy across the organization with teams, stakeholders, customers, etc., might respond to an inquiry from me on a cold call about putting products on an excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, or in ms project, Google sheets or even a word document in their department for direct communication to stakeholders or colleagues, teams, customers, consumers. The company’s business development department might work on a 30 day or a 10-year roadmap to track projects to their area, department, or division for the company’s goals and mission who ultimately drive growth and revenue.
Customer’s perspective
Prospects or customers working with the business sales development representative are likely at one of three stages in the buying process:
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Awareness: They may be looking for a solution to a problem that the company can solve. Using the example of the SaaS product roadmapping tool, a customer at this stage knows they need a new tracking or roadmapping tool for communicating strategy and is looking at what the company offers.
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Consideration: They may have already identified several solutions and are evaluating all the options. At this stage, the customer has looked at variety solutions and is deciding which one they want.
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Decision: They may have selected the solution they want and decided what they are willing to pay for it. At this stage, the customer knows which of the roadmapping tool they want and are comparing prices at various SaaS providers.
At this point, a meeting is scheduled brought to the meeting through a calendar invite and the prospect is introduced and handed off to the Account Executive who will work with the prospects new product offering and convert to a customer who are in the first stage of looking for solutions. In that sense, as a business sales development representative, my main purpose is not sales transactions. It is to work with the prospect in identifying and qualifying this as a lead where the prospect needs a new roadmapping tool where the customer can evaluate in the demonstration process as first stage of buying while they are considering all the possible solutions.
Timeline of the impact
My business sales development role is part of the day-to-day creation of revenue. As outbound, I qualify the prospect with a series of questions: How are they currently roadmapping? What is the biggest pain point with their current roadmapping solution they would like solved? How long do you spend on roadmapping each week? How are you currently tracking your information backlog? Outside of your department, who else do you think would be interested in understanding how a product like this works? This process happens daily to keep pushing for more appointments into qualified meetings to be converted to opportunities of new business revenue. My sales development goals are # meetings, completed Meetings, and how many converted opportunities, usually defined in monthly, quarterly or annual terms. So, as a hour-by-hour, day-by-day, I work with the Account Executives on strategic partnership and new products that they will follow through on or more to come to collecting the customers subscription. The time required to generate revenue from those efforts might take up to six months. In my business sales development, I contributes to the long-term future of the company by my day-by- day outreach cold calling efforts to find ‘a needle in the haystack’ where a prospect has a need or a pain that needs to be solved.
Focus on current product and technology
I focus on the product roadmap the company can deliver to the prospect through a brief conversation. My focus is to focus on getting the current product awareness to the prospect.
Day-to-day tasks of a business sales development representative
As a business sales development representative, I am Frontline offense of the company calling on customers and prospective customers, presenting unique value proposition(s), value statements, 10-second claims, asking questions, inquiring about current tools, how they are working, tentative closes to get appointment / meeting on the calendar and conduct the confirmation process of getting the prospect to show up to the meeting. I then provide the Account Executive researched company profile, information about what the company does, revenue, how many employees, length of time in business, etc.
Cold calls do get Results!
If everything goes well for both parties, the result will be a seller who makes a profit and a customer with a product that meets their needs. My business sales development role is a relational activity. My goal is to quickly establish a repor and to identify, cultivate and grow relationships that will open up new paths for opportunities in the future. The result of successful business development is strong, mutually beneficial relationships.
Using data to formulate strategy isn’t just a trend in B2B sales and marketing—it’s what drives my business growth by ensuring my outreach speaks to what my prospects/ decision makers/ buyers want, including what they want to avoid. A well-crafted and expertly executed sales/marketing strategy not only marries behavioral science and artistry for creative content resonance but also simplifies my marketing efforts and optimizes my resource allocation, maximizing returns. A sales/marketing strategy built on a foundation of understanding personas and audience knowledge amplifies my voice in the market, fosters long-term customer relationships and facilitates sustainable business growth.
Anthony Crilly is a Business Sales Expert with decades of successful experience in selling and customer engagement. Anthony specializes in business-to-business go-to-market strategies for technologies and regularly attends training session s to showcase his evolving tech trends, such as self-service, health and wellness, and people analytics tools. A strong believer in the power of positive thinking in the workplace. Anthony regularly develops internal wellness and unique value propositions campaigns to assist businesses with effective physical and mental health techniques as well as business acquisition and growth techniques. Anthony enjoys a good run, bike, swim tri-athletic performance as well as a Netflix binge but can also be found on long runs and bike rides on hilly country roads in the Adirondacks or on Conesus Lake.
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