Companies are facing major changes due to intensifying competition and diversifying needs. To survive in such an era, companies will always need to think of new businesses. To do that, we need to develop our business development department. First of all, let’s understand the necessary skills and points to keep in mind in the business development department, and use them for the creation of human resources and the development of the department.
Table of contents
- What is business development?
- Skills required for business development and points to keep in mind
- What it takes to succeed in business development
- Summary
What is business development
Business development is the task of creating new business models for a company to succeed. It is also called “business development” and plays an important role in promoting business development and progress. A wide range of skills and knowledge are required for business development work, which includes surveys of approaches to customers, presentations of plans, and project management.
In business development, roles can differ even within the same department. This is because actual business development is divided into several phases. Then, in the next stage, the “1 to 10” phase, we create a business model based on the information discovered in 0 to 1. In this way, business development is divided into phases, so the work that I am in charge of is inevitably wide-ranging.
Skills required for business development and points to keep in mind
As mentioned earlier, business development requires a wide range of skills and knowledge. So, from here, I will explain the skills and points to keep in mind when developing a business.
Information gathering skills
The purpose of business development is to create a business model by developing services and products that sell well. You have to find out what kind of services and products your customers want, and what kind of products will sell now and in the future.
To do so, it is necessary to collect a variety of information, such as market share, competitors’ services and products, and customer feedback. In addition, the ability to determine which data can be used is also necessary, as the information collected that can be used will vary depending on the type of business being started.
In the development of new businesses, we may develop businesses in undeveloped markets. In this case, there is no precedent for this because it is an area that no one has touched yet, and there is a possibility of failure. It is also a field where it is difficult to accumulate know-how, so the sense of human resources involved in business development is also required.
Logical thinking skills
Logical thinking, in other words, refers to “logical thinking”. We take things logically and derive answers from the questions of “why” and “how.” These skills can be used in new business development where there is little know-how because they form a logical path to the correct answer.
There are many methods of logical thinking, but the ones that can be used in business development include “zero-based thinking” and “pyramid structure”. Zero-based thinking is a method of building things from scratch. It will be useful for building things logically in the business of pioneering new areas because it eliminates preconceptions and precedents.
In addition, in the pyramid structure, the three elements of facts, grounds, and hypotheses are regarded as a pyramid-shaped structure, and it is logically developed from two approaches: top-down and bottom-up. In the case of top-down, things are constructed in the order of “hypothesis, evidence, and facts”, and in the case of bottom-up, they are constructed in the order of “facts, evidence, hypothesis”. Since it is a method that requires “facts”, it can also be used to increase the success rate in businesses that already have the know-how.
In this way, logical thinking leads to success in a logical way. Although it is a necessary skill for launching a project, it must be used with caution as it may lead to the loss of flexible thinking.
Presentation skills
Presentation skills that allow you to clearly explain your plans and strategies are also important. Business development presentations are given to departments involved in the business model to be developed. Since there are many presentations of completely new businesses, it is necessary to indicate the direction.
It is important to be aware that even if a project has been launched with much effort, the plan may come to a standstill if the direction in which it is aimed differs within the department. In addition, it is often the case that the created plan will change more and more as it progresses. Therefore, it is necessary to have a flexible plan proposal that can respond even if problems occur.
Communication skills
Communication skills are also important in the business development department, as there are many relationships with other departments. In addition to data, we have to prove to the company how the project will lead to success. And in communication with the outside, we also exchange opinions with clients, maintain relationships with customers, and negotiate.
Business development involves a lot of voluntary rather than passive work. Therefore, communication skills are essential to make things happen spontaneously.
Business planning skills
In business development, the skill of doing a business plan is essential. This is because even if you have a good idea, it may not lead to success if the plan is not well constructed. Properly formulating and deploying marketing and business revenue and expenditure plans that anticipate customer needs will lead to business success.
If you create a business plan and document it, you can use it to check the current progress and the work content and direction of the corresponding department. When building a partnership, you can present a plan to encourage understanding.
What it takes to succeed in business development
“Creating ideas” and “understanding customer needs” is important for successful business development. We will now address each of these two important points.
Idea creation
Idea creation is the most essential element in new business development. There are several points to creating ideas, but among them, it is effective to remember “creating ideas from the starting point” and “creating ideas with multiple people”.
First of all, what is important when thinking about idea generation is the existence of a starting point, and ideas are not born from anything. For example, if you are dissatisfied with a certain product, you can use that as a starting point to create services and products that eliminate your dissatisfaction. These starting points can come from a variety of sources, including the market and your core skills.
In addition, there is a method called “ideation” as a way to create ideas with multiple people. This is a word that combines “idea” and “marathon”, and is a method of sharing ideas with multiple people like a marathon. We will brush up and use the good ones from among the ideas we put out. At ideation, having people with a wide range of skills and knowledge on the team makes it easier to come up with ideas from various perspectives.
Understanding customer needs
No idea is profitable without customer needs. Therefore, it can be said that the understanding of needs is the minimum information that must be known.
There are two types of customer needs: actual needs and latent needs. Explicit needs are needs that already exist and may be deeply explored. Latent needs, on the other hand, are areas in which there is demand but have not yet been discovered by customers. In new business development, it is important to discover latent needs, and if you can find them, it will be an opportunity to create new business models.
Summary
The business development department requires a wide range of skills, including information gathering, idea creation, communication, and project management. In particular, it is very important to come up with accurate ideas to create a profitable business model. To generate good ideas, it would be even better to have people with the ability to collect information and a variety of knowledge.
