Business development is more than a buzz phrase in the world of sales. It is a career title that is going to stick around well into the future. ESI caught up with team members from several ESI clients to learn more about the career of business development.

Business development is a proactive approach to bringing more long-term sales opportunities into view. This happens through identifying new opportunities, forming partnerships, and adding value to a customer’s business.

John Williams, from ConveyX Solutions, said business development is about positioning the company to do business with a new customer or industry. It takes a lot of research and relationship building to understand how the business can interact with and support the potential new customer. It takes understanding many factors including the company’s position in the industry.

That process is exactly what Jordan Gruschke from AMOS Mfg. likes about business development. He likes finding businesses that don’t already know about AMOS and doing the research to get to know them. He finds it especially rewarding when a potential new customer is impressed by what they learn about AMOS and the IFMC, often responding with something like, “How did we not know about you before?”

Mike Furtaw and Ian Kamyszek of ProCal Innovations agree that business development is about building the relationship and describe it as a strategic effort, which aligns well with what the others said about doing research to fully understand everything you can about a potential new customer. They, like the others ESI spoke with on this topic, understand that relationships require on-going work and maintenance.

Jim Klarich from Resources for You sees his role in business development as the person who brings potential new customers, businesses, and product opportunities to the front door. He then hands them over to the sales team of the appropriate ESI client so they can dig in to solve problems for the prospective new customer. Jim, like the others, achieves success in this role through extensive research, background work, and building new relationships, primarily through proactive outreach and expanding the existing customers knowledge of the scale and scope of the IFMC.

If someone wanted to pursue a career in business development, there are certain competencies that make success more likely. John suggests someone who has entrepreneurial tendencies might be a good fit as well as someone who can wrap their mind around the big picture as well as get into and understand the technical side of projects.

Another competency that is useful for success in this role is having a method to organizing your work. Jordan said that business development is a process that builds on itself so tracking progress and steps is important.

Mike suggested that having a natural curiosity about things is very beneficial to success in a business development career. He gave the example of how we view a customer. Often, we simply see the sales numbers from that customer and think the bigger the number the greater the customer. However, what that number doesn’t tell us, and what a business development professional will seek to explore is how much additional business is possible with that customer. What else do they need that the business can provide? What other problems can the business solve for them?

Business development is a unique role that is conducted through research, strategic relationship development, patience, and a willingness to adjust as new information is learned or as factors change. All five people ESI spoke with agreed that their career in business development has been very rewarding for each of them.