The Business Development Professional course focuses on the tools and techniques required to develop new business. Without them, sales will stagnate, and profits will drop. The course also addresses ways to maximize the company's profitability by fostering relationships with potential players and key decision makers in the market. By attending this program, business development professionals will acquire what they need to create and implement promotional drives in order to spur the company's market prospects and design cost effective yet innovative options to boost sales.

Course Methodology

The course involves a variety of case studies and exercises to develop the right skills needed to become a successful business development professional. Group presentations and self-assessment tools are also available for the same purpose.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define the main functions and best practices in Business Development (BD)
• Recognize the importance of re-defining business processes to match the ever-changing market and customer requirements
• Produce clear sales and marketing differentiators to neutralize competition (value-based proposition)
• Design and use financial ratios and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure their operations' effectiveness
• Use leadership, negotiation and power proposals to leverage their business and lead the key account team

Target Audience

Sales reps, sales supervisors and managers, and account managers who would like to professionally develop themselves by seizing business opportunities and using them to improve personal management and showcasing skills. The course also targets commercial professionals aspiring to consider every potential client as a challenge that will help their performance and their careers.

Target Competencies

• Account qualification
• Customer relationship management
• Re-engineering of commercial processes
• Customer service
• Marketing of products and services
• Business planning
• Lead generation
• Writing business proposals

Course Outline

• Business development: overview and best practices
  • Business development: definition and scope
  • Account analysis and qualification: an overview
  • The new landscape of account management and BD
  • Understanding the buy-sell ladder model
  • Client classification: building an ideal client profile
  • Understanding and working the customer loyalty ladder
• The business planning process
  • Using the STAR business planning process:
    • Strategic analysis
    • Targets and goals
    • Activities
    • Reality check
  • Conducting customer surveys to identify important service criteria
  • Preparing an account development plan
  • Building client chemistry with F.O.R.M.
• Re-defining your processes for breakthrough results
  • Reviewing the selling process
    • The selling processes
    • Functional product/service/company knowledge
    • Unique and distinctive selling points
    • The sales competitor’s analysis form
  • Re-engineering your team selling process to avoid mistaking motion for action
    • The value-added selling processes
    • A simple framework for developing new business
    • Create and deploy weapons
    • Your best friend: the phone
    • Creating a client-centered code of conduct (DART model)
  • Designing and implementing key performance indicators
    • Creating a balanced scorecard (business performance audit)
• Effective negotiation skills
  • The definition of negotiation
  • Some negotiation philosophies
  • The difference between persuading and negotiating
  • The five stages of the negotiation process
  • The critical rules of negotiation
  • The phases of the purchasing decision
  • Establishing relative importance of differentiators
  • Influencing decision criteria
  • Vulnerability analysis
  • Workshop: completing your negotiation plan
• Building and leading the business development team
  • Stages in team formation
  • Building a high-performance team
  • Defining team roles
  • The team motivation mix
  • Management versus leadership
  • Practices of exemplary leaders (industry practices)
• Writing business proposals that sell
  • Writing a typical business proposal
  • Formatting tips and tricks for winning proposals

The process of developing successful project proposals