An Overview of Business Development Consulting

Business development consulting is about helping businesses grow sales and profits in order to achieve their strategic objectives. Business development consultants enable companies to reach their full potential and rescue companies that are struggling to survive.

Business development consultants engage in ‘prospecting’ which involves searching for potential customers who are likely to be a good fit for the product or service being offered. The important part is finding potential customers who have problems that your client can solve. It is a waste of resources communicating with random strangers who can’t be helped or who can’t afford to pay.

Rejection is normal in business development as it happens that potential customers have a ready shopping list of objections:

1. We don’t have a problem
2. We don’t understand the value and we’re too busy to think about it
3. We don’t like XYZ feature
4. The price is too high
5. We don’t have budget right now
6. Who are you? How did you get my information?
7. We heard bad things about your company
8. I don’t have authority to sign off on this
9. We prefer your competitor’s product
10. Send us more information, we will think about it

As a result, business development consultants need to spend significant time building and nurturing relationships with individuals who have the ability to make decisions and the authority to spend money. Once you have customer buy-in, you can set up meetings and determine whether a proposal can be submitted. Project objectives, terms of contract, hurdles, required staff, and the scope of services and products to be delivered are all potential topics for discussion. SMEs may require a short term engagement ranging from a few days to a few weeks, while larger clients may require an engagement that covers a larger scope and lasts for several months.

Business development consultants can work with both B2B and B2C businesses, and provide a wide range of services including data analytics over operations and financials, business design, marketing strategies, digital innovation, business model design, and organisational systems. Business development consulting could provide a service over a process or a product that the business has no capabilities or resources to do themselves, assist a company to innovate or improve their operations, or take on a part of the operations so the business has more capacity to focus on its core objectives. Valuable clients are those that need to undertake projects that span over several months, preferably years. Short term contracts are unlikely to be profitable. A business development consultant that grows a business will earn on that growth and get credit for it, which attracts more clients.

After prospecting, gaining client-buy in, and closing a deal, the groundwork begins. This means coordinating many parties and resources in collaboration with other consultants. A recent case study involved Shake Shack, a New York based fast food chain, wanting to build the “Shack of the Future”.  They hired Fuzz, a business development agency, who was able to build a self-service kiosk that streamlined the ordering process and enabled digital payments by implementing hardware from Square, a digital payments company based in San Francisco. The groundwork involved communicating between the parties, getting Square to provide tailor made software for the franchise, selecting the right devices, and integrating the solution with Shake Shack’s information system.

Being able to implement a business development plan is important. Fuzz initially estimated the project would take weeks before they discovered that Square had already developed the technology required to achieve the project goals. If Fuzz had failed to identify Square, they may not have been able to implement the plan, or may not have been able to sign a deal with Shake Shack. Business development plans should consider a range of scenarios and possible eventualities so that desired results can be delivered even in unfavourable circumstances.

During implementation, it is important to monitor every step of the process. Ultimately, the work will differ depending on the scope of the project, client goals, and resources available for developing the solution. Business development consultants need to remain aware of the financing required to successfully complete a project, including the assets, tools, staff, and suppliers that will be needed to achieve the client’s strategy.  After implementation, feedback should be collected from the client, the production team, and any other parties who were involved in the project.

Aspiring consultants in this space should seek an MBA or a qualification in business management or economics. In addition to relevant domain knowledge, success depends on your dedication, business smarts, and communication skills. Aspiring consultants will also benefit from making an effort to familiarize themselves with the business development space by seeking advice from consultants in the field. While breaking into the industry is challenging, aspiring consultants should be careful not oversell their abilities. Overdelivering on projects is highly desirable as this contributes to growth and further business development. Seasoned consultants who have built a good reputation within the industry typically have access to many exit opportunities as their insights are valuable to most companies.

Business development consulting offers a rewarding career path. A lot is placed in your care, you get rewarded generously through benefits, exposure, networking, trips and, if your client is big enough, international travel. Business clients can become like family, and your growing network of stakeholder relationships will be of value to you. You may be the game changer that keeps a business running and families fed.

Rhulani (Ruce) Ndlala is an accounting student at the University of Cape Town, and former President of the UCT Consulting Club.

Image: Unsplash

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