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How Business Development Crosses Industry Borders
When I worked in TV advertising, an important aspect of providing a 360 service involved delivering timely, tailored ‘calls to action’ with clients in order to win their future business. All the award winning work delivering advertising campaigns across TV and digital was pursued with vigour, yet there was a sense that more could be done. This is often the case in ambitious sales and business development teams, where focus is reserved for the ongoing development of future business with multiple stakeholders and clients.
Moving into recruitment threw up a number of questions for me ahead of joining the Marketing Practice at VMA GROUP; the main one being a question over being able to leverage my business development skills from media advertising in a completely different industry. Securing incremental revenue through selling the Gogglebox Platinum special to Microsoft is a world away from signing terms with a new client as a specialist resourcing partner. However I was delighted to find many commonalities across both areas. What I discovered hones in on the importance of having a truly consultative approach with both clients, candidates or any business partner. With aspirations to build on the wins of yesterday, I share below my cross-industry cornerstones of effective business development;
Balance needs with seeds
Listening to the needs of a potential client and offering a solution that could manifest as part of a long-term vision can be enticing from a service perspective. It not only demonstrates you care about the particulars of a client’s situation, but it also embues standout values of collaboration, ambition and partnership for the long-term. Managing expectations adds trust, and provides balanced, pressure-free timescales for a client to consider the real value of your proposition. Focusing on the alleviation of pressure points helps to differentiate you from those who overpromise and underdeliver.
Tailor the growth
Managing the needs of multiple clients at one time can be challenging as their needs may be at different stages. Ultimately, being adaptable and dexterous in your communication style can build rapport as well as assist in generating organic ideas. Within advertising, adopting a customisation or personalisation approach is great for strengthening engagement with an audience in a more powerful way, which is also the psychology involved in providing a specialist recruitment service. Being bespoke in your approach adds further specialist value within the d