Business development and marketing are two distinct entities that go hand-in-hand. Both have a common goal: BUSINESS GROWTH.
When synchronized, an organization sees an increase in visibility, growth, profitability, expansion and more.
For this to occur, each team must collaborate to understand & support one another.
How different are they from each other?
- Business Development – Responsible for forming partnerships, strategic relationships, and other professional contacts in target markets in order to bring in new clients.
- Marketing – Responsible for understanding the needs and wants of the target market and developing a strategic plan to establish the organization’s overall benefits & capabilities and for communicating these out to the target audience.
Here, both address the same issue – how to engage prospective and current clients, but they have different reasons and adapt means to do so.
A contrast between the two teams,
| Business Development | Marketing |
| Business development team requests the marketing team for more and better qualified leads
They inform the marketing team about the industry trends and client pain points as they are involved in daily interactions with the clients |
Marketing team requests the business development team to improve the way they nurture and close leads
They create content and collateral that will resonate with clients and prospects, which generates interest in the business
|
When are they in sync?
There are opportunities for collaboration that align with client-focused priorities, to name a few:
- Strategy development –
Both teams collaborate to determine the best strategy for communicating the organization’s mission, following up with leads, and measuring the results of both teams’ efforts.
- Content development –
The marketing team creates educational content like blog posts, articles and webinars on topics which the business development team believes will resonate with the client.
- Campaign development –
The role of the marketing team role is to create, promote campaigns & events, while that of the business development team is to interact and follow up with the client.
- Speaking engagements –
Both teams collaborate to speak at industry events and conferences. Also, they are likely to meet prospective and current clients at such events whom they can follow up with afterwards.
Their collaboration builds momentum and fuels the growth of the business.