The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

New business development is a cornerstone of sales success. Whether you’ve heard it described as a 5-step, 6-step, or even a 9-step process, the number of steps doesn’t matter as much as the quality of execution.

Let's break down the most critical steps to kickstart your new business journey: identifying great leads and securing that first meeting. If you can't master these, the rest of the process is moot.

Almost 60% of all businesses lack strong leadership, causing a ripple effect that leads to 37% of workers leaving their jobs. Those who stay are less likely to be motivated or productive.

For these reasons, your employees need effective business leaders who encourage continuous and stable growth in the workplace. Leaders can accomplish this by constantly evaluating their team, acknowledging their strengths, and investing in ongoing development and support.

As a sales manager, you are faced with competing priorities and objectives that you would like to emphasize with your team.

Successful sales managers are aware that business development is a key ingredient to account and organizational growth and should prioritize it with their account executives. There are some key factors on why you should make business development front and center, and then there is the how. Let’s take a look at both.

Business development (BD) is the process of identifying, qualifying, and developing potential new customers.

It is a critical part of any sales team's strategy, as it helps to ensure that there is a steady pipeline of leads to nurture and convert into paying customers.

There are a number of different business development tactics that sales teams can use, depending on their industry, target market, and sales process. Here are some of the most common and effective tactics.

LinkedIn defines business development as "the process of identifying and pursuing new opportunities to grow a business."

Business development is essential for sales teams, as it helps to generate new leads, build relationships with potential customers, and close more deals.

In this fast-paced environment. distractions are inevitable. Emails pile up, urgent issues arise, and salespeople often find themselves pulled in multiple directions at once. It's easy to let these distractions derail us from our most important sales activities - developing new high-potential accounts.

Many refer to these distractions "the rats in our heads." They gnaw at us constantly, invading our mental space and eating up valuable time we should spend on productive business development. The "rats" can be loud and frenzied, making it hard to stay focused.

But we can regain control. Here are some strategies to share with your sales teams to keep the rats at bay.

Many clients at The Center for Sales Strategy are essentially in the business of helping companies grow their business. 

In order to do that effectively, we teach salespeople how to think like a business owner. Thinking like a business owner takes the focus off what you sell (your products) and puts your focus on how to help your client or prospect achieve their desired business results. 

The better a salesperson becomes at thinking like a business owner, the better they will be at asking questions, establishing credibility, and ultimately becoming trusted and valued.

There are endless amounts of podcasts out there on business development and new ones being released daily. This article isn’t about all the great business podcasts hitting the market, but rather a handful of the best podcasts that we feel will help salespeople improve their business acumen and encourage salespeople to help their clients and prospects grow their business.