27: Sales + Business Development
Soar relationship revenue by clearly differentiating between the two.
Consulting with businesses in (or desiring) growth mode, I often review revenue role job descriptions. One of the most common questions I ask is, “Are you hiring for sales or business development?”. The answer is just as common… “There’s a difference??”
Failing to differentiate between “sales” and “business development” is kryptonite for revenue teams. The lack of distinction in conversation, but especially in roles and responsibilities, causes confusion that slows revenue acceleration.
Both functions are integral to driving revenue and fostering growth, especially in professional service b2b firms. Having clarity and dileniating between their respective scopes, objectives, strategies and compensation structures fosters the ideal environment for revenue relationships to soar.
Sales: REVENUE relationships
Sales, at its core, is a transactional process focused on converting leads into revenue relationships (paying clients). It’s “REVENUE” in all caps. The primary goal of sales professionals is to generate immediate revenue by closing deals.
Sales is hyper focused on the buying journey. If the relationship isn’t buying-cycle-ready, they’re disregarded by sales. The terms utilized are literally “disqualified” or “closed lost”. The relationship is dropped from an active selling motion. Hopefully, not disregarded by the business, but it’s often no longer the specific business of sales. Ultimately, no deal means the relationship is no big deal to the salesperson. It’s not personal, it’s process.
Sales teams operate in a short-term context, aiming to meet specific targets within days, weeks, months. Quarters and even the years are just convenient compounds of months. Liken it to the Moon’s phases, a cycle that lasts a month (every 29.5 days).
A relationship with the client may extend beyond the sale, but the immediate objective and incentive is in the transaction itself. Ask any sales person and they’d identify their key responsibilities as lead qualification, solution matching and negotiation with the intent to capture revenue. This month.
Business Development: revenue RELATIONSHIPS
Business development is the strategic and holistic approach to revenue relationships. It’s “RELATIONSHIPS” in all caps. Business development professionals are focused on identifying macro opportunities for growth, establishing and strengthening various relationships (clients, prospects, partners) to expand the overall market presence of the business. While revenue generation is a crucial aspect, it is not the sole driving force behind business development efforts.
Business development encompasses activities that go beyond immediate sales, what’s often derogatorily referred to as “schmoozing”. Their head is in the timeline and impact of quarters, years, if not multiple years. Think in terms of the earth’s cycle rotating around the sun.
Relationships are the currency. Their ultimately responsibility is to the establishment and maintenance of the relationship, whatever the current stage of revenue. Could be before, during, after revenue.
Upcoming lifeletters with further breakdown and compare the compensation, budget, reporting structure and day-to-day activities of each.
For a tease… a previous lifeletter tackled the ABCs of sales and business development. Sales is about “Always Be Closing” while business development is “Always Be Connecting”. Take a closer look below, in preparation for more on that topic to come.
Closing it out for this round… you may be thinking, “What not just combine the roles??” That’s not out of the question for a business, especially smaller one. However, to “combine” one must understand the two ingredients and recipe requirements independently in order to make anything worthwhile. Two roles, working as pilot and co-pilot provides the best trajectory to rocket your revenue thru the atmosphere.
Whenever you’re ready, there’s three ways power up your rocket with more Partner Philosophy.
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Give yourself or business the gift of knowing that you’re not only doing the right things, but in the right way, to meaningfully connect with revenue relationships. With me, audit all your revenue generating interactions and identify the good, better, best.
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