Is Your Start-up Company Truly Ready for Business Development?
 |
Free Download - Positioning Your Company For The Next Big Boom - Social Media, Business Plan, Network Strategies By Nathan Beckord |
Business development can be a great way for your startup to gain sales leverage and grow faster-if your company is, in fact, ready to execute deals.
What determines readiness? First, let's define what we mean by business development. Business development-or "BD" for short-encompasses activities that are outside core bread-and-butter sales activities. BD generally refers to various forms of deal-making, such as:
- forming marketing partnerships with other firms
- establishing reseller channels or distribution relationships
- licensing your technology to other firms for use in their products
- exchanging data, content, traffic, or customer information with other companies.
But for BD to be effective, and for a deal to be a success, startups must be both organizationally ready and operationally ready for business development. Quite frequently, companies are neither. Let's examine each issue more closely.
Organizationally Ready
To be 'organizationally ready' means to be cognizant of what ‘doing a deal' really involves. To use an analogy, a BD deal such as a product development joint venture or a marketing partnership is a bit like going from bachelorhood to marriage after a relatively brief courtship. You now have an external relationship to deal with, devote attention to, and worry about on a day-to-day basis if the partnership is to work.
For example, let's say you've structured a deal with a firm who will include your product in its catalog and resell it for a 6% cut of revenue. Previously, you've always sold your product direct, through your own sales force and website. Now, with this new channel partner arrangement, no longer are you directly talking to customers-- you are talking to them through your partner.
In this scenario, while you gain the extra leverage of your partner's sales force and their marketing efforts, you inevitably lose some autonomy and control over the delivery of your marketing message (although you can and indeed should work closely with your partner to help manage product positioning).
The key point is to fully understand the changes that a partnership will bring, enter into it with eyes wide open, and willingly accept the tradeoffs in exchange for the benefits. You've now got someone else in bed with you, and it may not be so easy to disentangle the relationship should things turn sour. Understanding the tradeoffs also means you won't get cold feet midway through negotiations, and you won't waste anyone's time-including your own.
Operationally Ready
Whereas being organizationally ready implies a certain attitude and mindset, being 'operationally ready' necessitates possession of a certain skill-set. Very rarely are BD deals clean and crisp; there is almost always a significant level of customization and integration work needed for two disparate companies to work together.
For example, let's say you've built a web-based software tool that helps real estate brokers manage their customer pipeline. You've identified an outside company that provides predictive trend data on home prices. It would be an excellent complement to your tool, and you've been able to negotiate a license fee that is reasonable. However, their data is in a completely different format than what you're used to, and will require many man-months of engineering to be able to import it into your application. Does your team have the technical skills (and human bandwidth) to handle this type of development deal? Many small startups do not, and the deal stagnates halfway through the integration.
Or, as another hypothetical example, you run a web site selling ‘green' cleaning products, and you've found a network of bloggers who write about such things. You want them to include a small widget on their sites that scrolls your "Featured Product of the Day" images to their readers, and you've structured a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) arrangement to reward them for their leads. However, some of these bloggers are using Wordpress, others are using Blogger, and some have built their blogs on their own. Are you able to support various platforms, and make sure your widget (and payment system) works well on all of them?
Sum
In sum, it is good practice to temper your initial enthusiasm for "doing a deal" with a dose of pragmatic realism, and ask yourself if you are up to the challenges-both operationally and technically-of a partnership. If you pass these screening tests, your deals, when they happen, will go a lot more smoothly and be more profitable for all parties involved.
Is Your Startup Company Truly Ready for Business Development - To learn more about this author, visit Nathan Beckord's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
| Article Tags: business development, partnership, reseller relationships, startup business development, startup company, startups, strategic partnerships |
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained 4000+ students worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular home staging guides made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide, Portfolio Guide and Twitter Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Marcus ArkanMarcus Arkan currently serves as the President/Principle Broker of Syndicate Mortgages Inc. After working with a number of Canada's top financial institutions, the experience and knowledge he gained throughout his professional career combined with his drive and entrepreneurial spirit led him to develop his own company. The operation began in 2003 in the basement of his home and now has flourished into a successful corporation with a head office in one of Metropolitan Toronto's busiest sectors and 10 branch locations employing over 100 mortgage professionals. His organization is now one of Ontario's leading mortgage brokerages specializing in residential, commercial, and construction financing. He holds the designation of Accredited Mortgage Professional from the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals. This allows him to differentiate himself from other mortgage originators and demonstrates his commitment to the highest standards of industry performance. For more information on Mr. Arkan and his Syndicate Mortgages Inc., please visit www.syndicatemortgages.com. - Visit Marcus Arkan's Website |
|||
Michiel JonkerAs a Certified Information Systems Auditor, Michiel assists businesses in a professional capacity by evaluating the threats to their businesses. He acquired the necessary knowledge, skills, and techniques to minimize a business owner’s risk of business failure and to maximize his chances of high growth and success. He strongly believes that you CAN maximize your chances of business success, by implementing the business solution he has advocated for more than 12 years in your business plan and planning. Michiel has decided to share his experience with business owners by putting almost everything he knows in a business plan and survival guide (compiled in an e-book format) and written as a high growth SMB coaching course for SMB business owners, directors and managers - titled as the “Survival Kit for Small and Medium Businesses - Profit from your Business Risks!” According to Michiel, his goal was to add new techniques to a business owner’s business planning survival kit and instruct him or her in using these in the future - without any help from a consultant! For more information about the benefits of implementing profit protection planning in your business, please visit: http://www.business-around-the-globe.com - Visit Michiel Jonker's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Nathan's articles
 |
|
VentureArchetypes Blog: Seed Stage Capital - SeedStageCapital.com is a blog written by Nathan Beckord, Founder of VentureArchetypes, LLC (www.venturearchetypes.com). It is an open discussion on ‘all things startup’...development and launch, business plans and models, raising seed or venture capital, launching and growing and more.
|
|
 |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Making Networking Work Loyalty Strategies Network More Effectively How To Work Business Emotional Intelligence |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
 |
The Top 10 Guy Kawasaki Posts
Best Posts for Entrepreneurs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
 | ||||
| ||||
|
|
 | ||||
| ||||
|
 | ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
 | ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||