When to hire a Director of Business Development
What is Business Development?
When should your company hire a Director of Business Development?...and
How are they different from Full Cycle Business Developers?
It depends on the stage of corporate growth.
Startup Phase
During this phase, the startup team seeks a product-market fit with early adopters. The founders or business development manager(s) conduct Business Development Integration Activities until a viable product-market fit is proven.
A "Full Cycle Business Developer" may be hired to perform all Business Development Integration Activities including prospect development and sales in startups organizations that do not have sufficient resources to have separate prospecting and sales teams.
BD leaders at this phase also begin to develop and implement Business Development Integration Activity processes and hire personnel for each phase of the BD value chain.
Growth Phase
During this phase, the corporation exploits a proven viable market(s) for rapid growth. The requirement for business development managers, like Directors of BD, increases as the corporation hires entry level business developers.
The number of BD managers depends on how many entry level business developers the corporation needs for rapid market growth. Directors of Business Development also ensure process maturity to maximize entry level business developer return on investment.
Expansion Phase
During this phase, the corporation seeks to exploit new markets. New business development managers may be required to focus on discovering and exploiting new viable markets.
Once the new market is viable, and Business Development Integration Activity processes are validated, the quantity of business development managers may increase as the corporation enlists new entry level business developers to maximize market penetration.
Maturity Phase
At this phase, the corporation has maximized market penetration to meet the corporation's campaign or business plan, and no other new market penetration is pursued.
Fewer business development managers are needed because the number of entry level developers may be reduced or eliminated.
NOTE:
Full Cycle Business Developers may also be called:
Growth Leaders
Growth Team Leads
Growth Developers
Full Spectrum Business Developers
Full Range Business Developers
Full Stack Business Developers (see Scott Pollack's article in comments)
Tony Gray, BDP
P.S. learn more in the “Business Development Body of Knowledge (BD-BOK).” Get your copy of the BD-BOK on Amazon today!
Boost your BD career with the Business Development Professional (BDP) certification from the Global Business Development Association (GBDA).
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