The Business Development Cycle Nobody Taught Me

In many senses, and I don’t think it was too different for most business developers, I was parachuted into Business Development when I was 26.

Of course, I had a reasonable idea of the mission: to grow the company by expanding into new business activities, geographies, or correlated markets. But nobody ever told me exactly how.

I still haven’t found a graduation, post-graduation, or corporate university that provides a specific, growth-oriented educational program on Business Development.

I couldn’t follow a model or framework to at least structure the trial-and-error process of building knowledge on the topic. Something I could always fall back to when I felt lost and did not know what to do next.

That is why I started doing more formal research on the field about three years ago, looking for literature, academic papers, and internet articles.

All I could find were a handful of books on Amazon, some of those not precisely what I consider to be Business Development, and several articles and posts that would not quite provide the framework I was looking for.

The cycle I suggest below is the result of that research and a lot of reflection on my years of experience. I produced the first iteration in 2020, with a lot of time to think during COVID-19 lockdowns, and since then I have refined and discussed it with a few fellow business developers.

Discovery

Everything starts with the identification of growth opportunities.

This is usually done by matching the company’s strengths to market opportunities, but weaknesses and threats can also come into play.

The final objective should be to map all potential growth initiatives and prioritize them based on the best return on effort and investment for the organization.

However, it is not unusual for Business Development professionals to be assigned very specific initiatives without participating in the strategic discussion of merit and prioritization. Many times the direction comes straight from the top: the owner, the CEO, or the board. This is one reason Business Development is a fundamental competency of high-level executives, regardless of their background or education.

Even so, it is useful for the business developer to understand the process and what was considered when initiatives were abandoned or embraced. It helps them adopt more effective pathways in the next stage of the cycle, where they have to go out and test different ways of reaching the same, hopefully successful, result.

Modelling

Now that the business developer knows the desired outcome of the initiatives they are tasked with, it is time to answer the essential question: how to do it.

And it does not have a simple answer. It means addressing things like the size of the investment in time, team, and money; what resources are needed and how exactly you will obtain and deploy them; and what to expect in terms of value added to the company.

Tools like the Business Model Canvas or the Business Model Framework are particularly useful at this point. They help ensure nothing important is overlooked and highlight the resources and requirements needed to achieve the objectives.

This is also where the Make, Buy, or Partner discussion takes place. Nearly all business development initiatives can be classified into one or a combination of those models.

The final result of this business modeling process is a coherent plan that can be presented, discussed, and used to support a reliable decision to move forward.

Approval

By this point, you have probably noticed that this cycle draws some inspiration from the traditional Sales Funnel.

We start with many ideas, insights, and sometimes competing interests among senior executives and board members. Other times we are approached by other market participants with certain opportunities.

Regardless, we submit them all to a more or less formal process of analysis and prioritization and end up choosing one or a few initiatives to focus our Business Development resources on.

Once scrutinized, those initiatives have to be presented back to decision-makers in a format they can understand and act on. More than that, it is the business developer’s responsibility to point out the pathways to successfully implement them.

Implementation

Are we going to grow organically, hire people, and build infrastructure? Are we going to contract third parties, or even acquire or partner with other companies to obtain those resources?

All those questions should have been answered before implementation begins. This is the point in the Business Development Cycle where much of the uncertainty that defines earlier stages finally gives way to execution.

I have seen several cases where the implementation responsibility is handed over to other parts of the organization, like Sales and Marketing, Operations, Strategy, and M&A.

I realize this is a not one-size-fits-all approach to Business Development. There is a lot more to explore in terms of the competencies required and the tools that facilitate the process, some of which I have mentioned here.

I hope this helps those new to Business Development understand a little better what we do and how complex it is, and how different Business Development is from Sales, Marketing, and other disciplines taught in business schools around the world.

I also hope this can inspire new and experienced professionals and spark constructive discussions on how we can advance the profession, be more successful, and deliver better results: for ourselves, our employers, and our communities.

I’d love to hear your take.