Business Development
Career Overview:
Business development?or "biz dev," as insiders call it?is all about growing your company's bottom line. The job of the business development professional is typically to identify new business opportunities?whether that means new markets, new partnerships with other businesses, new ways to reach existing markets, or new product or service offerings to better meet the needs of existing markets?and then to go out and exploit those opportunities to bring in more revenue.
Business development is a cousin of marketing and sales, and even when an organization doesn't have a stand-alone business development department, or professionals with the phrase "business development" in their job titles, you can bet that folks in one or both of those departments are handling business development responsibilities. You can find business development jobs in all industries?at everything from tech start-ups to huge pharmaceutical companies. What the work entails, exactly, depends on how established a company is and what its business model is.
What You'll Do:
Your job in business development may involve any or all of the following:
The first aspect of the business development professional's job is typically to identify new business opportunities.
This means several things, in terms of what you'll do. First, you'll need to stay abreast of what's happening in your industry?what your competitors are up to in terms of products and service offerings, pricing, marketing strategies, and so on. Second, you'll need to make sure you understand what your company is up to on an ongoing basis?to understand your company's strategy, how your company compares to its competitors, and how your company is perceived in the ma ...