What are the main differences between a consultant in strategy and a consultant in business development?
The consultant in business development uses strategy as a mean and not a goal! More precisely, the business development consultant sets a goal thanks to a strategic plan he is willing to implement.
Thus, business development consulting reconciles strategy and implementation. Before the implementation, the business developer is making sure that the targeted strategy is in accordance with the current or future global resources of the firm i.e. financial, human, technical…
If the strategist refers mostly to concepts, market surveys and benchmarks, the business developer is business model driven and constantly checks the relevancy between strategy and the status of the company.
As a result, the consultant in business development must be bicephalous: half strategist and half operational, he creates, plans and budgets for finally implementing them. Business development consulting goes beyond classical consulting in strategy…
What are the requirements to be a good business development consultant?
- Ability to alternate between strategy, surveys, project diagnosis and project management, negotiations, launch of partnerships…
- Ability to combine method, intuition and networking.
- Ability to follow a direction while seizing opportunities.
- Ability to organize, plan, negotiate to meet the objectives in a defined deadline.
- Ability to anticipate tomorrow’s business plans and our clients’ future expectations.
Do companies own internal business development profiles needed for their future development?
By reading this paragraph, you can easily understand that some companies are totally lacking in business developer profiles, whereas others neglect these profiles in terms of training, coaching, payroll…
The economic downturn has indeed passed through and a large number of firms have been forced to slow the pace and split from all or part of business development competencies.
The job of business developer is finally very demanding and requires regular training and coaching. Too many business developers are let alone on pretext that the function requires a lot of autonomy. Yet, the business developer also needs a specific support that will enable him to develop the abilities detailed above as well as to conquest the markets of tomorrow.
