Business Development IS sales

Through both perpetual renewal and funnel creation and funnel management, a healthy turnover in new market and new niches is attained. This obviously is the opposite of ‘just’ waiting for prospects and leads to emerge or approach ourselves. The entire funnel development process needs to be largely in place in order to successfully develop a new business. Yet, developing a funnel is not an aim; it is a means to an end: sales !

Relative to sales, BD is likely to have a slightly longer term view in terms of the Ansoff matrix; whereas Sales and notably Account Management is likely to concentrate on the nearby portfolio and opportunities. Then again, the demarcation is overlapping, for good reasons.

“Market making or order taking?” would be an applicable one-liner here. At Marketing4B2B we advocate “from market making to order taking” in this respect.