A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with the head of business development for a French logistics company. He was over the moon because in only 5 months he reached his goal of getting 10 qualified opportunities. And, even better, he managed to go beyond the target by closing a €350K deal.
The results were shocking. And even more impressive, he got those results in a brand new industry.
Nevertheless, he got back to me a couple of days later, worried that he would lose his job.
As it turns out, the CEO was disappointed with these results because only one deal was closed. He expected more, and it didn’t matter that the business development representative (BDR)met his goals.
This story got me thinking about what business development actually means and what companies perceive it to be.
So, what is business development then? And how does it interact with other departments?