ONE: Business
Development And Marketing
What Is The
Difference Between Business Development And Mark eting?
THE EASIEST WAY TO EXPLAIN the difference between business development
and marketing is with the following definition.
McKenzie’s Secrets of Construction Mark eting #1
Business Development goes out and gets the sale.
Another
way to think of the differences between business development and marketing is
that marketing is thought of as an 8-5 job, whereas business development is
thought of as an 8-8-8 job. This means that almost everything a business
developer does is connected with their project. Breakfast in the morning with
an influencer; lunch out with a prospect, and golf in the afternoon and
weekends. That’s a business developer’s life. Another way to understand the
difference is that clients and prospects will follow a business developer if
they should leave one firm and join another, but the marketing person will not
have anyone follow.
Picture
it this way. You have decided to attend a trade show and you’re working the
booth. You have graphics up which identifies your company. You also have some
photos of the work you do and perhaps some signage meant to get people to stop.
A tradeshow attendee is walking down the aisle,(you hope a prospect), and
he/she glances over at your booth. Something interests them. They stop at the
booth. You stick out your hand and say something like “Hi, I’m Steve. Can I
answer a question for you?” The person, whom we will refer to as Richard
responds with, “Yes, do you build in the Richmond
The
booth created the environment for the meeting to occur. But when they shook
hands, it’s now a business development activity. Business development is all
about relationships. Mark eting
created the environment for the sale to occur, and it’s business developments
role to go out and get the sale.
One
misconception in almost every business is that employees who are engaged in
producing the work are not part of marketing. The very opposite is true;
everyone in the company has some role in marketing. How they are greeted on the
phone, how they are greeted by the receptionist, how the project architects
relate to the subcontractors and vendors are all important aspects of
marketing. In fact, some people have the opportunity to contribute to marketing
and business development in a huge way.
Now
this is confusing, but if one thinks about it, it makes sense. Everyone in a
company interacts with their clients, and sometimes prospects, in different
ways. Everyone has a network, so that means everyone knows different people
that can and do make a difference n a business.
When
a company has this “marketing mindset: truly amazing things can happen. Bit it
is a difficult point to get to and most firms never get their. It is easier to
take an ‘its not my job” attitude.
