ONE: Business Development And Marketing

What Is The Difference Between Business Development And Marketing?

THE EASIEST WAY TO EXPLAIN the difference between business development and marketing is with the following definition.

McKenzie’s Secrets of Construction Marketing #1

Marketing creates the environment for the sale to occur.

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 area?” He grabs your hand and you shake and make eye contact.

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. Marketing 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.

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