Starting and running a business means wearing too many hats; you’ve got a lot to manage. It demands proper nurturing to help it grow and flourish. While businesses are known to do it all single-handedly, having a business development partner will not just reduce the burden, but accelerate your business growth curve.
Now, you could be lucky to meet your future business development partner at the next business meet. However, not everyone gets a chance to experience such a serendipitous situation. Finding the right business development partner is challenging and might need you to put in the legwork. So, how can you find your ideal business development partner?
Before we delve into finding answers to this, let us understand the roles and responsibilities of a business development partner and what qualities make them the right partner.
Why it’s Important to Choose a Business Development Partner?
Well-planned business development is crucial to every business’s growth and success. A business development partner is somebody who understands your business well and put efforts to discover create and implement growth opportunities within and with other companies that aids in overall business growth. The responsibilities of business development partner also include using the company USP to develop marketing strategies with the aim to acquire new customers and connect the existing customers with the company.
What Skills Does a Good Business Development Partner Have?
1. Understands Consumer Buying Patterns & Industry Trends
No doubt, buyers have become more intelligent than ever. Thanks to the increasing amount of information available online. Here it becomes crucial for businesses to determine the interests and expectations of the buyers. Business development professionals should be able to develop marketing strategies that help them build trust with buyers and move them through the sales funnel. Moreover, they should be able to create personalized solutions for specific buyer interest.
2. Carefully Listeners and Asks Great Questions
Dave Currie, president of The List says: “The most successful business development people are those that can ask great questions.” When your business Development partner listens to you and asks questions directly, you can identify and truly understand issues, the potential impact of those issues, and how crucial it is to solve them. Hence, look for business partners with exceptional emotional intelligence (EQ) and Conversational Capacity.
3. Sets Goals and Create Action Plans
Business Development Professionals should be able to ‘drive the ship’ irrespective of what resources they have. They should be able to set goals that work towards business growth and create action plans that align well with finding client growth.
Other skills include:
- Possesses more curiosity and the ability to produce simple solutions to complex problems.
- Understands the importance of brand building and possesses the ability to drive change.
- Able to communicate with clients and set realistic expectations with them.
- Understands your business to its core.
In simple words, a good business development partner helps you outcome IT outsourcing problems. We have even covered a blog on medium about this. Read to know more.
Where to Find Such a Business Development Partner?
Here are several ways to find a good business development partner. If not the best, at least you will have a good list to filter from.
- Hunt for in your past and present co-workers pool
- Partner up with your friends.
- Take advantage of both online and offline networking.
- Participate in or attend business meetings, conferences, industry-related training.
How to decide if your Business Development Partner is the “One”?
Not all the business development partners you’ve shortlisted could be considered as the “one”. Here are a few things to consider before you commit:
1. Choose a business partner you can “TRUST”
Finding someone you can trust is not as easy as it sounds. Here, the history or the past work records of the person turns out to be the major deciding factors. Find as much as you can about them, their previous projects, hold meetings with their team members and clients. The more you will know about them; the better understanding and trust you will develop. However, do not ignore the red flags, if any.
2. Choose a business development partner hungry for success
Look for a partner who is as passionate about your business as you are. Seek out partners who understand your business value and share your commitment. Look for people who are constantly enhancing their knowledge that relates to their roles and responsibilities. Somebody who is taking efforts to deliver the best means they are passionate about their work and hungry for success. Such an approach will ultimately help your business to grow.
3. Choose a Partner with Good Personal and Business Ethics
Personal ethics play a crucial in how well a partnership can flourish. For this, you would need somebody who values honesty, commitment and timeliness. A poorly chosen business development partner could end up stealing important information and passing it to your rivals or violate rules that can put your business into legal problems. Communicate with the partner as much as you can before you hire them.
4. Choose a Partner That can Provide Credibility and Resources to your Business
Having a business partner with good financial stability can help you in critical situations. Not only this, having a partner with an established business is proof that they have secure connections, a positive track record, a good client list and expertise. Having such a credible partner can increase the value of your business and boost your chances of achieving long term success.
5. Plan in Advance to avoid Conflicts with Business Partner
Partnerships are uncertain and at times can go wrong. No matter who you choose, make sure to get the business agreements in writing. Be prepared with alternatives in the worst-case scenarios.
You can also get in touch with Softobiz if you are looking forward to choose a business development partner in outsourcing. Having been into the IT industry for 12 years now and having helped many businesses in end-to-end digital transformation, we can help.
