Advice for CEOs

Ask most people which business functions are responsible for getting a company’s goods and services into the hands of customers and they may well reply: marketing and sales. Marketing creates and executes the strategy: channels, pricing, messaging, advertising etc. Sales is responsible to see that at the end of the sales cycle customers buy the product or service. This general view is fine as far as it goes. But it omits another important part of a company’s relationship with its markets and customers: business development. Business development may not be a separate function on your company’s organization chart. But for most companies the responsibilities and activities that characterize business development should be an important part of penetrating customer organizations and expanding your presence within them.