Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Implementation

Once you’ve made the smart decision to invest in FBD, the first step is to align groups to the approach – BD is the hub connecting departments together and the company to its goals. It will identify and define the HOW your business will achieve the long-term objectives.

Identify clear goals. These could be new or expanded:

•       Macro revenue growth over a designated time period

•       Development of a new product to solve a known pain point or new regulatory constraint

•       Formation of strategic partnerships to expand into a new segment

•       Improve product development speed and efficiency

•       Enhance profitability of existing product lines

Once the company goals are known, engaging a fractional business development partner can kickstart the repeatable process:

1.  Market and internal research and analysis (SWOT is a great format here), using as much data as possible to draw conclusions and recommendations.

2. Establish FBD goals that align with the larger business goals the company has set. These goals could be a bottoms-up analysis that meets or approaches the top-down initial business goals. They can also include product development guidance, customer acquisition targets, or new segment identification and sizing. These goals lead to defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for the BD plan. Ensuring alignment at this stage is critical.

3. Identify and qualify leads to build pipeline. Pipeline is the key to long-term, sustainable growth, and a primary function of BD.

4. Build customer relationships, direct thought leadership content and marketing collateral, and present to customers while building relationships

5. Measure and report against KPIs.

How to Set KPIs and Align Execution

KPIs tell the company how the BD effort is going and whether they’re likely to hit the targets. Ultimately, KPIs are agreed between the company and FBD.

Examples can include:

•       Marketing conversion rate

•       Market share improvement

•       Customer acquisition cost

•       Revenue growth rate

•       Profitability improvement

•       Customer lifetime value (CLV)

•       Customer satisfaction (qualitative)

•       Market satisfaction gap (indicating from-to of legacy approach to new BD-driven solution)

•       Customer churn rate (attrition)

•       Pipeline growth

•       Pipeline velocity through sales funnel

Navigating Common Challenges in Business Development 

Tackling SME-to-Market Alignment Problems

Too often, SMEs think they know the market and can propose “can’t miss” solutions. The view is often legacy perspective, formed when they were earlier in their career and learning the first lessons of the market.

Internal alignment, especially with high-caliber SMEs, is tricky. The best approach is to use data, conducted from real VOC discovery, and develop it into market satisfaction gaps (this concept was created by Dan Adams and is called New Product Blueprinting).

Generating converged direction taken directly from current customer feedback determines how important the problem is to solve, and how well existing market solutions address the issue.

An FBD expert with technical expertise is uniquely suited to conduct this research and develop these satisfaction gaps, creating an air-tight case to recommend to management. Customer perspective should outweigh even the best SME point of view.

Dealing with organizational lag in adopting optimized the fractional model

Organizational lag, or inertia, is one of the biggest hurdles to implementing FBD. It’s the “do nothing solution,” which costs nothing (on the surface) and requires no time or resources.

The time and resource part is true, but compiling an impactful market analysis, SWOT, and competitive technology review can quickly and definitively show the opportunity cost of inaction. This is a powerful tool to show an executive team.

Solutions and feedback loops essential for alignment

BD can be a communication pathway internally and externally. FBD is especially effective, as they can act as a neutral arbiter for information received from and suggestions given to the customer. FBDs have great relationships with most stakeholders, making it easy to ensure communication between the internal and external teams.

Building consistent brand and problem awareness amidst strong competition

Another primary function of BD is to create brand awareness. With 95-98% of a market NOT looking to buy, putting the customer top-of-mind and keeping them there ensures they’ll be the first call when they want to pull the trigger. This is why relationships matter so much: it could be 6 months, 1 year, or more before the customer is in buying mode.

With a current and sharp view of the market, FBD reps should at least inform marketing efforts, which should focus only around customer pain points and how to solve them (not company awards and volunteer day photos – no one cares).

The best FBD partners can handle content strategy creation, leveraging the UVP, positioning, and messaging they created. Building a content plan around those leads to brand trust and authority building. 

Future Landscape of Fractional Business Development

Emerging Trends

• Fractional partners are a growing trend, and business development is right in stride with that movement.

• AI is making it easier than ever to collect and summarize data to direct activities. This is a good thing!

• Customer focus is everything – more relational, less transactions. Customers are expecting customize experiences and products. Integrating personalization into NPD while protecting commercial off the shelf volume manufacture will separate good from great.

This will lead to a de-globalization (or localization) of markets being served in the way they want, not a global standard

• Strategic partnerships get more done with less. A core function of BD, this will continue to evolve to uncover new revenue and profitability opportunities

• Sustainability – global regulations continue to tighten – this is also good news. A push for sustainable solutions is an opportunity for innovation, like renewable energy, EV charging strategies, and technology developed in ethical and environmentally-responsible ways.

Predicted Shifts in working methodologies

The agency model could be in trouble if it doesn’t adapt to provide higher-level expertise to its customers. The pandemic has made [nearly] everyone more comfortable with remote work, and by extension, the opportunity to source the best talent available has never been better.

FBD optimizes this trend by maximizing the talent value for the investment. BD itself will become more important as many newer startup companies prioritize sustainable, long-term viability. And with subscription models becoming the norm, FBD retainers provide predictable support over a dedicated time period to minimize on- and off-boarding.

Predictions on how hybrid-working structures may increase

The correction from a mostly in-person to a nearly all-virtual workforce has led many companies to adopt hybrid work structures. For BD, there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting to build the relationship. But the ease of virtual connection alleviates the burden on BD reps, extending their reach while improving their quality of life through less travel.