Many business journals and industry experts confuse business development with sales. These two terms are vaguely used interchangeably without much of an in depth understanding of it. However, most of statements indicate that there is a thin line or a grey area between the two terms. So, people often wonder what the exact difference between the two is. The only major difference is that sales is merely a transactional process not focused towards the future prospective; whereas, business development has a sense of experiential touch attached to it as the business development executives primarily focus on building a long term relationship with their customers.
The qualified leads that generate sales are just the beginning point of the process, and focused business development executive with a long term vision takes charge towards building a long term relationship between the organisation and the customer.
Some of the vital points pertaining to the role of qualified leads for business development have been discussed below:
Background research of the leads
Every organisation has a sense of attachment with qualified leads it generates and also have the objective selling to those qualified leads in place. But before opting for one or a set of lead generation services,a proper background check needs to be done on the prospective customer before declaring it a qualified lead. If a prospect is not looking for a long term association, it cannot fall under the category of a potential business development option. The prospects who are looking for a long term association with a brand can lead to a lot of future opportunities which will help in garnering consistent revenue for a business entity.
Expectations from a product
Leading lead generation services providers attest a lead as a qualified one only after understanding the expectations. Once an organisation’s product matches or falls close to its customer’s expectations, the lead is then funneled onto the business development team that can have a more elaborate understanding of the customer expectations and deliver the expected product and even modify their offerings up to a certain extent.
Reaching out to potential customers
This is perhaps the most important function of efficient lead generation services providers. These agencies need to look for potential leads through various means like cold-calling, use of social media to help their clients gather potential business development opportunities. Long term associations with the brand often depends on the quality of product or service being offered. But gathering potential leads suitable for their clients is what helps such agencies get a competitive edge.
Having focused on the importance of leads, it is all the more vital that quality of leads is sustained for a long time. However, a long term relationship is strictly dependent on the quality of product and various other factors that govern the market. Business development has now been observed as more of a craft which requires specialized training of business development executives. Such a training is important to have a long term relationship with customers and resolve their queries in a proficient manner.
