Your Business Development goals for 2020

• By : diamondlab
• Business Development
• 1

Setting business development goals is crucial for any organization, from small entrepreneurs to established industry leaders. Business development goals are plans your organization develops to help meet its mission and objective. These goals aim to achieve a specific purpose over a defined period.

Business development goals are initiatives to make the business grow in terms of business expansion and increasing profit margins. Additionally, they are strategic business decisions that propel the attainment of the overall business mission. These goals act as a steering wheel for the business developer. They should also align with your core values as a business. Business development goals may be long term or set to a limited time frame.

People in an organizations working towards achieving the same goal think and act differently. However, just having goals is not enough. The goals must be strategic and exact. The business developer must clear any unnecessary tasks that may hinder achieving the current goals.

The Focus of the business developer

Generally, most business goals revolve around the following variables:

• Revenues. This includes the profit from sales, total recurring revenue

• Subscriptions. Enterprises aim to increase the monthly and annual recurring revenue

• Units. Organizations aspire to increase the total units sold, its customer base, and get new contracts.

The type of business goal you set has a big impact on your approach to business growth. For instance, if your goal is to have a wider user base, offering free plans and trials will be effective. However, you will probably not earn a lot of money. In this article, we give a keen and informative analysis of how the business developer sets the goals, the types of goals, and the benefits. These are critical things that established market leaders do, and small enterprises can definitely learn from them.

The business developer must ask themselves these questions before setting business development goals.

• What do we want to achieve?

• Why is it essential to accomplish our goal?

• What is the time-frame we have to work towards our goal?

• What impact will the success have on our business?

• How will I fund and sustain the goal?

Setting business development goals

For a business developer to answer these questions, they need to understand the best method of setting the goals. A reliable way is to set SMART goals. SMART is a mnemonic for five elements: Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Timely.

Specific

The business goals set should be exact and accurate. A business developer should refrain from being vague and making goals that are full of ambiguity. This helps to easily track the progress the business makes by making comparisons to the exact figures and intended goal.

Measurable

The goals set should be quantifiable. For example, in making a profit goal, setting a target of ten more dollars per sale is more effective than merely stating ‘increase business profits.’ Numbers are an essential part of the business because they can be easily tracked.

Attainable

Simply put, realistic goals are those which are achievable by the organization at standard conditions. A business developer should avoid the overestimation of the expected results since the contrast might be too broad. Setting impossible goals may lower the morale of the employees leading to poor performance.

Relevant

You need to ensure that specific actions attach to your goals. For example. In order to increase the wages of the employees, you may raise the selling price or reduce the cost of production.

Time-based

This refers to a definite duration for achieving the set business development goals. The business developer ought to set a specific timeline to evaluate and track the progress made towards achieving the goal.

First things first

Before setting the business development goals, the developer should run internal and external competitive benchmarking. Most established market leaders compare the performance in various areas of the organization as well as their competitor organizations. This helps the business developer in goal-setting by showing where you stand in terms of economic strength.

A market analysis is equally important. It helps you to know the trends and directions your organization is headed. Reviewing your past performance helps to decide on how to make informed future business goals. Furthermore, make sure you gain some insight from your employees. Seen as a smart strategy employed by established market leaders that works just as well for small businesses. Asking for the views of the ‘ground level’ of the organization makes them feel included in important decisions.

This approach makes them more receptive to goals that will be introduced and will be more willing to cooperate. It is essential to identify the resources you will require to achieve the business development goals. If your goal is to expand your business, ensure that you have enough funds for such appropriation. If you decide to take a loan from the bank, clearly set out how the payment will be made. Consider budgetary limitations when setting development goals.

The taskmaster

Once you set your SMART goals according to your business climate, break down each goal to specific tasks. It is essential to periodically review and track your goals and even make adjustments to them. Goal-setting is an excellent tool for small businesses that desire to scale up. You should communicate your business development goals both internally and possibly, externally. Ensure everyone in the organization understands the goals and why you chose them. Every individual and department should understand the impact of their performance on the attainment of the goals.

Further, make a point to reward your organization when you achieve your goals. The process of realizing a goal can be very challenging. Acknowledge your ‘wins’ and renew the enthusiasm and motivation of everyone in the enterprise.Business development goals cut across departments. They extend to activities such as sales and marketing, project management, networking, product management, as well as negotiations and partnerships. These departments have their aims, which are aligned to the core goals set by the business developer.

For instance, if a small enterprise sets its goal to expand its branches, the business development team takes responsibility. The team, by due diligence and research, assesses the success rate of the business in the current area. It then makes a comparison of the expansion potential in the expected area.

Business development goals always connect

Here is how business development goals can be connected to various departments:

Sales

They focus on particular clients or markets for a target profit. Here, the business development team assesses a market such as the United States and concludes the achievable sales. The departments then target the customer base with sales strategies for their new market.

Marketing

They are involved in pushing the brand to the customers. It entails promotions and adverting the product to make a successful sale. Their role complements that of the sales department. Higher allocation of funds translates to more aggressive strategies, while lower budget marketing tends to be passive.

Partnerships

Before entering a new market, it is prudent that a business developer forms strategic partners with local operating firms.

Product management

Market requirements and production standards vary. The composition of a product may be accepted in one country but is restricted in another. These requirements influence the work of manufacturing and product management. The business developer should also consider the cost and adherence to legal and regulatory approvals.

Project management

This is business planning before expansion. The business developer should consider whether the products will be manufactured in the base country and then imported. The expansion could also require new facilities. The department should come up with decisions based on cost and time-related estimates.

Cost savings

Strategic decisions, other than increasing sales and market reach, should be made for cost-cutting measures. These can be done by using less expensive transportation and less spending on travel. The organization may outsource non-core work like customer service, billings, and technology operations.

Networking

Business initiatives may require expertise in soft skills, such as negotiating. It may become necessary when entering the market. Networking may be needed with vendors, agencies, and government authorities.

Vendor management

During business expansion, a business developer should consider whether they require external vendors. If not, then which courier service to be used to make deliveries to the customer. The business development team works to assess the costs of the varied options in getting the product to the client.

Poorly Defined Goals

As mentioned earlier, business development goals should be precise. Check out these illustrations of poorly defined business goals:

• I want to make more profits this year compared to the previous one.
• Want to generate a more extensive mailing list.
• I want to rank as number one on Google.
• I want to improve the quality of my product.

These goals are very vague, and their achievement depends on specificity. They should define how many more people I want, 100 or 10,000. More profits should be put in numerals such as ‘$10 profit per sale’ to quantify the description. The same goals have now been turned to well-defined goals. Note the difference:

Properly Defined Goals

• Want to make a $10 million profit after increasing the purchase price by $5.
• I need 10,000 more visitors, 300 leads, and 15 new customers within the next ten months.
• I want to rank number one for the keyword “business developer” since it will generate approximately 400 visitors to my website in four weeks.
• Want to reduce defects to less than 3% of the delivered product in the company’s annual goal.

Advantages of business development goals

Business development plans have a variety of benefits, especially to small enterprise owners. The following are the benefits of goal-setting:

• Steering the business. Goals act as a guide and provide direction for your business. It helps to guide the daily decision-making process of the business developer as well as the employees. For example, if your goal is to minimize expenses, you will opt for a less expensive mode of transportation for the products.
• Motivate employees to perform. Goal-setting is a motivational tool since the employees know what is required of them to attain the business’ mission.
• Maintains the focus of the business developer. Goals prevent the tendency to jump from one project to another without completion. It allows the business developer and employees to focus their energies on a common objective.
• Better time management. Setting a goal is simply creating a step-by-step plan of how to accomplish a goal. This helps to achieve a task more quickly without veering off course. Insignificant and unproductive tasks get cleared off your path. Therefore, if your goal is to make more sales from the existing customer base, you will not spend time prospecting for business expansion.

As well as..

• Easier communication with others. Setting goals for the organization clarifies the roles of every employee. Each person understands the impact of their performance on the attainment of the business development goals. Soliciting for employees’ views before setting goals motivates them since they feel included in the decision making of the business.
• Optimum use of resources. Resources, typically limited, rarely cover the needed amounts to achieve business goals. Set business development goals to help prioritize resources in line with the desired goals.
• Setting goals helps to know the position of the business. A business developer can gauge themselves with other competitors and see their performance. It helps to understand how far the organization has come in achieving its goals.

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Conclusion

Setting business development goals is vital for every organization, especially small enterprises. These plans tie themselves to departments and individual effort. Making development goals has numerous benefits, including increased focus and better time management. Remember to be SMART and reward your organization as you hit your set goals.