Understanding the Difference Between Sales and Business Development

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Understanding the Difference Between Sales and Business Development

Sales, marketing and business development. They are all the same, right? Actually, no. Sales, marketing and business development are all very different tasks and it is important to know how they differ from one another so that your business is as successful as possible.

While many small businesses, out of necessity, may have just one person in charge of sales, marketing and business development tasks, it is still important to differentiate between the three job descriptions because each job has a very different objective, as shown here:

  • Business Development: An individual in charge of business development identifies and implements new areas of business. These include things like new distribution channels, new markets and/or new products. Those in business development never sell a particular product or service.
  • Marketing: A marketing professional will attract customers by identifying the needs of a certain type of customer. Marketing is a means of working toward the goal of getting products sold to customers. It also plays a role in gathering and confirming the particular features or benefits of a product or service that is desired by customers.
  • Sales: In the most basic terms, sales means transactions. A sale is what happens once a customer has been identified. A salesperson is responsible for selling a product or service at a determined price.

Here is another way to look at it. New business builds or creates new buildings. Marketing gets people through the door. Sales gets people from the door to the cash register. Sales professionals should always be closing but new business development professionals should always be opening!

If you are a business development professional you need to be able to look out for the needs of the entire company for which you work. Much of your day-to-day tasks will be spent with managers from different departments and helping them prepare for presentations, for example.

Business development and sales professionals are two parts of a whole. They both work to grow a business but they do it in different ways. Only when they do it correctly, however, will a business grow and flourish.

How to Make Sure Your Telemarketing Efforts are Successful

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How to Make Sure Your Telemarketing Efforts are Successful

Ask any business owner who has used telemarketing for anything from direct mail follow-up to sales to lead generation and he or she will almost certainly tell you that nothing compares to it. After all, no matter what else a telemarketing campaign accomplishes, connecting with a customer or a prospect through a live conversation cannot be beat.

Regardless of how much telemarketing can do for your business, it is still like everything else in business and in life. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Therefore, if you want telemarketing to do great things for your business, you need to make sure you put in the necessary effort. Here’s what that effort involves:

1. A plan: What are your telemarketing goals? More sales? Lead generation? Data acquisition? You need to know what you want and be willing to make the type of investment—time, talent, hardware, etc.—that will get you what you want. You also will have to decide whether or not you are able to handle your telemarketing efforts in-house or would be better off outsourcing.

2. The right data: Without accurate data, most telemarketing efforts will fail. It is essential that before you embark on any telemarketing campaign you know who you need to target and how to reach them.

3. A good script. The best telemarketing scripts are ones that act as a guide and allow a professional telemarketer to guide t he conversation in the right direction. It must grab the attention of its target audience and encourage interaction. Further, a script must be continually evaluated and, when necessary, refined.

4. A great team. In the end, the right team of professional telemarketers is the best way to ensure your telemarketing success. You can have a well thought out plan, precise data and the perfect script but if your telemarketers aren’t qualified to do the job, none of these things will matter. Your telemarketing team must be knowledgeable about your product or service and be able to talk intelligently about it. These professionals also must be persuasive, tenacious and always be able to keep calls on track.

When done right, telemarketing can yield outstanding results. The key is to make sure you are willing to make the necessary investment so that it is done right every single time.

Benefits of Telemarketing Go Far Beyond Sales

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Benefits of Telemarketing Go Far Beyond Sales

Savvy businesses owners understand that telemarketing is an essential part of their marketing and sales strategy. This is because time over time, telemarketing has proven to be one of the best ways to identify, qualify and nurture leads. After all, nothing compares to a one-on-one conversation.

Other business owners would like to integrate telemarketing into their marketing and sales efforts but are unsure of the best way to do it. While telemarketing is commonly associated with selling (and it is a great way to make sales), there are several other ways it can positively impact a business.

If you are wondering how telemarketing can make your business more successful, here are just some of the many ways it can be used to market your business to current and prospective customers:

    • Communication: Not all contact with customers and prospects should be sales related. Instead some contact should focus exclusively on relationship building. For example, if your website has been updated, you can call current and former customers and ask them to check it out. No strings attached.
    • Data collection: Telemarketing is the perfect way to gather information about the decision makers at a particular company and to find out how those decision makers use particular products or services.
    • Event registration: Marketing events are only worth the time and money if enough customers or prospects show up. Telemarketing is a great way to make sure the attendance numbers are high and that the right types of people attend.
    • Follow-up: Research has proven again and again that following up with customers after a direct mailing increases the ROI of that campaign. You also can follow up after a purchase to see if the customer is pleased with that purchase.
    • Lead Qualification: Instead of chasing and qualifying sales leads, sales people should be closing sales. Telemarketing allows salespeople to avoid the time-consuming task of lead qualification and focus on what they do best—sell.

List Scrubbing: Telemarketing is a great way to make sure that your salespeople have accurate and up-to-date information, allowing them to be much more successful since they won’t waste their valuable time on dead-end leads.

Telemarketing is an excellent way to sell products, but limiting it specifically to means you will miss out on its many other benefits.

Connecting with Prospects Over the Phone

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Connecting with Prospects Over the Phone

Sales calls can be difficult for even the most seasoned salesperson. However, those who are the best at making sales over the phone care less about making a sale and more about getting to know the person on the other end of the line.

The first thing you need to do when talking with a prospect over the phone is to find out where his or her priorities lie. This can be very difficult because as a salesperson, your first inclination is usually to tell a prospect what an outstanding product or service you are selling.

While it may seem unnatural at first, it is essential to allow prospects to do most of the talking. That’s because if you don’t give a prospect the opportunity to speak, you will never know what he or she wants or needs. When you do begin to talk, you should focus on asking probing questions.

It is unrealistic to expect that every call you make will end up in a sale, but there are ways to become more successful over time.

    1. Begin on a positive note. Research shows that when you begin a telemarketing conversation on a positive note, you drastically increase your chances of making a sale. Instead of beginning a call with phrases like, “I know you’re swamped,” try something more upbeat such as, “Great weather we’re having.”
    1. Never bad mouth competitors. Psychologists tell us that when someone says something negative about a competitor (or anyone for that matter), the person listening tends to, consciously or unconsciously, project those negative attributes onto the person talking.
    1. Focus on the details. Instead of talking in general about a product or service you are selling, speak specifically about the features and capabilities that will directly benefit your prospect.
    1. Ask how the prospect wants to move forward. Find out when and how your prospect wants to be contacted going forward. It is important that you allow the prospect to have some control instead of you always leading the way.
  1. Create an atmosphere of mutual respect. Instead of viewing yourself as less important than a prospect, always set a tone of mutual respect. This sense of respect will go a long way toward building strong relationships that ultimately lead to sales.