What is a Business Development Specialist?

What is a Business Development Specialist?

First of all, when answering the question of what a Business Development Specialist does, it is necessary to divide the areas that we can call “existing” and “new” into two. While issues such as improving existing businesses and increasing service quality require a completely different specialization, bringing new customers and strategies to the company is a different specialization. Often, if the employee is qualified and has experience, these two specialties are combined in some companies.

Following new technologies and trends, looking out for new business opportunities and acting fast are the main answers to the question of what a business development specialist does. Adding new customers to the company and following up these inter-organizational communication processes until the sales stage are often the work items of the business development specialist.

Contributes to any new strategies that can bring profitability and growth to the business, shares these strategies with other departments and implements action plans. The Business Development manager can be a team leader who can supervise business development specialists, or sometimes, if the company has a one-person team, it can be referred to as this position directly.

Business development specialist salaries may vary depending on the size of the company or the success of the Business Development Specialist. If the Business Development Specialist captures new projects that will contribute to the company and brings them to the company and agreements are reached, additional remuneration can be given on commission.

Analysis by Business Development Specialist

Identifies the company's strengths and areas that can be improved, and accordingly designs and implements plans that can ensure profitability. Captures current issues and potential collaborations that may be of interest to the company. Researches events and organizations that can bring new customers to the company, and takes steps to promote the company and its services to the right target audiences with the support of different departments within the company such as marketing and sales.

What is Business Development?

Market research, competitor analysis, new contacts made at networking events, identifying potential customers and creating a communication channel between them and the company are all areas that fall within the scope of business development. Developing the company brings insights and guidance that can contribute to the improvement of the existing structure not only on the new customer side, but also internally. If a company does not have a staff focused solely on improving the current situation in the corporate structure, a business development specialist can provide guidance on this side as well.

Why is Business Development Support Important?

Established relationships with customers or potential customers are the foundation of a company's ability to make sales. This solid, strong and purposeful professional communication is carried out by business development experts. In order to increase the company's profits and pave the way for potential collaborations, an active, sociable employee is absolutely necessary to work only in this field. A business development specialist plays a critical role in helping a company achieve its growth goals and make the most of business opportunities.

It has a wide range of tasks from market research to strategic planning, from customer relations to performance monitoring. The effectiveness of the business development professional increases the company's competitive advantage and ensures sustainable growth. The skills and knowledge of this professional play an important role in helping companies achieve success. This position is often designed to realize a company's growth objectives, create new business opportunities and optimize existing business processes. The role of a business development specialist operates in many different areas, ranging from market research to the creation of business strategies.

What are the Characteristics of a Business Development Specialist?

Should be assertive, constantly research and improve himself/herself. If a Business Development Specialist discovers a new channel in which the company can take part, they should quickly integrate it into the company. Attend and network at events, organizations and seminars that may have potential for collaboration, and strategize whether such seminars can be organized about the company or within the scope of the company. Work in close contact with the sales and marketing teams and ensure the follow-up of the relevant work to realize the ideas.

Speaking a foreign language, being sociable and having strong communication skills are some of the important qualities that a Business development specialist should have. To be able to think analytically and sometimes creatively about strategy planning and implementation. He/she should be able to get involved in last minute negativities and issues that may arise in business life and approach them in a solution-oriented manner. He/she should improve himself/herself in crisis management.

Adapt to emerging trends and technological developments, always looking for and trying new tools that can optimize or automate work. If they see a gap in the market for new services and products for the company, or if they see that new services can be offered if the existing work resource can be directed correctly, they should be able to work with management on these issues.

The Difference Between Growth and Improving Existing Processes

When talking about the job description of the business development specialist, we mentioned the need to distinguish between “existing” and “new”. While most of the aforementioned can be considered as “growth”, i.e. work in the field of “new” customers and markets, analyzing internal departments and project management methods and offering optimization suggestions for the improvement of existing processes can also fall within the scope of the business development specialist.

Improving the functioning can help reduce costs and increase operational efficiency, so the work done here is very important. The business development specialist makes the necessary changes to optimize these processes and oversees the implementation of these changes.

Sustainable Growth

The next step is to ensure that these improvements are sustainable and documented in the light of the work done to improve the company. The inclusion and training of new team members and interns will not only open the door to different perspectives that employees from different competence areas and age groups can offer, but will also highlight the value of the existing work to build on all the business development work done in the future.

For sustainable growth, in addition to training human resources, it will be important to continue exploring different tools, to always follow new technologies and trends that can be integrated into the company, and to analyze not only local markets but also global markets. Continuing to generate ideas and strategies on how the company's products and services can be utilized in different sectors, not only for the needs in the relevant sectors, is among the things that the business development specialist can do.

Research and Development

Business Development Specialists can register for conferences and webinars that may be of interest to them, and review the ideas and work output of different experts. In addition to the research and development that can be done for the company, a business development specialist should always be a person who is open to self-improvement, so they should participate and evaluate new trainings that they can attend online/offline. A business development specialist who is active on LinkedIn is likely to increase his/her impact on social media or in the work he/she will do, so giving importance to social media, sharing regularly, especially on LinkedIn, and establishing new connections and relationships will be a good step for bonding with companies from all sectors.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What Education is Required to Become a Business Development Specialist?

It is often said that a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics or Engineering is required to become a Business Development Specialist, but this is not true. In this life, whoever graduates from which department, if they develop themselves well, they can build a career in every different field they want. As experience, training in areas such as sales, marketing and strategy is also useful in business development expertise. In addition, master's degree programs such as MBA and certificates in areas such as strategic management, project management, sales techniques can contribute to a career as a business development specialist.

In Which Sectors Can a Business Development Specialist Work?

Business Development Specialist can work in almost every sector. Business development activities are of great importance in many sectors such as technology, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, services, energy and retail. Although needs vary according to sectors, business development specialists can develop business strategies in every field to capture new opportunities and improve existing processes.

How to Measure the Success of a Business Development Specialist?

The success of a Business Development Specialist is usually measured by the new customers, collaborations, strategies developed and the financial results they bring to the company. In addition, internal achievements such as process improvements, cost reduction and operational efficiency are also important evaluation criteria. Performance can be measured by strategies that lead to both short-term profitability gains and long-term sustainable growth.

What is the Difference Between a Business Development Specialist and a Sales Specialist?

A Business Development Specialist usually focuses on finding new business opportunities and creating long-term strategies. This includes strategic tasks such as expanding into new markets, developing customer relationships and building partnerships. Sales Specialist, on the other hand, focuses more on selling existing products and services and realizing sales targets. While business development creates strategies, sales is a position that implements the results of these strategies.

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