Too many folks use the terms “sales” and “business development” interchangeably. BD and sales are different beasts, so I thought it would be helpful to lay out the basics…
SALES
Convincing a potential customer to purchase your product.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Creating long-term value for your company via partners and relationships.
SALES
Focused on customers.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Focused on channels.
SALES
Numbers-driven 24/7.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Sacrifices short-term bumps for long-term value creation.
SALES
Measured by sales quotas, with expected quarter-by-quarter growth.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Measured by business objectives, whether that be distribution, marketing, or otherwise.
SALES
A scalable business function to drive revenue.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Regularly testing non-scalable things to drive exponential growth.
SALES
Cold calls are the lifeblood of success.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Cold calling means you’re not connected enough.
SALES
Measure, measure, measure. How many calls can you do in a day? What’s your sales conversion rate? What communication method converts best to a sale? How do we drive customer acquisition prices lower?
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Calculate value constantly. Where can we get our biggest bang-for-buck in a partnership? What value do we create for our partner? What value does the partner bring to us?
SALES
Make a sale, hand it off to customer onboarding and support.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Manage a partnership through its lifecycle.
SALES
Sales team training, onboarding, and growth is expected with company growth.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BD teams are amorphous and rarely look the same from business-to-business.
SALES
Always be closing.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Always be hustling.
SALES
The best salespeople come from the school of hard knocks, rigorous on-the-job sales training, can think big picture, and have exceptional strategic quantitative skills.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The best business development people are well-connected, know how to navigate partner organizations, can craft a story, and have an exceptional eye for value potential.
SALES
A dirty word in Silicon Valley.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
A catch-all title for every MBA grad coming to a startup.
SALES
Glengarry Glenn Ross. The Wolf of Wall Street. Tommy Boy. Mad Men.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Moneyball. Jerry Maguire. Entourage. Risky Business.
Sure, there are plenty of similarities. But sales and business development fundamentally aim for different goals. They take different people and approaches. Get it right, or pay the price.