I had a long discussion with my co-author on this article, Ibrahim Ashoor, on whether Business Development is all about sales, marketing, training, etc. or does it extend to more than these disciplines?! As to also cover how to reduce costs!

I studied Industrial Engineering during my Bachelor’s degree, and I believe we should make the following factors the basis of everything we do:

• Time
• Quality
• Cost

Therefore, we should base all our work decisions on asking ourselves the following question:

What is the added value in doing something?

Will it help reduce the delivery time? Increase quality of the product/ service we offer or will it help reduce the costs involved?

Biz Dev’s can maximise the shareholder’s profit by increasing sales or by reducing costs, without compromising the time or product/ services quality.

A BizDev can craft a cost reduction strategy, and look at ways to cut costs through the following:

• Start at a small level.

  Identifying expense mismanagement, as well as who and what is responsible for which cost is the beginning of establishing cost control. By having this detailed knowledge; a biz dev also has the authority to make decisions about cost-cutting. For a company to act profitably, the concept of discretionary spending shouldn’t exist. For example, as a business developer, you know whether you have to set up a face-to-face meeting or conduct it through a video conference system. Make the most of the situations when you don´t have to meet your client face-to-face. And if you do have to travel to meet your client, to do it efficiently and book your trips in advance.

• Know how to cut costs.

  When we think about cost-cutting, the first question that comes to mind is: How much do we need to cut? and perhaps not so much How can cost be cut? When employees at every level learn how to cut costs, this attitude develops into a company culture and brings lasting change.

• Have a clear goal

When it comes to cost reduction will prevent actually harming the company by doing away with essential costs, instead of the unnecessary ones. A biz dev can intervene in helping to model this behavior by comparing and, benchmarking their competitors and the company and, as a result, adjusting its strategy to lead to cost-reduction.

• Build cost management, not cost reduction.

Continuing the previous idea, differentiating productive costs from unproductive costs and, identifying which costs bring the highest returns will have as a result the elimination of low-performing costs. Positive costs help differentiate a business and, bring it closer to customers and what matters to them. The idea is to think of reducing cost not as a short-term solution, but a long-term formula.

• Set up a virtual office.

If your job as a biz dev doesn´t need you to be in the office 09:00-18:00, but more likely you meet your clients outside the office, then there´s an opportunity for your company to get rid of this cost. Cutting off premises cost is now an option: instead a company can choose to rent virtual offices which you can use only if necessary, and obviously at a lower cost than physical premises.

• Make reducing costs part of your organizational culture.

Business developers need to ask themselves; what are the drivers of cost. Employees need to be aware of what cost they generate for the company. By making cost accountability a best practice, and part of its strategy, a company can focus on how to optimize costs, by reducing and adjusting them continuously. Optimizing costs needs to play the role of an ongoing exercise and practice at all  business levels. Always ask yourself whether a certain cost contributes toward fulfilling a business objective. If it doesn´t, start setting up a strategy to remove or reduce this cost.

• Let your clients work for you.

All the time you’ve spent building up your company’s goodwill and reputation can now serve for a good purpose: word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations are the most effective social media and one way to reduce cost. A strong and loyal client base is actually part of your business development team, and more than that, they are doing the work for free. So, instead of spending money on convincing potential clients, let the ones you already have speak for you.

Would like to know more about Business development? Learn the top 9 mistake that every business developer must avoid

Websites used to prepare this article:
www.mckinsey.com
www.pwc.com
www.londonpresence.com/virtual-office