Definition - Business Development (BizDev)

The process of creating new business opportunities through targeted networking, education, and awareness-building activities.

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EXAMPLE

Attending and actively participating in all the planning and economic development meetings along with council meetings for the cities and counties in geographical areas the contractor has chosen to work in (strategy) including major market choices and strategic market experiments


 

Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractor’s business than a constant flow of high-quality work with a select group of customers. 

A contractor’s growth will truly accelerate when they separate out business development responsibilities from owners, estimating and operations. 

Building an aggressive and scalable business development process is one of the best guarantees of success in both a growing and a declining market.  If executed effectively you can gain entrance to new customers in a “hot” market that will allow you to reshape your market strategy.  

With so much upside why aren’t more contractors being successful when adding dedicated business developers to their organizational structures?  

This is something we spend a lot of time on with clients and the single biggest challenge we see is the failure to define the role clearly.  The role of an owner or executive doing business development is completely different than the role of a dedicated business developer. Separating out these roles requires breaking down the entire work acquisition process into major phases and understanding that business development is:  

The process of creating new business opportunities through targeted networking, education and awareness-building activities.  


 

Business Development becomes progressively more complex with growth and depending on the objective. 

 


Definitions for The Business of Building
Building a project requires knowledge of, and skill in using thousands of construction-specific definitions, acronyms, and metrics. Building a business including the development of people has its own vocabulary forming the foundation of communication....

Definitions for The Business of Building
Building a project requires knowledge of, and skill in using thousands of construction-specific definitions, acronyms, and metrics. Building a business including the development of people has its own vocabulary forming the foundation of communication....

Strategic Market Experiments
A growing contractor must systematically allocate 10-20% of their resources, including talent and capital to Strategic Market Experiments that have a probability of growing into a major market and becoming a "Strategic Choice."
Business Development Mastery: Bechtel's Philosophy
Nothing will have a bigger impact on a contractor’s business than bringing in more quality revenue on a recurring basis. Effective business development is a capability to be designed and managed no different than the ability to build a project.
Winning Projects - The Early, Middle, and Late Game
Successfully winning projects starts with knowing all phases of the game. All contractors participate in the "Late Game." Playing the "Early Game" effectively positions contractors to win more frequently, with better pricing, and better terms.