So business development, lead generation, and sales and not the same thing. Are they?

The lines between business development, lead generation, and sales have been blurred for some time now, and the proliferation of posts on these subjects isn't helping. Each one plays a critical to driving real growth and each has their place, depending on your industry. Here's how I see it:

??What is "Business Development"?

Business development is strategic selling and it cultivates more credibility, and establishes deeper connections with multiple buyers in an organisation with a much less pressurised approach than lead generation or tactical outbound sales. It establishes you and your brand as a very serious contender, with a medium-term plan to pitch and win the business.?

But in some industries — and some countries — business development implies opportunities created by inbound leads being handled by a junior rep, before being passed on to a more senior salesperson. However in reality, BD is quite the opposite: it's a less sales-y approach to generating new business but it doesn't imply anything about inbound leads (unless you're in the US SaaS industry).

But real BD - in the strategic selling context - has a level-headed, patient, and highly client-oriented approach from the first conversation you cultivate, through the entire deal cycle.

It suits companies who are innovating with new technology, companies who build tech and large software projects, as well as enterprise tech vendors, advertising and marketing agencies, and professional services firms.

It's ideal for sophisticated services or complex solutions with a longer sales cycle, especially in industries where your clients might be skeptical or highly discerning.?

When outsourced to a third party like RevenueBuilder , it’s usually done in very close collaboration with you and your team, rather than at arm’s length, so as your partner, we become more like colleagues than an agency.

?? OK Then, So What Is "Lead Generation"?

Every business needs a strong pipeline of right-fit customers, and if what you’re selling is relatively easy to comprehend and there’s an established need in your marketplace for it, then outbound lead generation is probably the right choice.?

It’s more immediate, it can deliver fast returns when done right, and you can get a lot of meetings booked with potential customers and build awareness to a high number of people who’d never heard of you before. It’s great for relatively inexpensive (or so-called "low ticket" products), as well as for many SaaS products, and some B2B marketing services.?

Lead generation professionals usually open an opportunity but they hand it over to be closed by someone else. The weakness in lead gen is that if it is not done intelligently and respectfully, it can feel a little boiler room-ish and pushy, which could turn people off and create friction — and even deep distrust — around your brand.

Also, people are increasingly tired of being on the receiving end of cold outreach, especially when that outreach is clearly just a quick pitch and does't offer up any insight or real value. That doesn't mean it's not still effective, but it has to be done extremely well and fine-tuned every day to make it really land.

And we can't forget that other form of lead generation: inbound. This is still one of the most powerful ways to generate leads, however they're often not as well targeted and are frequently mis-identified as sales qualified leads, when they're often just marketing qualified leads.

?? So "Appointment Setting" is also Lead Generation?

Sort of, yes. When you engage an agency to do appointment setting for you, the potential customers you’re meeting with should either be Sales Qualified Leads or Proven Qualified Opportunities.

If not, you’ll be wasting your money. At RevenueBuilder, we set appointments for you only after we’ve done a deep dive into your ideal customer profile. Even then, we execute with an account based marketing strategy so your prospects have already consumed your content, watched your videos, and had some of their initial objections dealt with.

Of course, a lot of organisations have well-established teams of 'sales development reps' or other outbound prospectors whose job is to set meetings for account executes or BDMs, and that can be a great solution. But even then, they can run into capacity constraints quickly.

?????? So what is "Sales" then?

Sales is a big area of course, and in most contexts, it involves both outbound prospecting or generating leads and opportunities, as well as the strategic end of navigating the sales cycle (and buyer’s journey) through to the conversion point, or closed sale.?

In most industries, business development is considered a sales function, but in some areas like advertising agencies or industrial environments, it’s rare to hear it called sales because it is less tactical, requires more discovery and opportunity analysis, and customisation is usually required.?

Fundamentally, if you're outsourcing “Sales”, it usually means having someone else manage the whole sales cycle for you from top of funnel to contract signed and deal closed.

I'd love to hear alternative views on this. Please let me know if you think I've missed anything or my definitions are not quite right for your location or industry.