Development &

Defensive Strategies
By Mr. Zaigham
 Business Development
• The basis of Business Development is about creating long term value or long
term positive image of an organization in the minds of customers, stakeholders,
markets and so on. The process of business development is all about identifying
these interconnected networks, which will create new opportunities for
growth. Business development is the fastest way to grow a company.
• Business development is the link between all the internal segments (like sales,
customer service, and advertising) and external (client’s relation and new
corporate opportunities).
 Some Development Strategies
1. Recruit right personnel at the right 7. Provide excellent service
time
8. Qualitative vs Quantitative
2. Look for the right opportunity approach
3. Stop talking too much 9. Stop saying: I don’t have any time
4. Focus on your client’s requirement 10. Innovation at its best
5. Be Important 11. Recognize Your Competition
6. Main motto: Client Satisfaction 12. Pay Attention to Your Website
 Recruit right personnel at the right time
• A person can be having a great degree of knowledge as well as strong
network who is eager to close deals with clients. But it can still be harmful
for a company’s well being.
• Sometimes marketing team emphasizes only on lowest prices. They forget
to pay attention to engineering and quality aspects. This casts an ill effect
on the company’s reputation.
• The effect will depend on the company’s life cycle. There are three life
stages in a company’s life and not every employee is suited for every stage.
 Contd.
• Scouting– This is the preliminary stage of a company. At this stage, business development deals with
identification of various entry points to market. Various leverage points are identified and the
concerned internal team is provided with feedback of market analysis. The key skills involved here is
collaborative work with the product and engineering teams.
• Testing- At this stage, the business developer will close a few open deals in order to test the
assumptions made from the market and input various findings. Analytical skill sets for setting up a
measurement framework is required. The framework will depend on the company’s mission,
strengths and vision.
• Scaling– After the data is gathered from each and every deal, a path is laid down for goal
fulfillment. After this, business development is all set to start closing for deals. An entire support
system for future activities is created.
 Look for the right opportunity
• The contacts with whom you are dealing must be cross checked as well.
• Identify the potential clients to avoid unwanted wastage of time.
• Scanning of the market for fruitful associations is vital before starting
dealing with prospects. If this step is omitted, you will find that you are
already drained out, yet no positive associations have been made.
• Focus on those clients who actually matters to your business rather than
digging your head in unwanted ones.
 Stop talking too much
• When you are speaking for more than 50 percent of the time, you are
actually talking 10 times excess.
• Your job is not to blurt out everything, but understand and probe the
client’s perspective, his problems, issues, type of work done, time taken
etc.
• Be an active listener.
 Focus on your client’s requirement
• Don’t present what you are offering. Present what the client needs.
• Do not talk about your offerings instead listen carefully the client’s requirements,
preferences.
• If you listen carefully to your clients, you can modify your own pitch to match the client
requirements which in turn increase client satisfaction rates.
• Always pay a keen attention to the clients’ issues so that you customize your offerings
as per his needs.
• If a client fails to get what he desires, then the chances of doing business with him is
minimized.
 Be Important
• It is a well known idea that important people love to deal with other important people.
• Be active within your business associations.
• Be part of those organizations that fulfill your business needs and where you can
interact with prospective clients.
• You can offer volunteer services to industry experts to gain visibility as well as to
capture high value targets.
• You can climb the corporate ladder to gather the desired prestige in your concerned
industry.
 Main motto: Client Satisfaction
• There is nothing in the world which is worse than a furious client. Not only it spoils the
relationship of yours with the client, but it is also harmful to your company’s reputation.
• Forget about everything else and fix client’s problems first.
• If you take a quick action once your clients complaints about an issue, you will make an
enthralling impression on your client.
• You will get applause from your client and your name will be circulated in your industry
members.
• Remember to practice empathy when dealing with clients. Place yourself in your client’s
position and feel his problem. By doing so, you will be effectively nurtured your business.
 Provide excellent service
• After you successfully influenced your clients and got business from
them, it is time to make them happy with your amazing services.
• Stick to the deadlines fixed with your clients.
• Be a perfect guide throughout the whole process.
• If you succeed in making your clients satisfied, they will be offering you
repeat business as well as new business opportunities.
 Qualitative vs Quantitative approach
• Many businesses focus purely on qualitative business value proposition
and gives less importance to the other factors. But this is not a wise idea.
• There is a minimal probability of the market to pay higher for a premium
service. The market is not ready to spend extra bucks even if they get
improved user experiences and better services.
• As a result, the quantitative aspect of the business increases the chances
of success. Creating competitive lowest prices will surely attract more
clients. This in turn will maximize your revenue generation.
 Stop saying: I don’t have any time
• Time management is a crucial skill which every business owner needs to know.
• It is all about prioritizing work. Important work needs to be done first and less
important jobs can be done later.
• Managing your time wisely is one of the most crucial tasks, especially for a
business start up.
• Balancing time between operational activities and business development
activities is an art which you need to master. This can be done only when you
spent less time on useless stuff and allocate more time to vital tasks.
 Innovation at its best
• Innovation is the best way to be at the top of the competition.
• When you offer your clients something unique then there is a high
probability that your client will do business with you.
• Everyone prefers products or service that are new to the market. So why don’t
you go out of the box and have some awesome ideas?
• Offer your clients something which no one is offering. Innovation may
involve new methods, ideas, workflows, process flows which will be
beneficial for companies.
 Recognize Your Competition
• A business development tool is to know your competition. You should
evaluate what they offer and analyze what makes your business stand out
in the crowd. Tycoons should work on this differentiation.
 Pay Attention to Your Website
• In this modern era, the design of website matters a lot. This is because
most of the consumers check business sites before making any decision.
Hence, you should add videos and other latest features to your website
design to remain the top priority for customers.
 Business Defense Strategy
• Defensive strategy is defined as a marketing tool that helps companies to retain
valuable customers that can be taken away by competitors.
• Competitors can be defined as other firms that are located in the same market
category or sell similar products to the same segment of people.
• Each company must protect its brand, growth expectations, and profitability to
maintain a competitive advantage and adequate reputation among other brands.
• To reduce the risk of financial loss, firms strive to take their competition away
from the industry.
 Defense Strategies
• There are three strategies considered as essential elements of defensive
strategy:
1. Retrenchment
2. Divestiture
3. Liquidation
 Retrenchment
• It consists of the reduction of the expenses by selling assets or having
employees' layoffs to increase profitability.
• This forces employees to manufacture the company's products with
limited resources or with cheaper raw material.
 An example of Retrenchment
In years before 2009, Starbucks has had 600 closings in the United States and 61 in
Australia. In 2009 the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, was planning on closing 300
company - operated stores around the world and 200 of them were established in the
United States. After all that, the company planned to open 140 stores in the United States
and 170 stores globally spread in the same year. To accomplish that, the firm wanted to
cut 700 work positions around the world. Also, Starbucks was planning on entering to the
value - meal race to compete with the McDonald's new McCafé coffee bars and survive
the global recession.
 Guidelines to begin retrenchment
1. The company has clear knowledge of their competence but has failed to focus and achieve
their goals.
2. The company is the weaker competitor in an industry or market place.
3. An organization doesn't operate with efficiency, scarcity of employee motivation, low reliability
and high level of stress due to the fact that employees have to increase their operation level.
4. The enterprise has failed to take advantage of external opportunities, focus on internal strengths,
and has ignored competence threats—leading to further mismanagement and disorganization.
5. The organization has developed too fast for its internal operation, so it needs to pause and
restructure.
 Divestiture
• Divestiture is when the company sells some of its assets to accomplish a
certain objective, such as higher returns or reduces debts.
• Usually, companies that implement this strategy want to invest that capital to
create higher future revenue.
• This strategy has helped some organizations to get more focused on their core
business and improve their performance in the market.
• It is similar to the retrenchment tool, but divestiture actions don't directly fire
employees to cut costs.
 An example of Divestiture

In 2009 Ailing Lehman Brothers Holdings divested its venture-capital

division as the firm sold part of the assets to generate enough cash to pay

their debts. The acquiring firm, HarbourVEst Partners LLC, changed the

name of the Lehman division to Tenaya Capital.

 Liquidation
• Liquidation is the hardest strategy to perform by a company because it means
that it went into bankruptcy.
• The operation and administration of the firm was not appropriate or the
managers were not trained enough to control the activities of the firm.
• The unique solution is to sell all the company's assets in small parts to
shareholders, stakeholders or other companies that are economically solvent.
• Although this is a tough decision, it is better to stop the operational chaos
instead of continuing losing more money.
 An example of Liquidation
In 2009 the Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach located in South Carolina was
liquidated just nine months after its inauguration, despite of two years of
construction. Promoters expected that this thematic park would be the
greatest in South Carolina, but it only generated $20 million in ticket sales—
far below the $24 million in annual interest they owed. They had projected
at least 30,000 customers per day, but tourist were not interested in the
attractions, and the owners lost huge amounts of money.
 Dimensions of defense strategy
1. Personal communication: Sharing important information and having an effective
communication between seller and buyer or customer.
2. Firm-customer's trust development: Confidence between employees inside the
organization and with the customer.
3. Bonding development: Create bonds and a business relationship between the
company and its clients.
4. Customer complaint management: The company's ability to deal with potential
customer complaints to maintain its reputation.
5. Switching barriers: The company generates barriers to maintain profitability and
keep customers.
 References
1. Wikipedia “The free encyclopedia”, Article: Defensive strategy
(marketing).
2. 10 Effective Business Development Strategies (Plan) by Raef Lawson |
Chief Marketing Officer at Greene Media Lab. Link:
https://medium.com/raef-lawson/10-effective-business-development-strategies-plan-c975891ca5
26

3. 10 Effective Business Development Strategies (Plan) by EDUCBA

(Corporate Bridge Consultancy Pvt Ltd). Link: https://www.educba.com/10-
awesome-business-development-strategies/