GETTING STARTED WITH BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Presented By Alex Kehayias, Co-Founder of BeanSprout.co

Agenda

① How can business development help me?② What is biz dev?③ Overview of partnership types④ Creating a partnership plan⑤ Tips on managing relationships⑥ Tips on starting a partnership program

from scratch⑦ Tools for making it easier⑧ Questions

How Can It Help Me

• Enter new markets• Expand product and service offerings• Increase marketing reach• Improve offerings• Go international

What is Business Development?

Lots of things to lots of people

Building partnerships to grow your business.

Isn’t BD just selling?What about APIs?

Build, Buy, or Partner

• Build– Do you have the right team?– Time to market

• Buy– Do you have the capital?– Is it exactly what you need? ?

Partner

• Leverage expertise• Localization• Marketing/sales support• Fast to market• New markets

Types of Partnerships

• Channel, reseller, VAR• Co-marketing• Joint Ventures• OEM• Technology integration• Distribution

Creating a Partnership Plan

① Define the situation– What does your market look like?– Who are you trying to reach?

② Define your goals– Entering new markets?– Making more money per customer?– Improving your technology?

③ Figure out your metrics– Revenue?– Customer satisfaction?– Average order value?

Creating a Partnership Plan cont’d

④ Map out the ecosystem– Don’t think industry, think ecosystem!– Who are the complementary companies to

you?

⑤ Action plan– Make a list of companies– Define materials you need to make or build– Who is already in your network?– The all mighty follow-up

What does an ecosystem look like?

Building a Partnership Program

• Align your benefits to their benefits• Make it as easy as possible (APIs,

affiliate links, self-serve ordering)• Make billing or rev sharing easy as

possible• Have marketing material ready• Be careful about custom

development!

Tips for Managing Partnerships

• Treat them like your friend not your parents

• Provide ongoing support• Be transparent• Keep them engaged• Look for ways to grow your

relationship

Tools to get you Going

Business development platform that matches companies for partnership. Free tools, blog. http://www.beansprout.co

Try InMail and hunt through linkedin for the right decision maker

Networking – go to conferences and networking events and work your connections

Questions?

Keep in touch!Twitter: @alexkehayias, @bnsprtEmail: alex@beansprout.coBeanSprout –

http://www.beansprout.co