The Business Development Tools and Systems (BDTS) web site is a place where business development professionals, especially those in software and service companies, can go to learn about new tools and technologies that will help their companies succeed. Click here for a list of the tools and services currently listed on the BDTS site.
The Business Development Tools and Systems were developed to support a systematic approach to identifying, marketing, and closing business opportunities. It is step-by-step with a five step process complete with tools and templates for managing a business development program.
SEMRush
As you’re looking for businesses to potentially partner with, you need a tool to help you identify the best opportunities. SEMRush helps business development teams analyze how popular companies are online by giving you their domain authority. The higher the domain authority, the more popular the company, and stronger their reach.
You can also find companies that are linking to the company you searched to help you find even more opportunities in your niche. If you’re looking for a tool that gives you more insights into the companies you’re reaching out to, this is the tool for you.
InstaPage
InstaPage is the best tool for creating personalized landing pages. For example, let’s say that you work for a tech company whose product can work for all industries. Instead of sending a potential client or business partner the link to your generic home page, you can create a personalized landing page targeted to their industry.
So, if you’re reaching out to a client that works in real estate, you can create a landing page custom to the real estate business. This helps the potential business partner understand your product better if you’re speaking their language
InstaPage also has heatmaps that identify where users are clicking and scrolling the most on your landing page so you can continue to make improvements for optimal conversions.
If you’re not convinced, InstaPage touts that personalized landing pages can help increase conversions by up to 400%.
CRM
If you don’t have a CRM, then everyone will have no idea what is going on in your sales teams. People will be treading on each other’s toes, prospective clients will be getting numerous calls from different people and management will have no way to project sales. Quite simply, having a decent CRM is a must.
Some examples: Salesforce, PipeDrive, SugarCRM, Zoho, Capsule
Social Media Management
Social selling is such a big part of sales. So, make sure you’re managing it correctly – scheduling posts to multiple social networks from multiple accounts. This can be very time consuming. Some of these tools will help you find new content, and some have excellent analytics as well. A good social media management tool should increase your efficiency, but it should also increase your early-stage leads.
Some examples: Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, Percolate, SocialPilot
Fiverr
Fiverr is a great tool for delegating some of your work to focus on what matters most – business development. The last thing you want is to get lost in all the recurring small tasks that you don’t have time to focus on getting new deals that could move the company forward. With Fiverr you’re able to find freelancers in just about everything.
Whether it’s help with email marketing, web design, or public relations, you’ll be able to find someone to help you. The best thing about Fiverr is they’re unique approach to freelancing. Instead of posting a job and receiving bids, with Fiverr you’re able to browse the site similarly to the way you shop. The freelancers sell themselves to you instead of the other way around.
AWeber
All business development teams need a powerful email tool that will help them with their outreach. AWeber is a powerful email marketing tool where you can send out different email campaigns and schedule an automated sequence. You can tag the different emails based on clicks and open rates to help you segment your prospecting lists, which will help you drill down to those most interested.
The best thing about AWeber is just how simple it is to use. They have advanced features like A/B testing and drip campaigns, but they have designed the software in a way that’s intuitive and easy to use.
Hunter.io
Hunter.io is a tool you’ll want to add to your bookmark right away. One of the most frustrating things about business development is having the correct contact information for the person you want to email.
Hunter.io takes the guessing game out of it and provides you with the correct contact information. So, you don’t have to email info@abc.com, and instead can email s.johnson@email.com. Of course, you’ll want to visit Linkedin first to find out who you need to contact, and then hop over to Hunter.io to get their email address.
Canva
If you haven’t been using Canva in your business development, you’re missing out on some design efficiency. With Canva, you can design anything from your business cards to consultant-worthy presentations and proposals in a matter of minutes. That’s right, minutes.
You see, Canva isn’t like your typical design software where you need to be an expert to design anything. Canva is built much more intuitively. You start by selecting the type of project you want to build such as a presentation, letter, Facebook cover, etc. Then you browse through their templates, pick one that you like, customize it, and you have a stunning presentation with beautiful graphs ready to send your prospects.
Workflow Planner
Keep organised, keep on top of everything and never miss a deadline. If you can get buy-in from all your team you’ll be able to maximise efficiency in the sales and marketing departments using a workflow management tool. It’s not about checking up on what people are doing but making sure there is consistency and collaboration between teams and individuals.
Some examples: Asana, Monday, KiSSFLOW, Forecast
Conclusion
Cogito provides a suite of digital Cogito Business Development Tools and Systems, so you can collaboratively engage with your customers, partners and suppliers. These systems are brought together as a single product, which you pay for as a licensed entity. We have been building Cogito from 2006 with our now largest client – The European Commission.