Would you please tell me, what is profile strategy in marketing.

Business development would include the above and look at all the aspects of business to ensure they it grows from the present stage to the next level, needless to add that it would focus inward from the end product or service as the case may be.

Madhav Reddy

Thanks for the good article. As you say there’s some confusion around these terminologies and, at least here in Europe, Business Development is often regarded as Sales.

My personal approach, at least for the B2B market, to solve this a little bit is as follows. Use the term Business Development for the overall commercial process. Business Development consists of four focus areas:
(1) Business Planning (focus on strategy);
(2) Product Management (focus on solution);
(3) Go to Market (focus on introduction);
(4) Sales & marketing (focus on added value).

Hope that helped,

Errol

I find the confusion of terms rather fascinating, but sometimes frustrating as well. There seems to be no consensus on terminology, even among the so-called “experts” in our business (like you and me!). So I always try to clarify definitions (at least my take on them) whenever I’m addressing the topic.

My terminology is little different: Marketing, I suggest, is the indirect encounters we have with clients with the intent of attracting their interest in a possible business relationship. This includes things such as publishing, speaking, direct mail, advertising, etc. We seem to generally agree on this term.

As you know, the word marketing is often used as a euphemism for sales in our business. I suspect the term has gained popularity due to our general discomfort with selling and the sales profession. Marketing somehow seems a more “professsional” term. But using it in this way is also incorrect, at least according to most sources outside our industry.

Selling, as I describe it, is the direct encounters we have with clients for the purpose of gaining their commitment to enter a contractual relationship. This includes sales calls, proposals, negotiations, etc. Marketing, of course, typically sets the stage for selling.

Business development, then, by my definition would be the sum of those two complementary activities. Like marketing, this term is subject to a variety of definitions. Neither Zweig or PSMJ, for example, use the term consistently in their various publications.

I don’t think there’s any authoritative source to settle the confusion. SMPS, for example, is fuzzy on the terminology in its Marketing Handbook (due no doubt to having multiple authors). So I guess we’re left to just making sure we understand one another when we’re using whatever terms. Thankfully, we can usually agree on the desired outcomes!

Mel