The difference between marketing and business development

Marketing, in a professional firm, is a central discipline: product, price, place, people, process, evidence, promotion. Selling and client development usually sit with fee-earners. Marketers run research, brand, pricing, targeting, the site and the events — often with little live client contact, which is why they struggle to support the sale.

Business development is the hybrid that firms reach for when marketing never quite reaches the partner’s diary. A BD manager owns a market or a service line: marketing plus selling plus client development. That person still needs a strategy the board will fund. Otherwise BD becomes a second sales target wearing a friendlier title.

What the board should buy

Not “a marketer” and not “a hunter”. A marketing and business strategy the directors will run — the second MBA specialism at R W Progressive. Campaigns can be hired. Positioning, ideal client, pricing power and a transferable sales process belong on the same agenda as cash.

If the founder is still the only person who can sell, that is a board problem. It is fatal if the brief is sale, PE or a listing.