Business development as a service: what it is and when it works

Business development as a service (BDaaS) is an arrangement where a partner runs some or all of your business development: market research, outreach, lead qualification, pipeline management and closing support. It suits companies that need a pipeline now but don’t yet have, or can’t yet justify, a full sales team.

What is usually included

• Market and ideal customer profile research.
• Outreach across email, LinkedIn and phone.
• Lead qualification against agreed criteria.
• Pipeline management in a CRM.
• Support with proposals, follow-ups and closing.
• Partner and channel development, in some set-ups.

Business development firm, lead-generation agency or installed engine?

The names overlap, but the models differ. A lead-generation agency usually sells meetings or leads and runs outreach in its own tools. A business development firm often goes further, into market entry or partnerships, but may still keep the playbook on its side. An installed business development engine puts the process, the CRM and the playbooks in your company and runs them with your team.

The difference shows when the contract ends, or when you hire your first salesperson. If the playbook, the data and the pipeline history stay with you, the work compounds. If they leave with the supplier, you start again.

Five questions to ask any business development partner

1. 01Whose CRM does the work happen in, and who owns the data?
2. 02Will we get the ICP, the messaging and the sequences in writing?
3. 03What is the definition of a qualified lead, and who agrees it?
4. 04Are you measured on activity, on meetings or on pipeline value?
5. 05How does the work hand over to our own sellers when we hire them?

When it works, and when it doesn’t

• It works when the founder is still the main seller and needs time back.
• It works when you are entering a new market or segment and want to test it before hiring there.
• It works when you have sellers but no system: no shared playbook, no clean pipeline, no forecast.

It works less well when the product is not yet ready to sell, or when nobody in the company has time to take the meetings the outreach books.

How GrowAxis runs it

GrowAxis runs business development as a service through GrowBD: research, outreach, pipeline, closing and CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce or Pipedrive), installed with your team and live within 30 days. Your sellers work inside the system; where you have none yet, our BD team runs it under your name. It is measured on pipeline value, qualified meetings, close rate, sales cycle length and cost of acquisition.