#18: What's My Take on Biz Dev?

Can anyone fit their view on something as complex as business development into one newsletter? I tried.

If I were to start an agency now, in 2024, I'd hire a full-cycle sales manager responsible for generating their own pipeline, handling sales calls, and closing deals. From several previous newsletters (#7, #13), early on, your lead generation will consist of semi-automation (cold email, LinkedIn outreach, Twitter, Upwork) and thought leadership (content on LinkedIn, strategic partnerships), participating in events, and generally being active in the industry.

So, either you are that executive generalist who will do all of this, or you'll find yourself a lieutenant for this role. Either way, building a business development team doesn't make financial sense early on.

You don't know what kind of agency you are building until you reach $2M in gross revenue and a team of 20-30 people. Until that time, business development is primarily the owner's focus, or you bring in a full-cycle sales manager.

Now, that's not what I did when we started. Furthermore, Belkins doesn't have full-cycle sales ex…