What does business development and strategic support involve?
Business development and strategic support encompass tailored guidance and market insights to develop business for clients, facilitating strategic planning to achieve growth objectives. It includes:
- Opportunity identification: Identifying potential business opportunities and strategic partnerships aligned with client objectives.
- Proposal development: Assisting in the preparation of business proposals, presentations, and pitches to secure new contracts or partnerships.
- Strategic planning: Developing comprehensive strategies and action plans to achieve long-term business objectives and sustainable growth.
- Stakeholder engagement: Facilitating dialogue and collaboration with key stakeholders to foster partnerships and enhance business development efforts.
Some of the main benefits of business development and support services are:
Unlock untapped avenues for expansion with expert guidance
Develop data-driven strategies to surpass rivals and dominate markets effectively
Secure profitable deals and partnerships to boost revenue
Leverage market insights for confident strategic decision-making
Implement robust plans for consistent business advancement
Key questions that are answered through business development and strategic support services
Business development and strategic support services aim to answer several key questions to guide strategic decision making:
- What market opportunities align with your business goals and how can you capitalise on them?
- How can you effectively penetrate new markets or customer segments to expand your reach?
- What strategies can you employ to enhance your competitive advantage and outperform rivals?
- Are there potential strategic partnerships or collaborations that could accelerate your growth?
- How can you optimise your sales and marketing approaches to drive revenue and profitability?
In On Africa’s business development and strategic support services
Navigating market entry in Africa requires a nuanced understanding of regional dynamics and effective routes to market. In On Africa (IOA) holds extensive experience across the continent which enables us to offer not only comprehensive market research and analysis but also hands-on business development and strategic support.
While some businesses might consider handling these business imperatives internally, partnering with IOA in efforts to grow in Africa ensures unrivalled efficiency and expertise. We leverage our local presence across the continent to foster invaluable connections for our clients, and help them to navigate the complexities of doing business in diverse African markets, cutting through ambiguities and red tape.
Africa’s dynamic markets demand a deep understanding of local business practices for success. We have guided the medium- and long-term business strategies for clients in a diverse array of industries, ranging from photo printing in Nigeria through to transport and logistics in South Africa. This has included the identification and facilitation of potential partnerships (also see partnership identification), research to assess and make contact with potential clients, and the ongoing provision of strategic support, such as through strategy workshops, competitor monitoring and the regular development of insight-driven intelligence briefings/reports (see industry, sector and market intelligence).
Business development and strategic support case study:
Ongoing business development and strategic support for an American technology company
Client:
US-based software technology company operating in Transport & Logistics
Country:
South Africa
Methodology:
Business- and relationship-building support through both primary outreach and research, coupled with on-demand online research
IOA provides ongoing business development and strategic support to an American technology company that offers digital services in the transport and logistics sector. This need for support services stemmed from an in-depth opportunity assessment that IOA conducted for the client focusing of the South African transport and logistics market, in addition to a high-level market attractiveness study across the whole African continent.
Through the previous research that IOA conducted for the client in South Africa, a large number of entities were shortlisted as candidates for potential strategic partnerships and target clients. These candidates are being strategically approached by IOA with a value proposition on the services offered by our client, with the aim of establishing a strong footprint for our client in the country.
This work is ongoing and is being tackled strategically in line with the business objectives of the client.
Key project outcome:
As the work is ongoing, the client’s market-entry strategy and business development efforts are being directly moulded by the work being done by the IOA team.
Find out more about how IOA can help you with business development and/or strategic support.
Read more about IOA’s various service offerings and examples of our past work.