— Service 03 of 10

Business Development Support. Pursuit support for the relationships that actually matter

Strategic Sales Support runs business development with structure: target account selection, stakeholder mapping, 12-month account plans, proactive cadence and pursuit support on the relationships your revenue depends on. We replace reactive networking with disciplined account development.

— Who this is for

Who benefits.

  • 01

    BD teams without strategic direction.

    Team is busy with meetings but no clear logic on which accounts are worth the time.

  • 02

    Founders chasing relationships personally.

    You're the only one with senior buyer access. The business is dependent on your calendar.

  • 03

    Businesses after a merger or rebrand.

    Account ownership is unclear, relationships are mid-air, pipeline visibility is partial.

  • 04

    Sellers facing complex multi-stakeholder buyers.

    Government, defence, major resources, buyers with 8+ stakeholders where reactive selling fails.

  • 05

    Businesses pursuing strategic accounts.

    Specific named accounts you've identified as strategic but can't seem to break into without a plan.

— Problems we solve

The patterns we see.

No account plans.

Top 10 accounts have no documented plan, no current stakeholder map, no agreed cadence, just whatever the rep remembers.

Reactive pursuit.

Activity follows whoever called last week. No proactive engagement of the accounts that actually matter.

No stakeholder mapping.

Reps know one or two contacts per account. The other 6–8 stakeholders shaping decisions are invisible to the business.

Lost relationships.

Person leaves the business, their contacts walk with them. No CRM hygiene to back-fill.

Networking confused with BD.

Coffees and conferences instead of structured account development. Effort high, output diffuse.

— Outcomes

What changes.

Commercial outcomes, not activity outputs.

  • Top 10 accounts on a plan.

    Documented 12-month plans with named contacts, stakeholder maps, planned engagement and a CRM record.

  • Mapped buyer-side stakeholders.

    Stakeholder Influence Map per account, decision-makers, influencers, evaluators, gatekeepers, internal objectors.

  • Proactive cadence.

    Quarterly account reviews, monthly engagement plans, weekly progress checks. Activity becomes deliberate.

  • Pursuit-ready when an RFP drops.

    When the opportunity surfaces, you've already done the BD work. Bid leads from warm position, not cold.

— Process

How an engagement runs.

  1. 1

    Select.

    Strategic account selection workshop, pick the 10 accounts worth disciplined effort over the next 12 months. The other 90% deserves a CRM record, not a plan.

  2. 2

    Map.

    Stakeholder Influence Map per account. Decision-makers, influencers, evaluators, blockers, named and characterised.

  3. 3

    Plan.

    12-month account plan per target: objectives, planned engagement, content and event touchpoints, internal owners.

  4. 4

    Cadence.

    Monthly engagement check-in. Quarterly account review. Annual reset. Built into the team's existing operating rhythm.

  5. 5

    Review.

    Six-month evaluation: which accounts to double down on, which to release, which to add.

— Common questions

Business Development Support, answered.

What's the difference between business development and sales?

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Sales closes deals that are already opportunities. Business development creates the conditions for opportunities to surface, relationships, positioning and stakeholder access ahead of any active RFP. They feed each other but they're not the same skill or role.

Who needs BD support?

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Businesses pursuing complex sales (long cycle, multiple stakeholders, six-plus-figure deals) where relationship depth and pre-positioning materially affect win rate. Less critical for transactional sales.

How does this intersect with bid support?

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BD warms the relationship before the bid. Bid support converts the warm position into a winning submission. Strong businesses do both and connect them, weak businesses bid cold.

How many accounts should we focus on?

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10 strategic accounts is typical for a small BD team. More than that and the discipline drops; fewer and you're under-using the function. The exact number depends on team size and deal cycle length.

What if our reps don't have time?

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Then the answer is selection. The discipline isn't to add account planning on top of everything, it's to remove low-value pursuits so the planning gets done on the accounts that matter.
— Let's talk

Right service. Right time.

Book a 30-minute call. We'll figure out if Business Development Support is the right fit, and if not, where to start instead.