Advice On Being A Laser-Focused Intrapreneur

I’m an Intrapreneur who works for Key Person of Influence – a growth accelerator firm that rocket-launches Entrepreneurs. My job title is “Director of Business and Community Development.”

So, what exactly does a Business Development Professional do? Like most employee positions, distinctions from one role to the next within a company can have blurred lines. I’m not here to define your role as a Business Development Pro for your company, but someone within your organisation had better specify that very clearly.

And then, as an Intrapreneur, you CRUSH that role. You define it. You own it. You make that title synonymous with your first name. You constantly look for better, more efficient, more creative ways to meet your objectives.

Any high-performance business that is poised for growth has a clear delineation between the roles of Sales, Marketing, Logistics and Distribution. Ultimately, each work together to optimise the bottom line; and, of course, each department should collaborate with the others, when necessary, to lend the assist. But ultimately, you should know what your role is and what your expectation is each day in order to make your contribution to that healthy bottom line. This will keep the organisation on-task and focused.

Within our company, my role as Director of Business and Community Development is Marketing. But I also oversee Sales. Sales and Marketing work together to earn incentives, and one cannot function at maximum strength without the other. Sales concentrates on closing new business, whilst Marketing concentrates on feeding the sales funnel with highly-qualified leads.

Does Sales also do some Marketing? Sure. And conversely, part of my Marketing design to send pre-qualified, enthusiastic, interested candidates through to the Sales team is “sales” in-and-of-itself. Areas of focus are clear, but Marketing and Sales work together to shorten the sales cycle with a tight hand-off: Aces in their Places.

Think of it as the roles of the point guard and the shooting guard in basketball. There is some blending of play, but the skills and expected contributions to the game are implicit. Marketing drives the ball down the court and Sales shoots it.

I won’t get into Distribution and Logistics much, as my role doesn’t spill over into these duties. In our company, Distribution is the deliverable of the product to the clients, and Logistics is the communication hub for the other three departments.

My role as Director of Business and Community Development (Marketing) comes down to two important areas of focus: Brand Awareness/Community Outreach, and feeding the sales funnel with uber-qualified candidates, and I come to work laser-focused on these initiatives every day.

Next in series: Brand Awareness & Community Outreach