Business Development

Business Development Advisors for Market Expansion and Growth

Transform Stalled Markets Into Strategic Advantage

Your company has been successful for years serving the same customers in the same markets. But now the landscape is shifting. Your largest customer is consolidating suppliers. Your traditional market is shrinking as technology changes buying patterns. Competition from low-cost countries is intensifying. You know you need to grow in new directions, but you’re not sure where to start or what it will actually take to succeed.

When market stagnation threatens your business, you need more than optimism—you need a seasoned business development advisor who understands how mid-market companies actually win new business. JACO Advisory Group helps middle-market and family-owned companies diversify into new markets, build effective sales processes, and achieve sustainable differentiation.

Whether you’re expanding geographically, targeting new industries, or adding value to move beyond commoditization, we help businesses create and execute business development strategies for controlled, profitable growth.

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Why Business Development Requires More Than Good Intentions

Most mid-market companies underestimate what business growth actually requires:

  • Each market operates differently with unique timelines, expectations, and relationship dynamics—creating hidden requirements that derail unprepared companies.
  • Your current success can mislead you into assuming new markets work the same way, but new customers don’t know you, don’t trust you yet, and already have established suppliers.
  • Most companies point to their best salesperson as their “sales process,” but one person’s relationships aren’t a scalable business development strategy.
  • You’re competing on price because you haven’t defined your point of difference–and without clear points of differentiation beyond “the best people” and “great quality,” you’re just another commodity option.
  • Market expansion takes longer than expected, often years, so don’t wait to begin–the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see progress toward your growth goals.

However, when business development is approached strategically, mid-market companies can successfully diversify, reduce customer concentration risk, and achieve profitable growth in new markets.

The Benefits of Strategic Business Development With JACO

A well-executed market diversification strategy helps you:

Reduce customer concentration risk by expanding beyond dependence on one or two major customers who control your destiny.
Position for geographic expansion by understanding regional market dynamics, cultural differences, and local business practices that impact success.
Define sustainable differentiation beyond “great people” and “good quality”—identifying specific capabilities, processes, or technologies that create genuine competitive advantages and allow you to price based on value rather than cost.
Build repeatable sales processes that don’t depend on individual relationships—creating systems that generate consistent results and can be taught to new salespeople.
Enter adjacent industries strategically by understanding qualification requirements, quality system standards, technical specifications, and buying processes before committing resources.

Why Choose JACO as Your Business Development Advisor

Experienced Business Development Advisors Who Deliver Results

We’ve Been in Your Position

Our senior advisors have led business development initiatives as operators, not consultants. We’ve built relationships from scratch, entered unfamiliar markets without an established track record, and proven value to skeptical buyers. We understand what it takes firsthand.

We Know Mid-Market Dynamics

We understand how mid-market companies make purchasing decisions, what drives supplier qualification, and how to navigate technical and relationship requirements that can make or break market entry efforts.

We Build Systems, Not Just Relationships

While relationships matter, they are only a piece of a business development strategy. We help you build repeatable processes—qualification frameworks, value proposition development, and measurement systems that track progress and continue working after our engagement ends.

We Challenge Unrealistic Assumptions

When expectations and market realities don’t align, we help you understand what success actually requires. Addressing planning gaps early saves you from investing resources in strategies that won’t deliver results.

We Focus on Value, Not Volume

We help you identify where you can actually win—markets where your capabilities create genuine value, where you can compete on differentiation rather than price, and where the economics justify the investment.

Meet Our Team

Turning Business Development Aspirations Into Reality

Growing a business involves balancing innovation with practical execution. Strategic business development requires robust sales and marketing planning, clear market positioning, diversified revenue streams, and controlled growth strategies. The key insight: sustainable growth requires both strategic thinking and the ability to adapt to unforeseen challenges during implementation. JACO collaborates with organizations to identify customer pain points, create offerings that solve unmet needs, and implement business plans—either independently or with partners—to win in new markets. Learn more about our approach that goes beyond business development strategy consulting.

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It Starts With Understanding Where You Can Actually Win

Before creating your business development strategy, we need to understand your current situation, your capabilities, and where you can realistically compete. Not every market opportunity makes sense. Not every customer segment aligns with your strengths. Our job is to find where you have the right to win—and what it will take to succeed there.

JACO collaborates with you to answer five fundamental questions:

Why Aren’t You Growing Now?

We diagnose the real causes of market stagnation. Is your primary market genuinely shrinking, or have you lost market share to competitors? Are customers consolidating suppliers? Has new technology made your products less relevant? Is low-cost country competition eroding margins? Are you overly reliant on one or two major customers that control your growth? Accurate diagnosis determines the right market diversification strategy.

What Makes You Actually Different?

Most companies point to their people, their quality, or their service as differentiators. But every competitor makes similar claims. We help you identify genuine points of differentiation—specific processes, technologies, certifications, market knowledge, capabilities, or geographies that create measurable value for customers. If you can’t articulate why customers should choose you beyond price, you may win new business, but you’ll struggle to make money and be able to invest in the future.

Where Can You Realistically Compete?

We assess potential markets against your actual capabilities. Do you have the technical requirements for aerospace and defense? The quality systems for medical devices? The certifications for automotive OEMs? The cultural understanding for international expansion? Do your margins support the investment required? We identify markets where you have genuine competitive advantages—not just markets that seem attractive.

What Will Market Entry Actually Require?

Every market has hidden requirements. We help you understand what you’re really committing to: capital investments in new equipment or certifications, hiring specialized salespeople who understand the target market, developing market-specific collateral and technical documentation, and potentially accepting lower margins initially to prove capabilities. Realistic expectations prevent premature abandonment of viable strategies.

Do You Have the Sales Capabilities to Execute?

Most mid-market companies excel at maintaining existing customer relationships. Far fewer are able to win business from customers who don’t know them yet. We assess whether your current sales team can execute market expansion, or whether you need different skills, processes, and compensation structures to win new business.

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How We Help You Execute Your Business Development Strategy: Your Blueprint for Entering New Markets With Confidence

Developing strategy is important—but execution is what delivers results. Here’s how we work with you:

Market Assessment and Opportunity Analysis

We start by understanding your industry, competition, and how markets are evolving—identifying where trends create opportunities, where competitors have weaknesses, and where your capabilities can create genuine value.

Market Selection and Prioritization

Not every opportunity makes sense. We help you narrow options to the few markets where you can realistically win—and where winning creates meaningful value for your business.

Go-to-Market Strategy Development

For each prioritized market, we develop specific strategies: your value proposition, target customer profiles, required capabilities, sales approach, pricing strategy, and realistic timelines for results.

Sales Process and System Development

Strategy means nothing without execution. We build repeatable processes—qualification frameworks, sales methodology, measurement systems, and compensation structures that drive the right behaviors.

Implementation Support

We don’t just hand you a plan and leave. We work alongside you: making customer calls to open doors, helping you understand what different markets actually require, and adjusting strategy as you learn what works in practice.

The length and depth of our involvement depends on your needs—from a few months of strategy development to years of ongoing advisory support as you build new market positions.

Beyond Initial Growth: Comprehensive Business Advisory Services

Business development often connects to other strategic initiatives as companies grow:

We don’t just help you enter new markets—we help you build sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Development

How long does it really take to see results from business development?

It depends on your target market, but success generally doesn’t happen overnight. To improve your odds of success, you need clear points of differentiation and a well-articulated value proposition that separates you from competitors who claim to be “the best.” Without defining what makes you genuinely different, you’ll struggle to win business regardless of the timeline. We ensure you understand the investment timeline upfront and help you build the strategic foundation—including your differentiation strategy—so you can commit to the process with realistic expectations and the right approach.

Can’t we just hire a good salesperson to handle this?

Only if you already have a clear business development growth strategy, including defined target markets, compelling value proposition, appropriate collateral, and realistic timeline expectations. Many companies try to hire someone with strong industry connections—and while relationships can open doors, you still need a strategy to win the business. We help you build the foundation and strategy that gives salespeople the best chance for success, then help you find people with the right skills for new business development.

We’ve tried expanding before and it didn’t work. What would be different this time?

Most failed market expansion efforts suffer from unrealistic timelines (expecting results too quickly), unclear differentiation (competing on price because value isn’t articulated), inadequate resources (trying to expand without proper investment), or wrong target markets (pursuing attractive markets where you can’t actually compete). We address these common failure points upfront—testing assumptions, challenging unrealistic expectations, and focusing resources where you can genuinely win.

Do we need to be experts in the new market before you can help us?

No—that’s part of what we bring. While you understand your capabilities, we help you understand new market requirements, competitive dynamics, and what it actually takes to win business. If you already knew everything about the target market, you probably wouldn’t need outside help. Our job is to fill knowledge gaps and prevent expensive mistakes.

What if we’re in a commodity market where everyone competes on price?

Few markets are truly commodities—most companies just haven’t identified or articulated their differentiation. We help you find where you can compete on value: specific technical capabilities, industry knowledge, speed/flexibility, quality systems, geographic advantages, or relationships. If you genuinely have no differentiation, we help you develop capabilities that create it. Competing on price alone is a race to the bottom that mid-market companies rarely win.

How do we know which markets to target?

That’s exactly what our market assessment process determines. We analyze market attractiveness (size, growth, margins), your competitive positioning (where you actually differentiate), and required investments (time, capital, capabilities). We narrow dozens of potential opportunities to the few where you can actually be successful—and where winning creates meaningful value for your business.

Ready to Build Your Business Development Growth Strategy?

Market stagnation doesn’t resolve itself. Customer concentration doesn’t become less risky by waiting. Every quarter you delay entering new markets is another quarter your competitors are building positions that will be harder to challenge later.

We begin with a straightforward assessment of your current situation, your capabilities, and potential market opportunities—no obligation, just clarity about where you can realistically grow.

Remember: successful market diversification requires both strategic thinking and tactical execution. JACO helps you with both, giving your business the best chance to reduce risk, achieve sustainable differentiation, and build profitable growth in new markets.

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