Suppose you want to hire a business development person, and you’ve got a candidate who looks very promising.

She’s diligent, anticipates prospects’ questions, offers answers that are easy to understand and relevant to their needs. She has a command of product knowledge and industry knowledge, and will provide as much detail as the prospect needs – no more and no less. She’s attractive, has an engaging personality, and would represent your brand well.

You believe she’d turn suspects into prospects into leads, shortening the sales cycle by defining you in a way that clearly differentiates you from competitors.

So the question is: what should you pay her?

Think it over. Remember, you wouldn’t want her working as a biz dev for your closest competitor.

Let’s now add that she is multi-lingual, and works 24/7/365. Never goes out for lunch. Never catches the flu. She is, we blush to reveal, not a human, but your ideal website.

If you’re like many firms, you now have another question to answer: why are you reluctant to invest as much in this biz dev “person” as that biz dev person?

Most organizations want a strategic, professional, content-rich, brand-building site, but don’t/can’t/won’t budget enough to employ a customer service star for six months. Why not?

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