Since in the IT service industry, the pitching of your offering is not enough.
One of the biggest lessons I learned in the past ten years, is that to sell your company services, you need to understand them to the point to advise your potential customers when using them is or is not necessary.
Shortening for TL;DR readers: the game has slowly but inevitably shifted from the approach to sale by pitching to sale by consulting.
But what does it means?
It means that tempting prospects with discounts or (impossible) commitments on time (or scope) of the delivery are no more enough, or even desirable for the health of your company. A (decent) business developer has to use an approach focused on giving value from the first moment you came in contact with the customer, if not even before using white papers, articles, and (valuable) content marketing material.
The salesman figure, that does cold calls or consume his/her shoes to reach physically any possible lead, in the consulting/service firms is an anachronistic figure that brings costs and small results. Customers are not bought, only, thanks to the sociability skills of the seller, but they rate your company on his/her preparation.
A good business developer has to understand the business model of the company he/she works and the business of the customer is talking to since he/she has to deliver from the very first moments a little but real value for the customer itself.
It is necessary to understand that he/she is working in a complex (not complicated) world, and that is a given and not avoidable; because in the IT industry is required to cope with complexity to close a good deal.
That’s why find, or train, good business developers, will be the next challenge for consulting firms since they will need both soft and hard (technical) skills.