Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Development and Sales Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Development and Sales Manager drives revenue growth by identifying new market opportunities, building and managing a robust sales pipeline, negotiating and closing high-value deals, and fostering long-term client relationships. This role combines strategic account planning, hands-on selling, team leadership, and cross-functional collaboration with marketing, product, and customer success to meet aggressive revenue targets and scale go-to-market initiatives. Ideal candidates are data-driven, consultative sellers experienced in B2B or SaaS environments, skilled in CRM-driven pipeline management, and motivated by quota attainment and business impact.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Account Executive / Account Executive with consistent quota attainment
Business Development Representative (BDR) or Sales Development Representative (SDR) promoted into field sales
Territory Sales Representative or Channel Sales Specialist with proven territory growth

Advancement To:

Director of Sales / Director of Business Development
Head of Sales / Head of Revenue
Vice President (VP) of Sales or VP of Business Development

Lateral Moves:

Strategic Partnerships Manager / Head of Partnerships
Customer Success Director / Enterprise Account Management
Product Manager for go-to-market or sales-led product initiatives

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Own and execute the full sales cycle from lead qualification to contract negotiation and close, consistently achieving or exceeding monthly, quarterly, and annual quota targets while maintaining a strong forecast accuracy.
Develop and implement a territory and account plan that prioritizes high-potential prospects, expands penetration within target accounts, and increases average deal size and lifetime value.
Identify, qualify, and convert new business opportunities through targeted outbound prospecting, inbound lead management, networking, industry events, and strategic partner referrals.
Build and maintain a high-quality, CRM-driven sales pipeline (Salesforce, HubSpot or equivalent), ensuring all opportunities are updated, staged appropriately, and accompanied by clear next steps and timelines.
Lead consultative sales conversations with C-level and executive stakeholders, uncovering business drivers, pain points, and measurable ROI to position solutions effectively.
Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, and contract language in collaboration with legal and finance teams to secure favorable deals while mitigating risk and protecting margin.
Conduct sales presentations and product demonstrations tailored to buyer personas, decision-making committees, and technical evaluators to accelerate deal progression.
Collaborate with marketing to develop and execute targeted campaigns, account-based marketing (ABM) programs, and sales enablement materials that drive pipeline velocity and conversion rates.
Perform regular pipeline reviews, quota planning, and forecast management with sales leadership to provide accurate revenue projections and identify at-risk deals early.
Mentor and coach junior sellers and cross-functional colleagues on sales tactics, objection handling, deal strategy, and negotiation best practices to raise team performance.
Build and manage strategic partnerships and channel relationships that extend reach, generate co-sell opportunities, and accelerate market entry for new products or geographies.
Analyze sales performance metrics, win/loss data, and customer feedback to refine messaging, pricing, and go-to-market approaches for continuous improvement.
Lead cross-functional deal teams (product, engineering, legal, finance, customer success) to remove blockers, align on implementation timelines, and ensure a smooth transition to onboarding and delivery.
Design and execute account expansion strategies focused on upsell, cross-sell, and renewal motions to maximize customer lifetime value and reduce churn.
Develop competitive intelligence and market insights to inform product roadmaps, pricing strategies, and positioning against direct and indirect competitors.
Create and deliver executive-level business reviews and value realization reports for strategic accounts that demonstrate ROI and justify upsell investments.
Manage bid responses, RFPs and complex proposal processes, ensuring tailored scope, commercial accuracy, and timely delivery to procurement committees.
Drive pricing strategy and discount governance in coordination with finance to protect margin, ensure compliance with pricing policies, and accelerate deal approval.
Lead recruitment, onboarding, and performance management of direct reports where applicable, setting clear KPIs and career development plans.
Implement scalable sales processes, playbooks, and CRM automation to increase selling capacity, reduce administrative burden, and improve sales productivity.
Stay current on industry trends, regulatory changes, and emerging technologies relevant to target verticals to maintain credibility and influence with prospects.
Establish a strong personal brand for the company at industry conferences, webinars, and thought leadership forums to generate inbound interest and enhance market visibility.
Create and maintain sales collateral, case studies, ROI calculators, and proposal templates to shorten sales cycles and standardize customer-facing communications.
Monitor contract renewals and proactively engage accounts 90–180 days before renewal to negotiate terms, mitigate churn risks, and identify expansion opportunities.
Set and track KPIs such as average deal size, sales cycle length, win rate, quota attainment, pipeline coverage ratio, and customer acquisition cost (CAC) to report to executive leadership.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

CRM proficiency: Salesforce, HubSpot, or equivalent for pipeline management, activity logging, and forecasting.
Sales forecasting and quota management with strong accuracy and cadence (quarterly and monthly).
B2B and/or SaaS sales experience, including subscription-based pricing, renewals, and expansion motions.
Lead generation and prospecting techniques: cold calling, email campaigns, LinkedIn Outreach, and ABM execution.
Contract negotiation and commercial acumen, including terms & conditions, SOWs, and pricing strategy.
Sales analytics and reporting: Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools (Looker, Tableau) to analyze trends and KPIs.
Proposal and RFP response development with attention to legal, technical, and commercial details.
Pipeline hygiene and CRM automation knowledge (workflows, sequences, lead scoring).
Experience with sales enablement and content management tools (Salesloft, Outreach, DocuSign, PandaDoc).
Territory planning, account segmentation, and ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) development.
Familiarity with SaaS product demos, technical pre-sales collaboration, and basic understanding of APIs/integrations.
Competitive analysis and market research to inform positioning and objection handling.

Soft Skills

Exceptional verbal and written communication skills tailored to executive audiences and technical stakeholders.
Consultative selling and active listening with the ability to translate customer needs into business outcomes.
Strong negotiation and persuasion skills to close complex, multi-stakeholder deals.
Strategic thinking and the ability to create and execute long-term account growth plans.
Leadership and team-building capabilities, including coaching and developing sales talent.
High emotional intelligence, resilience, and stress tolerance in a high-quota environment.
Time management and prioritization skills to balance prospecting, closing, and account management activities.
Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management to align internal teams on deal objectives.
Problem-solving orientation with pragmatic creativity to overcome objections and procurement hurdles.
Customer-centric mindset focused on retention, value creation, and long-term partnerships.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics, Communications, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree plus relevant sales certifications (Sandler, Challenger, MEDDPICC, or HubSpot/Salesforce certifications).
MBA or advanced degree for senior or enterprise-focused roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing
Economics
Finance
Communications
Computer Science or Information Systems (for product/technical sales focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 4–10+ years in B2B sales, business development, or account management with at least 2–4 years in a quota-carrying manager or senior individual contributor role.

Preferred:

Proven track record of meeting or exceeding quotas in a SaaS, technology, or enterprise B2B environment.
Experience managing complex sales cycles with multiple stakeholders, procurement, and legal review.
Demonstrated success in building pipeline through outbound and inbound strategies, ABM, and partner channels.
Prior leadership or team mentoring experience, including hiring and performance management.