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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Development Assistant

πŸ’° $40,000 - $60,000

Business DevelopmentSalesMarketingOperations

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Development Assistant supports the sales and partnerships functions by generating and qualifying leads, managing CRM records, coordinating outreach campaigns, preparing proposals, and maintaining pipeline hygiene. This role is ideal for a detail-oriented, proactive professional who combines administrative efficiency with a basic understanding of sales processes and market research. The Business Development Assistant drives early-stage revenue activity by enabling Business Development Representatives and Account Executives to focus on closing deals.

Primary keywords: Business Development Assistant, BD Assistant, lead generation, CRM management, pipeline support, sales enablement, prospecting, outreach.


πŸ“ˆ Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Sales Intern or Sales Development Representative (SDR)
  • Marketing Coordinator or Marketing Assistant
  • Administrative Assistant or Office Coordinator

Advancement To:

  • Business Development Representative / Sales Development Representative
  • Account Manager or Sales Executive
  • Business Development Manager or Partnerships Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Sales Operations Analyst
  • Customer Success Coordinator
  • Marketing Operations / Demand Generation Coordinator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Generate, research, and qualify inbound and outbound leads using CRM tools (Salesforce, HubSpot) and public sources, creating detailed lead records and prioritizing prospects for outreach.
  • Conduct targeted prospecting using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, industry directories, and social platforms to build a high-quality pipeline, including personalized messaging and multi-channel follow-ups.
  • Manage and maintain CRM data hygiene: update contact information, log activities, assign opportunities, create tasks, and ensure pipeline stages are synchronized with sales processes.
  • Support account executives by preparing tailored sales materials and briefing documents, summarizing prospect background, company tech stack, recent funding, decision-makers, and potential use cases.
  • Execute cold email campaigns, sequence management, and A/B testing in marketing automation platforms (HubSpot, Outreach, SalesLoft) and track open/reply metrics to optimize messaging.
  • Perform outbound and warm calling to cold and nurtured leads to qualify interest, schedule discovery calls, and transfer qualified appointments to sales reps, following defined qualification frameworks (BANT, MEDDIC basics).
  • Assist in preparing, customizing, and sending proposals, quotes, and NDAs; track proposal status and follow up to accelerate decision timelines.
  • Prepare and maintain weekly and monthly pipeline and activity reports for sales leadership, including metrics such as meetings booked, conversion rates, pipeline value, and lead source performance.
  • Coordinate and support events, trade shows, webinars, and on-site meetings: manage registrations, logistics, attendee lists, pre- and post-event outreach, and lead capture handoff.
  • Collaborate with marketing to align demand generation programs with outbound efforts, provide feedback on campaign performance, and recommend target segments and messaging refinements.
  • Conduct market research and competitive analysis, producing concise summaries and lists of target accounts, industry trends, buyer personas, and buying triggers to support territory planning.
  • Build and maintain sales enablement collateral repository β€” one-pagers, case studies, slide decks β€” ensuring materials are current, versioned, and easily accessible to the sales team.
  • Track and escalate contract issues, pricing exceptions, and customer-requested deviations to sales ops or legal teams, and maintain a log of recurring negotiation points to inform policy.
  • Manage outreach cadences, sequence timing, and reply triage to ensure timely response and follow-up by appropriate team members; prioritize inbound lead routing.
  • Support cross-functional project coordination between sales, marketing, product, and customer success to ensure smooth onboarding of strategic prospects and pilots.
  • Reconcile leads and opportunities across data sources, perform weekly deduplication and enrichment (Clearbit, ZoomInfo), and maintain accurate attribution for reporting.
  • Create tailored outreach templates, email copy, and call scripts based on buyer segment and use case, and maintain a library of high-performing messaging examples.
  • Assist in pricing research and creating basic financial models to support deal sizing and ROI conversations used by senior BD team members during qualification.
  • Monitor and report on sales KPIs, CRM adoption, and data quality metrics; propose process improvements to increase lead-to-opportunity conversion and reduce administrative friction.
  • Coordinate meeting schedules, prepare agendas and briefing notes for sales calls, and ensure follow-up actions are captured and assigned in the CRM.
  • Maintain confidentiality of prospect and customer information and ensure compliance with data protection policies (GDPR, CCPA) during outreach and data processing.
  • Act as a point-of-contact for external partners and alliance inquiries; support partner onboarding tasks and ensure partner materials are up-to-date.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc analytics requests and create simple dashboards in Google Sheets or Excel to answer sales and marketing questions.
  • Contribute to the development of internal processes and the organization's business development playbook.
  • Collaborate with product and marketing teams to translate customer feedback and prospect objections into actionable insights for product roadmap and content creation.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when working with sales ops or revenue ops teams to implement tooling or process improvements.
  • Assist with pilot program coordination: sample agreements, pilot timelines, success metrics tracking, and post-pilot handoff to customer success.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM proficiency: Salesforce or HubSpot β€” creating and managing records, views, tasks, and reports.
  • Sales engagement platforms: Outreach, SalesLoft, or HubSpot sequences for campaign execution.
  • Lead enrichment and prospecting tools: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Clearbit, Apollo.
  • Email marketing and automation basics: HubSpot Marketing or Mailchimp for nurture sequences.
  • Strong spreadsheet skills: Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH) and Google Sheets for reporting and analysis.
  • Presentation and proposal tools: PowerPoint, Google Slides, and document generation (PandaDoc, DocuSign).
  • Basic data analysis and reporting: building dashboards, KPI tracking, and trend summaries.
  • Familiarity with qualification frameworks (BANT, CHAMP) and pipeline stage definitions.
  • Event coordination platforms and webinar tools: Zoom, GoToWebinar, Hopin, or event management systems.
  • Contract and proposal management basics: version control, NDA handling, and simple redline review.
  • Familiarity with GDPR/CCPA compliance basics as they relate to prospecting and data handling.
  • CRM automation and workflow configuration experience (creating basic workflows, lead routing rules).

Soft Skills

  • Strong verbal and written communication with an ability to craft concise, persuasive outreach and internal summaries.
  • High attention to detail and data accuracy; methodical approach to CRM hygiene and documentation.
  • Organized multitasker who can prioritize competing requests and manage calendar/meeting logistics for multiple reps.
  • Proactive problem-solver who identifies process bottlenecks and proposes pragmatic improvements.
  • Customer-centric attitude with the ability to build rapport quickly and handle sensitive information professionally.
  • Team player who collaborates across marketing, product, and customer success to drive revenue outcomes.
  • Resilient and persistent β€” comfortable with high-volume outreach and iterative optimization.
  • Time management and prioritization skills, especially for pipeline follow-ups and recurring reporting cadence.
  • Analytical mindset with the ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative inputs into actionable next steps.
  • Adaptable to change and comfortable learning new sales tools and processes quickly.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate degree or equivalent practical experience in business, marketing, communications, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Economics, or related discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing / Communications
  • Economics / Finance
  • Sales & Sales Management
  • Data Analytics (basic)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–3 years of relevant experience in sales support, business development, lead generation, or marketing operations.

Preferred:

  • 2–4 years supporting sales or BD teams in a SaaS, technology, or B2B services environment, with hands-on CRM and outbound prospecting experience.