Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Development Leader

💰 $120,000 - $220,000

Business DevelopmentSalesLeadershipStrategy

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Development Leader is a strategic revenue driver responsible for identifying market opportunities, building and scaling go-to-market programs, leading partner and channel initiatives, and managing high-value negotiations to achieve quarterly and annual revenue targets. This role requires cross-functional collaboration with product, marketing, legal, finance, and customer success to design scalable growth strategies, optimize the sales funnel, and deliver predictable pipeline and bookings.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Account Executive with quota-bearing experience in complex sales
  • Head of Partnerships or Channel Manager with proven partner revenue
  • Strategic Account Manager with experience expanding enterprise accounts

Advancement To:

  • Director / Head of Business Development
  • VP of Sales or VP of Strategic Partnerships
  • General Manager or Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Head of Strategic Partnerships
  • Head of International Expansion
  • Head of Go-to-Market Strategy

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own the full sales lifecycle for strategic and enterprise accounts: prospecting, solution design, value-based proposals, negotiation, and contract closure to consistently exceed quarterly and annual revenue targets.
  • Build, manage and optimize a prioritized pipeline using CRM best practices; drive a disciplined forecast cadence and maintain accurate funnel hygiene to enable predictable revenue forecasting.
  • Define and execute go-to-market (GTM) plans for new products, market segments, or geographies, coordinating cross-functional launches with product, marketing, operations, and customer success teams.
  • Lead partner and channel development: identify strategic alliance opportunities, negotiate commercial terms, develop partner enablement programs, and manage partner performance to scale indirect revenue streams.
  • Design and iterate scalable sales motions (hunter/farmer motions, SDR/AE alignment, enterprise pursuit frameworks) that reduce sales cycles and increase win rates across target segments.
  • Conduct competitive market analysis and customer discovery to identify white space, refine value propositions, and prioritize high-impact verticals and accounts.
  • Own strategic accounts and executive relationships; serve as trusted advisor to C-level and VP contacts, aligning company capabilities to customer business outcomes and long-term roadmaps.
  • Create and present compelling business cases and ROI models to customers and internal stakeholders, articulating total cost of ownership, time-to-value, and incremental revenue potential.
  • Negotiate complex commercial contracts, including SLAs, revenue share, multi-year agreements, and master services agreements while managing legal and finance reviews to close deals efficiently.
  • Partner with marketing to design demand generation programs, ABM campaigns, and event strategies that accelerate pipeline creation and conversion for priority segments.
  • Implement data-driven KPIs and metrics (CAC, LTV, average deal size, win rates) and use analytics to inform prioritization, territory design, and resource allocation.
  • Hire, coach, and mentor a high-performing business development team (where applicable), setting clear objectives, developing career paths, and running performance reviews tied to revenue metrics.
  • Drive cross-sell and upsell initiatives by identifying expansion opportunities within existing accounts and coordinating with customer success to deliver value-based renewal and expansion conversations.
  • Manage sales operations processes including territory alignment, quota setting, compensation design, and CRM adoption to ensure sales efficiency and scalability.
  • Orchestrate executive-level pursuits and RFP/RFI responses, coordinating solution architects, legal, finance, and product teams to deliver winning proposals on time.
  • Partner with product management to influence roadmap based on customer feedback, market trends, and competitive threats to ensure the offering remains differentiated and saleable.
  • Build scalable partner programs (referral, reseller, technology alliances) including enablement materials, joint marketing plans, revenue share models, and performance SLAs.
  • Drive international expansion initiatives: assess go-to-market feasibility, localize commercial models, establish channel partners, and manage regulatory/compliance constraints in new regions.
  • Manage pricing strategy and discount approval processes to protect margins while enabling competitive deal structures and enterprise-level procurements.
  • Lead cross-functional initiatives for contract renewals and churn mitigation by establishing early engaged renewal plays and lifecycle metrics that reduce customer attrition.
  • Conduct quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with key accounts and partners to align on performance metrics, roadmap priorities, and joint growth plans.
  • Serve as the voice of the customer internally, collecting insights on pain points, feature requests, and competitive positioning to influence product and marketing decisions.
  • Establish and maintain an industry network (analysts, channel partners, trade associations) to identify white space and secure co-selling or influencer opportunities that amplify brand reach.
  • Prepare executive dashboards and board-level materials that summarize pipeline health, risk areas, and strategic initiatives required to hit long-term goals.
  • Lead post-sale engagements for strategic pilots and proof-of-concepts (POCs) to ensure successful implementation, measurable outcomes, and smooth transition to scale.
  • Evaluate and implement modern sales enablement tools (Salesforce, Outreach, Gong, HubSpot) to improve seller productivity, enable data-driven coaching, and capture buyer signals.

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)

  • Strategic account planning and enterprise sales process design
  • Pipeline management and CRM mastery (Salesforce, HubSpot or similar)
  • Contract negotiation, commercial terms and legal/compliance coordination
  • Financial modeling for pricing, ROI analysis, and deal economics
  • Go-to-market strategy development and execution for product launches and market expansion
  • Channel partner program design and partner enablement
  • Market research, competitive analysis, and buyer persona development
  • Sales forecasting, KPI definition, and performance analytics
  • Experience with sales enablement and engagement platforms (Outreach, SalesLoft, Gong)
  • RFP/RFI response creation and executive proposal writing
  • Familiarity with SaaS business models, subscription economics, and SaaS metrics (MRR/ARR, churn)
  • Basic data literacy: leveraging BI tools and dashboards (Tableau, Looker, Power BI) to inform decisions

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinker with the ability to translate market insights into executable plans
  • Strong executive presence and ability to build trust with C-level stakeholders
  • Excellent written and verbal communication; persuasive presenter for customer and board audiences
  • High emotional intelligence and stakeholder management across cross-functional teams
  • Strong negotiation and influence skills to drive consensus and close complex deals
  • Results-oriented, self-motivated, and comfortable with ambiguity in fast-moving markets
  • Coaching and people development skills for building high-performing teams
  • Problem-solving mindset with a focus on customer outcomes and commercial impact
  • Collaborative approach to align product, marketing, finance, legal, and operations
  • Resilience and persistence with the ability to prioritize under competing demands

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Engineering, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or advanced degree in business, strategy, or relevant technical discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Finance / Economics
  • Computer Science / Engineering (for product-led or technical GTM)
  • International Business

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 7–15 years of progressive experience in business development, enterprise sales, partnerships, or GTM leadership roles.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years with proven track record of meeting/exceeding revenue targets and scaling channels.
  • Experience in SaaS, technology, enterprise software, or related B2B industries.
  • Demonstrated success managing cross-functional pursuits, large deal negotiations, and partner ecosystems.
  • Prior experience using Salesforce and sales engagement platforms, plus familiarity with analytics and BI tools for decision support.
Explore More Careers