Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Solutions Representative

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Solutions Representative is responsible for driving revenue by identifying, qualifying, and closing new business opportunities while acting as the primary consultative resource for mid-market customers. This role combines prospecting, product demos, contract negotiation, pipeline management, and cross-functional collaboration with marketing, product, and customer success teams to deliver measurable business outcomes and maintain high quota attainment.

Primary SEO keywords: Business Solutions Representative, B2B sales, solution selling, SaaS sales, account development, CRM, pipeline management, Salesforce, consultative selling, customer acquisition.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Sales Development Representative (SDR) or Business Development Representative (BDR)
Customer Success Representative or Account Coordinator
Inside Sales Representative or Junior Account Executive

Advancement To:

Senior Business Solutions Representative or Senior Account Executive
Solutions Consultant or Sales Engineer (specialized technical path)
Account Manager / Enterprise Account Executive
Sales Manager / Team Lead

Lateral Moves:

Customer Success Manager
Product Specialist / Product Marketing Associate
Strategic Partnerships or Channel Development Representative

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Research, prospect, and generate a pipeline of mid-market and enterprise accounts through multi-channel outreach (email, phone, social, events) and targeted account-based marketing initiatives to consistently achieve monthly and quarterly quota.
Qualify inbound and outbound leads using MEDDICC, BANT or other qualification frameworks, and prioritize opportunities by revenue potential, buying timeline, and strategic fit.
Conduct discovery calls with key stakeholders to map business processes, identify pain points, quantify business impact, and position the solution as a strategic investment that reduces costs, increases revenue, or improves operational efficiency.
Deliver tailored product demonstrations and proof-of-concepts that are aligned to a prospect’s specific use cases, decision criteria, and technical environment to accelerate time-to-close.
Build and maintain detailed opportunity plans in the CRM (Salesforce preferred), including decision-maker maps, technical dependencies, competitive landscape, and next-step actions to ensure predictable forecasting.
Manage the full sales cycle from initial engagement to contract negotiation and closed-won; collaborate with Legal and Finance to finalize terms, SLAs, and pricing structures.
Prepare and present executive-level business cases and ROI analyses that translate product capabilities into measurable KPIs for finance, operations, and C-suite stakeholders.
Execute territory and account plans to penetrate new industries, expand share-of-wallet within assigned accounts, and drive consistent pipeline coverage aligned with company growth targets.
Negotiate pricing, discounting, and contract terms within delegated authority while escalating complex commercial terms to leadership for approval when required.
Partner with customer success and implementation teams to ensure seamless handoffs, onboarding readiness, and a clear plan to drive time-to-value and long-term retention.
Track and report on sales metrics (pipeline, conversion rates, ACV, ARR, churn risk) and produce weekly and monthly status updates to sales leadership to support data-driven decisions.
Use competitive intelligence and win/loss analysis to refine positioning, objection handling, and product messaging; proactively escalate product gaps and feature requests to the product team.
Execute cross-sell and upsell strategies within existing accounts in collaboration with account managers and customer success to increase lifetime value (LTV).
Attend trade shows, industry conferences, and local events to network, build relationships, and represent the company brand; prepare post-event follow-up campaigns to convert meetings to opportunities.
Maintain deep product and industry knowledge to consultatively advise prospects on integration, implementation timelines, security/compliance considerations, and technical prerequisites.
Coordinate with marketing to test and refine go-to-market messaging, playbooks, and sales enablement materials based on field feedback and buyer behavior insights.
Build trusted advisor relationships with customer stakeholders to uncover long-term strategic initiatives and position the company as a preferred technology partner.
Maintain accurate, timely CRM data hygiene—logging activities, updating opportunity stages, and attaching relevant documentation to support reliable forecasting and coaching.
Achieve and exceed individual sales quotas through consistent prospecting, disciplined pipeline management, and high-velocity deal execution.
Identify and escalate potential deal risks early (e.g., procurement delays, technical blockers) and drive mitigation plans with internal subject-matter experts and executive sponsors.
Mentor junior sales reps and SDRs by sharing best practices for discovery, demo techniques, objection handling, and negotiation tactics to raise team performance.
Champion customer feedback and product improvement requests; collaborate with product management to prioritize enhancements that deliver measurable customer ROI.

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.
Assist in developing sales collateral, case studies, and customer success stories that highlight measurable outcomes and industry-specific benefits.
Provide input on pricing strategy and packaging by sharing market trends, competitive positioning, and buyer elasticity observations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

CRM proficiency: Salesforce (preferred), HubSpot, or similar—accurate pipeline management and activity logging.
Solution selling: ability to map product capabilities to business outcomes using frameworks like MEDDICC/BANT.
Demo and presentation skills: creating and delivering product demos, customized slide decks, and ROI calculators.
Contract and commercial acumen: understanding of pricing models, SOWs, MSA terms, and basic contract negotiation.
Sales analytics: proficient with pipeline reports, sales forecasting, and KPI tracking (ARR, ACV, conversion rates).
Familiarity with SaaS architectures, APIs, integrations, and common third-party ecosystems relevant to the product.
Basic data literacy: ability to interpret dashboards, usage metrics, and customer health signals; comfortable with Excel and Google Sheets.
Outreach and sales engagement tools: experience with outreach platforms (SalesLoft, Outreach), LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and email sequencing.
Product qualification and technical scoping: able to assess security, compliance, and integration requirements during discovery.
Experience using CPQ or quoting tools and understanding of billing/pricing platforms.

Soft Skills

Consultative communication: strong ability to ask the right questions, listen actively, and present complex ideas simply.
Negotiation and influence: confident handling of price and contract negotiations while protecting margin and company policy.
Problem solving and critical thinking: ability to synthesize information from multiple stakeholders and propose pragmatic solutions.
Time management and organization: disciplined prioritization in a quota-driven, fast-paced sales environment.
Relationship building: proven ability to build credibility and long-term trust with C-suite, IT, and operational stakeholders.
Resilience and persistence: consistent follow-through on long sales cycles with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Team collaboration: works cross-functionally with marketing, product, customer success, and implementation to drive outcomes.
Adaptability: comfortable working in a dynamic startup or scale-up environment with evolving processes and product roadmaps.
Presentation & storytelling: craft compelling narratives that tie product features to business value and buyer motivations.
Coaching mindset: openness to feedback, active participation in skill development, and willingness to mentor peers.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Information Systems, Computer Science, Finance, or related field (or equivalent work experience).

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree plus certifications in sales methodologies (e.g., Challenger, SPIN, MEDDICC) or technical certifications relevant to the product (cloud, security, integration platforms).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration, Marketing, or Sales
Information Technology, Computer Science, or Information Systems
Finance, Economics, or Applied Analytics
Communications or Organizational Leadership

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of B2B sales, inside sales, account development, or pre-sales experience; experience in SaaS, enterprise software, or technology products highly preferred.

Preferred:

3+ years of quota-bearing sales with documented quota attainment and a track record of closing mid-market or enterprise deals.
Demonstrated experience with CRM (Salesforce), sales engagement platforms, and cross-functional selling.
Prior experience engaging C-level and VP-level stakeholders, preparing executive business cases, and navigating complex procurement cycles.