Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Graduate Business Development Executive

🎯 Role Definition

The Graduate Business Development Executive is an early‑career sales and growth role focused on generating new business opportunities, qualifying leads, managing outbound and inbound prospecting, and supporting the sales cycle from first contact to handover. This role combines market research, pipeline building, CRM management, targeted outreach, meeting preparation, and cross‑functional collaboration to drive revenue growth, expand customer relationships, and develop professional selling skills within a fast‑paced B2B or SaaS environment.

Key keywords: Graduate Business Development Executive, business development, lead generation, B2B sales, CRM, pipeline management, outbound sales, SaaS sales, account outreach.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Graduate / New graduate (Business, Marketing, Economics) with internship or campus sales experience.
Sales Development Representative (SDR) or Sales Intern with 0–12 months of experience.
Customer service or inside sales assistant transitioning into proactive prospecting.

Advancement To:

Business Development Manager
Account Executive / Inside Sales Representative
Senior Sales Development Representative or Sales Manager
Key Account Manager or Territory Manager

Lateral Moves:

Customer Success Manager
Marketing Executive (demand generation, product marketing)
Sales Enablement or Operations Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Proactively research, identify, and prioritize target accounts and high‑value prospects in line with the company’s ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), using LinkedIn, industry reports, and market intelligence to build qualified lead lists.
Execute multi‑channel outbound campaigns (email sequences, cold calls, LinkedIn outreach and social selling) to generate qualified meetings and increase pipeline for the sales team.
Respond to inbound leads and website enquiries promptly, qualify interest and fit, and schedule discovery or demo meetings for senior sales colleagues.
Manage day‑to‑day CRM activities in Salesforce, HubSpot, or equivalent — logging all communications, updating lead status, setting reminders, and ensuring data hygiene to maintain an accurate sales pipeline.
Conduct initial discovery conversations to understand prospect pain points, budget, decision‑making processes, and timeline, and document findings in CRM for seamless handover.
Prepare persuasive, tailored outreach messages, proposals, and supporting collateral for meetings, ensuring messaging aligns to buyer persona and product value propositions.
Book and coordinate discovery calls, demos, and customer meetings, including calendar management and necessary pre‑call research and briefing for Account Executives.
Support pipeline forecasting by updating opportunity stages, next steps and probability, contributing to weekly and monthly sales reports used by management.
Qualify leads using a clear framework (BANT, MEDDIC light, or company‑specific qualification criteria) to ensure high conversion efficiency and reduced sales cycle time.
Run A/B tests on email subject lines, messaging, call scripts and cadence to optimize outreach performance and improve response and conversion rates.
Collaborate with marketing and demand generation to align campaigns and follow up on marketing‑generated leads, feeding insights to improve lead quality and conversion.
Assist in preparing proposals, quotes, and contracts by gathering requirements and coordinating with pricing or legal teams, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery.
Attend product and sales enablement sessions to build deep product knowledge, understand features and use cases, and accurately articulate value to prospects.
Build and maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders — product, marketing, customer success — to ensure prospects receive a cohesive experience.
Track and report key metrics such as MQLs, SQLs, meetings booked, conversion rates and pipeline contribution to support performance reviews and continuous improvement.
Shadow senior sales colleagues on calls and demos to learn negotiation and closing techniques, and adopt best practices to improve personal performance.
Support account research and territory planning by mapping organizational structures, identifying decision makers, and documenting buying centers for strategic pursuit.
Contribute to account expansion by identifying cross‑sell and upsell opportunities during qualification and coordinating handover to account teams.
Maintain industry knowledge and monitor competitor activity, pricing and product developments to inform outreach messaging and buyer objections handling.
Attend industry events, webinars and local meetups to network, generate leads and represent the company professionally, capturing contact details and qualifying follow‑up opportunities.
Help manage and nurture lead nurture programs for long‑term prospects through regular touchpoints, relevant content sharing and re‑engagement campaigns.
Support sales operations with data cleanup, list segmentation, and CRM automation tasks to improve lead routing, response times and sales productivity.

Secondary Functions

Assist with basic market segmentation and campaign performance analysis to recommend areas for targeted outreach and improvement.
Support ad‑hoc reporting requests for sales leadership and participate in weekly pipeline review meetings to supply context and updates.
Contribute to building and maintaining outreach templates, call scripts and playbooks based on winning patterns identified from high‑conversion accounts.
Participate in cross‑functional projects such as product launches, customer feedback loops, and case study development to capture new business opportunities.
Help coordinate lead handovers to onboarding and customer success teams to ensure a smooth customer journey and reduce time‑to‑value.
Provide input into the continuous improvement of sales processes, including feedback on CRM usability, lead scoring and qualification criteria.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

CRM proficiency: experience using Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho or similar — logging activity, managing pipelines and generating reports.
Outbound prospecting: practiced in cold calling, cold emailing, and LinkedIn outreach with measurable response and meeting‑booking results.
Lead qualification frameworks: familiarity with BANT, MEDDIC (basic), ANUM or company‑specific qualification approaches to identify SQLs.
Sales tools & automation: working knowledge of outreach platforms (Outreach.io, Salesloft), email tracking (Yesware), and sequence building.
Data research & list building: ability to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Clearbit or other tools to build accurate prospect lists.
Presentation and demo support: ability to create professional slide decks, one‑pagers and tailored proposals that communicate product value.
Spreadsheet & reporting: strong Excel/Google Sheets skills for tracking KPIs, segmenting lists and producing simple forecasts and reports.
Basic analytics: ability to interpret campaign metrics (open rates, reply rates, conversion rates) and recommend optimizations.
Time and task management tools: familiarity with calendar scheduling tools (Calendly) and task management (Trello, Asana).
Product literacy: rapid learning of SaaS product features, pricing models and typical customer use cases to make meaningful first contacts.
Contract & proposal preparation: basic experience preparing quotes, understanding pricing tiers and routing agreements for approval.
GDPR and privacy awareness: knowledge of compliant outreach practices, data consent, and opt‑out handling for outbound campaigns.

Soft Skills

Exceptional verbal and written communication skills tailored to B2B buyer personas.
Strong active listening and questioning to uncover buyer needs and articulate relevant value propositions.
Resilience and persistence with a growth mindset for high‑volume outreach and follow‑up.
High emotional intelligence and relationship building to connect with stakeholders across functions and levels.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail for accurate CRM management and follow‑through.
Problem solving and analytical thinking to improve outreach strategies and personalize messaging.
Team collaboration and adaptability in dynamic, cross‑functional environments.
Time management and prioritization to balance prospecting, qualification and internal responsibilities.
Coachability and eagerness to learn from feedback, shadowing and sales training sessions.
Negotiation basics and confidence to handle early objections and escalate complex opportunities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Business, Marketing, Economics, Commerce, Communications or related field. Recent graduates welcome.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree with relevant internships or a Master’s / MSc (Business Analytics, Marketing, or MBA) for faster progression.
Professional sales certifications (e.g., HubSpot Sales, Salesforce Trailhead, Sales Development certification) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing & Communications
Economics, Finance or Commerce
Computer Science / Information Systems (for SaaS product familiarity)
Entrepreneurship or Sales & Negotiation courses

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

0–2 years (graduate entry, internships, student sales programs); or 1–3 years in SDR/inside sales roles for more senior graduate hires.

Preferred:

6–24 months of demonstrable experience in lead generation, outbound prospecting, CRM usage, or a structured sales/graduate program.
Internship or campus sales experience, B2B exposure, or experience in SaaS, technology, professional services, or consultancy environments.