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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Head of New Business and Development

💰 $ - $

Business DevelopmentSalesStrategy

🎯 Role Definition

The Head of New Business and Development leads the identification, qualification and conversion of new revenue opportunities across new markets, verticals and products. This leader defines go-to-market strategy, builds and manages high-performing new business and partnerships teams, establishes scalable processes for demand generation and qualification, and partners with product, marketing and operations to translate market signals into commercial outcomes. The role requires a strategic thinker with strong execution DNA, a deep understanding of enterprise sales cycles, and experience negotiating complex commercial agreements.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Business Development Manager / Director of Business Development
  • Head of Partnerships / Strategic Partnerships Director
  • Enterprise Sales Director / Sales Lead

Advancement To:

  • Vice President (VP) of Growth / VP of Sales
  • Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
  • Head of Strategic Initiatives or Corporate Development

Lateral Moves:

  • Head of Product Strategy
  • Director of Global Partnerships
  • Head of Go-to-Market Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and own the end-to-end new business strategy that targets specific sectors, geographies and customer segments to deliver year-over-year revenue growth and scalable pipeline generation.
  • Build, lead and mentor a high-performing new business and partnerships team including SDRs, account executives, partnership managers and channel leads; set clear goals, KPIs and career paths.
  • Define and operationalize the go-to-market playbook including messaging, ideal customer profiles (ICPs), lead qualification criteria, sales motions, pricing strategies, and sales enablement materials.
  • Own pipeline generation targets, forecast accuracy and funnel conversion metrics; implement rigorous pipeline hygiene, stage gating and reporting processes in CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot).
  • Source, evaluate and prioritize new market and product expansion opportunities using market research, customer interviews, competitor analysis, and financial models to recommend go/no-go strategies.
  • Lead enterprise sales cycles and complex negotiations for strategic, high-value accounts; manage end-to-end deal execution from discovery to contract signature and onboarding.
  • Establish and manage strategic partnerships, alliances and channel relationships (resellers, system integrators, platforms) to accelerate distribution and co-selling motions.
  • Partner closely with marketing to design and run demand-generation campaigns, ABM programs, events and content strategies that feed qualified leads into the sales funnel.
  • Create and maintain detailed sales forecasts, revenue models, pricing governance and win/loss analyses to inform leadership decision-making and board updates.
  • Design commission and incentive plans that align sales behavior to company metrics (ARR, MRR, net-new revenue, renewal expansion) and adhere to budget and governance constraints.
  • Collaborate with product management to influence roadmap priorities, validate product-market fit, and ensure commercialization readiness for new features and launches.
  • Implement scalable onboarding and enablement programs for new business hires, including playbooks, objection handling, demo scripts, battlecards and continuous learning.
  • Lead cross-functional deal reviews and commercial risk assessments with legal, finance and operations to ensure compliant and profitable contract terms.
  • Introduce data-driven sales enablement using analytics and tooling (BI dashboards, Salesforce reports, outreach sequencing) to optimize conversion rates and shorten sales cycles.
  • Drive account-based selling strategies for named accounts, coordinating internal resources (solutions engineering, customer success, executives) to win strategic logos.
  • Identify and evaluate M&A, JV, or investment opportunities to accelerate access to new customers, technologies or geographies; lead diligence input from commercial and GTM perspectives.
  • Champion customer discovery and voice-of-customer programs to surface unmet needs, referenceable wins, and repeatable use-cases that scale across segments.
  • Manage P&L responsibility for the new business function or a business unit: budgeting, headcount planning, cost optimization and ROI analysis on growth investments.
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy and contractual obligations in commercial agreements, including data processing addenda and industry-specific controls.
  • Represent the company externally at conferences, investor meetings and industry forums to elevate brand, source partnerships and qualify strategic leads.
  • Implement continuous improvement processes: run win/loss retros, A/B test messaging and GTM motions, and iterate on the sales playbook to increase efficiency and predictability.
  • Establish SLA and escalation frameworks with customer success and delivery teams to ensure smooth transition from sale to implementation and to protect gross retention.
  • Monitor and report on competitive moves, pricing shifts, and market dynamics; adjust commercial strategy and positioning to maintain differentiation and win rates.

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.
  • Provide input to marketing on product positioning, case studies and customer testimonials for go-to-market campaigns.
  • Assist in vendor selection for sales and marketing technology stack (CRM, enrichment, sales engagement, analytics).
  • Mentor junior leaders across sales, partnerships and commercial operations to build bench strength.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Enterprise sales and complex deal negotiation experience with proven wins in multi-stakeholder procurement cycles and contract structures.
  • GTM strategy development: market segmentation, ICP definition, pricing strategy, channel design and launch planning.
  • CRM mastery (Salesforce, HubSpot, or comparable) including pipeline management, reporting, automation and forecast governance.
  • Strong financial acumen: P&L management, revenue modeling, pricing elasticity, ARR/MRR metrics and unit economics.
  • Data-driven decision making: experience with BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) and SQL or analytics fluency to interpret funnel and performance metrics.
  • Sales enablement and process design: playbooks, scorecards, objection handling frameworks, product demos and ROI calculators.
  • Contract and commercial terms knowledge: SLAs, indemnities, IP, pricing schedules, renewals, expansion clauses and basic legal commercial understanding.
  • Channel and partnership management experience: partner program design, co-selling frameworks, partner KPIs and joint business planning.
  • Experience running Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and coordinated sales-marketing initiatives with measurable outcomes.
  • Familiarity with modern sales stack: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach/Salesloft, Gong/Chorus, ZoomInfo, and marketing automation platforms.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic leadership with demonstrated ability to translate market insights into repeatable commercial programs and operational discipline.
  • High emotional intelligence and executive presence for building credibility with C-level buyers, investors and internal leadership.
  • Exceptional communication and storytelling skills to craft compelling value propositions, board updates and investor materials.
  • Strong coaching and people-development focus: ability to hire, mentor, and retain top sales and partnership talent.
  • Results-oriented with bias for action; comfortable operating in ambiguity and driving measurable outcomes under tight timelines.
  • Negotiation and stakeholder management: align multiple internal and external stakeholders to close deals and deliver customer value.
  • Analytical curiosity and problem-solving mindset with attention to detail and focus on continuous improvement.
  • Cross-functional collaboration: proven ability to work with product, marketing, legal, finance and delivery teams to execute complex initiatives.
  • Resilience and adaptability: capable of pivoting GTM tactics based on market feedback and changing priorities.
  • Customer-centric orientation: commitment to understanding customer use cases, ROI metrics and long-term relationship building.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or advanced degree in Business, Strategy, or a technical field for roles requiring product and M&A oversight.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration / Management
  • Marketing / Sales
  • Economics / Finance
  • Engineering / Computer Science (preferred for tech-enabled businesses)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8–15+ years in sales, business development, partnerships, or commercial leadership roles with progressive responsibility.

Preferred:

  • 10+ years with proven track record of building and scaling new business functions, closing enterprise deals (seven- to eight-figure contracts), and managing cross-functional GTM teams.
  • Experience in the company’s industry (SaaS/Cloud, FinTech, HealthTech, B2B services, marketplace) is highly desirable.
  • Past experience running a P&L, establishing partner ecosystems, leading international expansion or participating in commercial due diligence for M&A.
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