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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Manager of Business Development

πŸ’° $ - $

Business DevelopmentSalesManagement

🎯 Role Definition

The Manager of Business Development (BD Manager) is responsible for creating and executing growth strategies that expand the company's market presence, build high-value partnerships, and accelerate revenue. This role blends strategic planning, pipeline management, cross-functional execution, and direct customer engagement to identify new opportunities, qualify high-potential prospects, negotiate commercial terms, and close deals. The ideal candidate leverages data-driven market insights, strong negotiation skills, and CRM discipline (e.g., Salesforce/HubSpot) to meet quota and scale repeatable go-to-market motions across target verticals β€” frequently in SaaS, technology, or professional services environments.

πŸ“ˆ Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Business Development Representative / Account Executive
  • Partnerships or Channel Specialist
  • Product Marketing or Strategic Sales Operations

Advancement To:

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

Lateral Moves:

  • Strategic Partnerships Manager
  • Account Management / Customer Success Lead
  • Product Marketing or Go-to-Market Strategy

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and execute a territory and industry-focused business development strategy that targets high-value accounts and priority verticals, resulting in consistent pipeline growth and predictable deal flow.
  • Own end-to-end deal lifecycle: source new leads, qualify opportunities, drive discovery conversations, create tailored proposals, coordinate legal and finance for contracts, and close arrangements that meet margin and revenue targets.
  • Build and maintain a healthy sales pipeline using CRM best practices (Salesforce, HubSpot), including accurate opportunity stages, close dates, forecast confidence, next steps, and activity logging to support reliable forecasting.
  • Identify, evaluate, and prioritize strategic partnerships (resellers, channel partners, technology alliances) and lead partner negotiations, onboarding, enablement, and co-selling initiatives to scale reach.
  • Generate high-quality net-new leads through outbound prospecting (cold outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator), event networking, referrals, and collaboration with inbound marketing to accelerate MQL-to-SQL conversion.
  • Design and iterate sales playbooks, value propositions, and pitch decks customized to buyer personas, use cases, and competitive positioning to improve win rates and accelerate deal cycles.
  • Collaborate with Product, Marketing, and Customer Success to build compelling go-to-market motions, communicate product-market fit, and relay customer feedback for roadmap prioritization.
  • Build financial models and deal economics, including pricing, discounts, commissions, ROI analysis, and contract structuring to ensure profitable and scalable agreements.
  • Conduct market research, competitor analysis, and account mapping to uncover whitespace, cross-sell/upsell opportunities, and emerging market trends that inform strategic priorities.
  • Mentor and coach junior business development or sales representatives on qualifying criteria, discovery questioning, objection handling, and closing strategies to raise team performance.
  • Establish and track KPIs (pipeline velocity, conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, quota attainment) and present weekly/monthly performance reviews to senior leadership.
  • Lead cross-functional deal committees and steer complex contract negotiations involving legal, compliance, procurement, and technical stakeholders to minimize risk and accelerate signatures.
  • Manage a book of business and quota責任: forecast revenue, conduct pipeline hygiene, and implement action plans to address at-risk deals and lift attainment.
  • Design and execute account-based marketing (ABM) initiatives with Marketing to target named accounts with tailored campaigns, events, and executive outreach.
  • Plan and represent the company at industry conferences, trade shows, and executive roundtables to generate pipeline, create brand awareness, and cultivate C-level relationships.
  • Create scalable partner programs and enablement materials β€” joint value propositions, co-branded collateral, partner portals, training, and incentive structures β€” to increase partner-sourced revenue.
  • Run discovery workshops and proof-of-value pilots with prospective customers: define success metrics, manage pilot deliverables, and convert pilots into long-term contracts.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, SLAs, renewals, extensions, and multi-year agreements while ensuring alignment with revenue recognition policies and finance controls.
  • Develop and maintain a prioritized target account list, prepare account plans with key stakeholders, influence buying committees, and build multi-threaded relationships across client organizations.
  • Use CRM and BI tools (Salesforce, Looker, Tableau) to create dashboards, automated reports, and executive-level insights that drive data-informed decisions and operational improvements.
  • Collaborate with legal and procurement to streamline templates and contract playbooks, reducing time-to-sign and ensuring consistent commercial language.
  • Actively seek referrals and customer success stories; coordinate case study creation and reference programs to support future sales and marketing initiatives.
  • Drive continuous process improvements across the sales cycle: lead qualification criteria, demo-to-proposal handoffs, pricing approval workflows, and onboarding coordination to shorten time-to-value.
  • Provide quarterly input to go-to-market planning, territory segmentation, quota setting, and resourcing decisions by synthesizing market intelligence and sales performance data.

Secondary Functions

  • Maintain accurate CRM records and ensure timely handoffs between sales, solution engineering, implementation, and customer success teams.
  • Support ad-hoc reporting requests for leadership (market sizing, win/loss analysis, deal post-mortems) and present findings with actionable recommendations.
  • Participate in cross-functional product or pricing reviews, representing customer needs and commercial constraints.
  • Act as subject matter expert in sales enablement sessions and internal trainings to ramp new hires and share best practices.
  • Assist in preparing board-level and investor-ready presentations that summarize pipeline health, strategic partnerships, and revenue risks/opportunities.
  • Coordinate with marketing to provide content ideas based on competitor intelligence and customer feedback to improve thought leadership and demand generation.
  • Help establish partner SLAs, performance scorecards, and quarterly business reviews to maintain partner engagement and performance.
  • Support compliance and governance processes by ensuring deals meet regulatory and internal policy requirements before contract execution.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM Management (Salesforce, HubSpot): pipeline hygiene, forecasting, opportunity management, and dashboard creation.
  • Sales Process Design: building playbooks, qualification frameworks (MEDDIC/MEDDICC/MAN), and repeatable GTM approaches.
  • Contract Negotiation & Commercial Structuring: term sheets, pricing strategy, discounts, renewals, and partnership agreements.
  • Financial Acumen: deal economics, margin analysis, ARR/MRR modeling, and subscription-based revenue forecasting.
  • Market & Competitive Analysis: TAM/SAM/SOM assessments, account mapping, and win/loss diagnostics.
  • Tools & Analytics: Excel (advanced), Google Sheets, Looker, Tableau, Power BI for reporting and scenario modeling.
  • Outbound Prospecting Tools: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo for cadence orchestration and sequence management.
  • Proposal & Presentation Development: RFP/RFI responses, tailored proposals, ROI calculators, and executive-level slide decks.
  • Product & Industry Knowledge: understanding of SaaS, cloud services, technology workflows, or the relevant vertical to position solutions credibly.
  • Partner Enablement & Channel Management: partner onboarding processes, MDF planning, co-selling strategies, and partner CRMs.
  • Demo & Technical Qualification: ability to run effective discovery sessions with solutions engineers and translate requirements into commercial proposals.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic Thinking: formulate long-term market entry and partnership strategies aligned with company objectives.
  • Consultative Selling: strong discovery and value-based selling skills with the ability to influence executive stakeholders.
  • Negotiation & Persuasion: close complex deals while protecting margin and minimizing legal/commercial risk.
  • Communication: excellent written and verbal presentation skills for C-level interactions and internal stakeholder alignment.
  • Relationship Building: develop trust-based, multi-threaded relationships across prospects, partners, and internal teams.
  • Leadership & Coaching: mentor and motivate junior sellers and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver outcomes.
  • Problem Solving & Adaptability: quickly design creative commercial solutions to overcome procurement or competitive obstacles.
  • Time Management & Prioritization: manage multiple complex opportunities across long sales cycles effectively.
  • Resilience & Tenacity: persistent follow-through on long-cycle deals and ability to rebound from setbacks.
  • Collaboration & Influence: work effectively with Product, Marketing, Legal, Finance, and Customer Success to close deals.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred for senior roles or roles with heavy strategic responsibilities.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Economics
  • International Business
  • Technology Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5–10 years in business development, enterprise sales, partnerships, or channel roles.

Preferred:

  • 7+ years experience in B2B sales or partnerships with demonstrated quota attainment.
  • 2–4 years of people management or cross-functional program leadership.
  • Experience selling SaaS, technology, professional services, or complex enterprise solutions, with proven success closing mid-market to enterprise deals.
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