Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for New Business Development Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The New Business Development Manager is responsible for identifying, qualifying, and closing new revenue opportunities by executing repeatable go-to-market strategies, building and managing a robust sales pipeline, and establishing strategic partnerships. This role combines market research, outbound and inbound lead generation, consultative selling, and cross-functional coordination to drive sustainable growth in new accounts and new markets. Ideal candidates are data-driven, highly organized, skilled in relationship-building, and experienced with CRM and sales enablement tools.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Business Development Representative (BDR) / Sales Development Representative (SDR)
Account Executive or Inside Sales Representative
Market Research / Sales Operations analyst

Advancement To:

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

Lateral Moves:

Strategic Partnerships Manager
Account or Client Success Manager
Product Marketing Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and execute territory and account-based go-to-market strategies that generate qualified pipeline and accelerate net-new revenue, aligning activity plans with quarterly and annual company growth targets.
Identify and prioritize high-potential target segments through market research, competitive analysis, and customer profiling to inform outreach, pricing and product positioning decisions.
Build, manage, and consistently update a robust sales pipeline using CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), ensuring accurate stage progression, forecasting inputs, and timely follow-up to meet monthly, quarterly, and annual quota.
Proactively source leads through multi-channel outreach — cold calling, email campaigns, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, networking events, and industry conferences — and convert them into qualified opportunities using consultative selling techniques.
Develop compelling, data-driven sales proposals, presentations and business cases tailored to executive stakeholders and procurement teams, demonstrating ROI and value propositions that shorten sales cycles.
Lead the full sales cycle for new accounts: discovery, qualification, needs assessment, solution recommendation, proposal negotiation, contract closure and handoff to account management or implementation teams.
Negotiate commercial terms including pricing, contract length, SLAs and renewal triggers with prospective customers and partners while balancing company profitability and long-term strategic value.
Collaborate closely with product, marketing and customer success teams to design and iterate on proof-of-concept pilots, pilot pricing, product demos, and onboarding plans that increase conversion rates from trial to paid.
Prepare and deliver regular pipeline and performance reports to leadership, including activity metrics, win/loss analysis, funnel conversion rates and forecast accuracy to inform strategy adjustments.
Design and run A/B tests for outreach cadences, messaging, and offer structures; analyze results and scale high-performing approaches to continuously improve lead-to-opportunity and opportunity-to-close ratios.
Own the RFP and proposal response process for strategic new business pursuits, coordinating subject matter experts, legal, and finance to produce compliant, competitive, and timely submissions.
Establish and nurture strategic partnerships and channel relationships (resellers, systems integrators, technology partners) to extend market reach and co-sell opportunities that accelerate customer acquisition.
Create and maintain sales enablement assets — playbooks, objection-handling guides, competitive battlecards, pricing calculators and case studies — to empower the broader commercial team to win new business.
Conduct win/loss analysis and voice-of-customer interviews to gather competitive intelligence and product feedback, then translate insights into actionable improvements for product, pricing and messaging.
Manage and optimize lead qualification and handoff processes with SDRs, marketing and operations to ensure SLA compliance, minimize lead leakage and maximize conversion efficiency.
Forecast and model revenue scenarios using pipeline health metrics, deal velocity and conversion assumptions; provide accurate, data-backed revenue projections to finance and executive leadership.
Monitor and analyze competitor activities, pricing changes and industry trends to proactively adjust outreach strategies, product positioning and partnership opportunities.
Represent the company at conferences, trade shows, webinars, and industry events to build brand awareness, develop high-value connections and generate inbound opportunities.
Mentor and coach junior business development staff or cross-functional contributors on consultative selling, negotiation strategies, pipeline hygiene and CRM best practices to scale team effectiveness.
Own budget and resource planning for new business initiatives, including event sponsorships, outbound campaign spend and partner incentives, measuring ROI to optimize spend.
Ensure compliance with organizational policies and legal requirements when structuring deals, sharing customer data, and collaborating with external partners; engage legal and procurement when necessary.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the sales process, adopting technology (sales engagement platforms, analytics tools) and scalable workflows to reduce time-to-close and improve win rates.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc revenue modeling, data pulls and exploratory analysis to validate strategy assumptions and prioritize go-to-market investments.
Contribute to the company’s commercial strategy and roadmap by synthesizing market feedback and supporting pilot programs that evaluate new segment expansion.
Collaborate with product and engineering teams to translate customer needs into prioritized product enhancements and to scope proofs-of-concept.
Participate in agile or cross-functional planning sessions to align on launch milestones, sales enablement needs and integration requirements for new offerings.
Assist marketing with campaign planning and creative brief development to ensure messaging is aligned with target buyer personas and the competitive landscape.
Provide sales training and onboarding content for new hires focused on outbound techniques, CRM usage and company-specific selling points.
Help maintain customer reference program by coordinating success stories, case studies and reference calls between customers and the sales organization.
Coordinate with finance to manage billing terms, discounts approvals and deal structuring for complex or enterprise-level proposals.
Manage vendor relationships for sales tools and lead intelligence providers, ensuring contract renewals and SLAs deliver required ROI.
Facilitate internal post-mortems on key lost deals to drive organizational learning and update bid/no-bid criteria.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficiency with CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) including opportunity management, forecast hygiene, and custom reporting.
Experience with sales engagement and automation tools (Salesloft, Outreach) and outreach sequencing to scale high-volume prospecting.
Strong financial acumen and experience building deal models, pricing strategies and ROI calculators to support executive-level decisions.
Expertise in pipeline management and revenue forecasting using data-driven methodologies and tools (Excel advanced functions, Google Sheets, Tableau, or similar).
Proven ability to manage RFP/RFI processes and construct competitive, legally compliant proposals in collaboration with legal/finance.
Competency with market research and competitive analysis tools, including LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Crunchbase, or similar prospecting platforms.
Experience coordinating cross-functional pilots and POCs that require technical scoping and implementation support from product/engineering teams.
Skilled in preparing persuasive sales presentations and executive-level decks using PowerPoint, Google Slides and storytelling with data.
Familiarity with contract negotiation and commercial terms (pricing tiers, SLAs, renewals, MSA basics) and escalation to legal when necessary.
Ability to use analytics and BI tools to interpret funnel metrics and perform win/loss and conversion analyses to drive process improvements.
Experience managing channel or partner programs, aligning incentives, co-sell motions and enablement for third-party sellers.
Comfortable leveraging digital marketing and demand generation platforms to drive inbound interest and convert marketing-sourced leads.

Soft Skills

Exceptional written and verbal communication skills for high-impact presentations, persuasive outreach and executive stakeholder briefings.
Strong consultative selling and active listening skills to uncover business problems, articulate tailored solutions and influence buying committees.
High level of initiative and self-motivation with a bias for action, persistence in follow-up and ownership of outcomes in ambiguous environments.
Strategic thinking with the ability to translate market insights into repeatable sales plays and scalable revenue channels.
Excellent negotiation and conflict-resolution skills to close complex deals while preserving long-term customer and partner relationships.
Collaborative mindset and proven ability to work cross-functionally with product, marketing, legal, finance and customer success teams.
Resilience and adaptability in the face of rejection, market shifts and rapidly changing priorities.
Strong project management and organizational skills to balance multiple simultaneous pursuits and long sales cycles effectively.
Data-driven decision-making orientation: comfort setting KPIs, testing hypotheses, assessing results and iterating on approach.
Leadership and mentoring capability to train and elevate junior team members and to influence peers without direct authority.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Finance, Economics, Communications or related field.

Preferred Education:

MBA or advanced degree in business, marketing, or a technical field for enterprise or highly technical products.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing
Finance
Economics
Communications
Entrepreneurship
Information Systems (for SaaS/technical products)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8 years in sales, business development, or related commercial roles; 5+ years preferred for enterprise or complex-solution environments.

Preferred:

Prior success in B2B sales or business development with demonstrable quota attainment and pipeline growth.
Experience selling in the company’s industry (e.g., SaaS, fintech, healthcare, enterprise software) or to similar buyer personas (IT, procurement, C-suite).
Track record managing multi-stakeholder sales cycles, building strategic partnerships, and negotiating contract terms.
Familiarity with outbound prospecting, account-based marketing (ABM) and collaborating closely with demand generation and product teams.