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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Sales and Business Development Manager

💰 $70,000 - $150,000

SalesBusiness DevelopmentManagementB2B

🎯 Role Definition

The Sales and Business Development Manager is responsible for driving new revenue, expanding strategic accounts, building and optimizing the sales pipeline, and developing partnerships that accelerate business growth. This role combines consultative selling, territory and key account management, pipeline forecasting, and cross-functional collaboration to meet and exceed revenue targets. The ideal candidate is data-driven, relationship-oriented, and experienced with enterprise B2B sales cycles, CRM systems (Salesforce/HubSpot), and negotiating complex deals.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Sales Representative or Account Executive with strong quota attainment and territory growth.
  • Business Development Representative (BDR) or Sales Development Representative (SDR) promoted for consistent pipeline creation and qualification.
  • Strategic Account Manager or Channel/Partner Manager with experience building partner relationships.

Advancement To:

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

Lateral Moves:

  • Customer Success Manager / Head of Customer Success
  • Strategic Partnerships Manager / Alliance Director
  • Product Marketing or Go-to-Market Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, own, and execute a territory and account plan to identify, target, and convert mid-market and enterprise customers, driving consistent month-over-month revenue growth and exceeding quarterly and annual sales quotas.
  • Build and manage a high-quality sales pipeline through proactive prospecting, strategic outbound campaigns, account-based marketing initiatives, and qualification of inbound leads to increase conversion rates and shorten sales cycles.
  • Lead end-to-end sales cycles for complex B2B opportunities — from discovery and needs assessment through proposal, negotiation, closing, and onboarding — ensuring a high win rate and positive customer experience.
  • Manage key strategic accounts by establishing trusted advisor relationships, conducting regular business reviews, upselling and cross-selling additional products/services, and ensuring renewals and long-term account retention.
  • Collaborate with marketing to design and execute demand-generation programs, referral campaigns, events, and content strategies that increase brand awareness and generate qualified leads for the sales funnel.
  • Use CRM tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, or equivalent) to maintain accurate opportunity and account data, generate weekly/monthly forecasts, track pipeline health, and provide actionable insights to leadership.
  • Produce data-driven sales forecasts and reports for senior leadership, highlighting pipeline velocity, close rates, deal stages, churn risk, and recommended actions to hit revenue targets.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, contracts, and service-level agreements with prospects and partners while protecting company margin and minimizing legal and financial risk.
  • Identify, recruit, and manage channel and strategic partners (resellers, system integrators, OEMs) to expand market reach and accelerate customer acquisition; create partner enablement plans and co-selling frameworks.
  • Design and implement repeatable sales processes, playbooks, objection handling guides, and qualification frameworks (MEDDIC, BANT, Challenger) to scale team effectiveness and onboarding.
  • Lead cross-functional deal execution with product, legal, finance, and customer success teams to remove blockers, craft customized solutions, and accelerate time-to-close.
  • Conduct market, competitive, and customer research to uncover whitespace opportunities, pricing strategies, positioning adjustments, and product feedback loops that inform the roadmap and go-to-market motion.
  • Mentor and coach junior account executives, BDRs, or sales reps by running pipeline reviews, role-playing negotiation scenarios, and sharing best practices to raise overall team performance.
  • Initiate and manage pilot programs and proof-of-concept (PoC) engagements, defining success metrics, timelines, and measurable business outcomes to convert trials into scalable contracts.
  • Create and deliver persuasive presentations, RFP/RFI responses, and product demos customized to buyer personas and stakeholder needs across executive, technical, and operational audiences.
  • Drive continuous improvement by capturing post-deal learnings, win/loss analysis, and customer feedback to iterate on sales messaging, pricing, packaging, and service offerings.
  • Coordinate pricing strategy and discount approvals to balance competitive positioning with margin goals, maintaining compliance with corporate pricing policies.
  • Monitor contract performance and work with customer success to ensure onboarding, implementation, and SLA adherence, reducing churn and increasing net retention.
  • Act as the voice of the customer internally—synthesizing needs and feature requests for product and engineering teams and advocating for changes that create competitive differentiation.
  • Implement customer reference and case study programs to document success stories, support marketing initiatives, and accelerate trust-based selling for future opportunities.
  • Stay current on industry trends, regulatory changes, and emerging technologies relevant to customers; translate insights into consultative sales conversations and strategic business recommendations.
  • Represent the company at conferences, trade shows, webinars, and industry events to build thought leadership, network with prospects, and generate lead flow.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc sales analysis and reporting requests to inform executive decision-making and territory adjustments.
  • Contribute to the organization's go-to-market strategy, pricing models, and partner programs by providing field-level insights and competitive intelligence.
  • Collaborate with product and marketing teams to translate customer feedback into prioritized product enhancements and launch plans.
  • Participate in sales enablement initiatives, including playbook development, training sessions, and onboarding for new hires.
  • Assist legal and finance teams with deal structuring, contracting, and approval processes to ensure timely closures.
  • Help implement and improve CRM hygiene and data governance practices across the sales organization.
  • Lead pilot or beta customer programs to test new offerings and build initial case studies for broader commercial rollout.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM Expertise: Proven experience using Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, or equivalent for pipeline management, reporting, and territory planning.
  • Sales Process & Methodologies: Strong command of MEDDIC, Challenger Sale, SPIN, or other qualification and sales methodologies to manage complex B2B deals.
  • Forecasting & Analytics: Ability to build accurate revenue forecasts, analyze pipeline metrics (ACV, ARR, CAC, LTV), and present actionable insights to leadership.
  • Negotiation & Contracting: Experience negotiating multi-stakeholder deals, drafting commercial terms, and working with legal to close contracts.
  • Enterprise B2B Sales: Demonstrated success selling to mid-market and enterprise accounts with long sales cycles and multiple decision-makers.
  • Lead Generation & Prospecting Tools: Familiarity with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach, SalesLoft, ZoomInfo, or similar tools for outbound prospecting.
  • Channel & Partner Management: Experience building reseller, referral, or strategic partner programs and creating partner enablement materials.
  • Presentation & Demo Skills: Capable of creating executive-level presentations and conducting technical or ROI-focused product demonstrations.
  • Pricing Strategy & Margin Management: Ability to develop pricing models and manage discounting while protecting gross margin targets.
  • Contract & SLA Management: Knowledge of standard commercial contract elements, SLAs, and compliance considerations for enterprise deals.
  • Marketing Alignment & Demand Gen: Ability to coordinate with marketing on campaign execution, content creation, and lead qualification criteria.
  • Basic Financial Acumen: Comfortable with ARR/ACV math, ROI calculations, and building business cases that support purchase decisions.

Soft Skills

  • Consultative Selling: Empathetic, customer-first approach to understand business problems and recommend tailored solutions.
  • Strategic Thinking: Ability to define long-term account strategies and translate them into tactical plans that drive measurable results.
  • Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for multi-stakeholder engagement and executive presentations.
  • Relationship Building: Proven ability to build credibility with C-level executives, technical buyers, and cross-functional teams.
  • Resilience & Persistence: Tenacity to work long cycles, manage objections, and recover quickly from setbacks.
  • Collaboration: Strong cross-functional collaboration skills to align product, marketing, finance, and customer success around deal objectives.
  • Time & Priority Management: Effective at managing competing priorities, territories, and pipeline activities to maximize revenue impact.
  • Problem Solving: Analytical mindset to diagnose client issues, propose strategic solutions, and escalate when necessary.
  • Coaching & Leadership: Experience mentoring peers and influencing without direct authority to improve team performance.
  • Cultural Fit & Integrity: High ethical standards, transparency in deal reporting, and commitment to long-term relationships.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • MBA or advanced degree in business, sales, or a related discipline for senior or strategic roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Engineering (for technical product sales)
  • Computer Science (for SaaS/technology-focused roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5–10 years in sales or business development, with at least 2–3 years managing strategic accounts or running full sales cycles.

Preferred:

  • 7+ years of progressive B2B sales or business development experience with documented quota achievement, experience with enterprise accounts, and proven success in closing multi-stakeholder deals.
  • Experience in industry verticals such as SaaS, fintech, enterprise software, healthcare, manufacturing, or technology is a plus.
  • Prior experience managing channel/partner relationships or leading small sales teams is highly desirable.
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