Business development manager

Business development managers help the company grow by bringing in new customers or new business lines.

It is a sales role that often entails calling potential customers, having client meetings and turning potential customers into sales. It can, however, also be a more strategic role that entails analyzing the market and developing business plans to gain new revenue streams for the company.

What does a Business development manager do?

• Call or e-mail potential customers to generate sales leads
  
  
• Develop and nurture relationships to asses client’s needs and the company’s ability to meet those needs
  
  
• Negotiate sales and make contract
  
  
• Organize and participate in conferences
  
  
• Identify market opportunities for developing new growth initiatives
  
  
• Drive market feedback back into the organization 
  
  

Example of work as a Business development manager

A tech start-up just hired their first dedicated sales person – a business development manager.

The first big task is to understand the software.

Meanwhile he finds contact information for employees in charge of purchasing such software.

He then starts calling.

Or e-mailing if there is no phone number available.

He meets with interested customers and gets to know more about the customer’s needs and explains how the software can meet those needs.

Many sales leads ask for a specific feature the software do not have.

He feeds this information back to product development and develop a business plan for how this feature can be commercialized.

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