WHAT DOES A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DO?
Published: May 22, 2025 - The Business Development Manager (BDM) defines and executes commercial strategies in alignment with leadership teams to drive revenue growth and market expansion. This role manages sales operations, identifies cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and nurtures strategic customer relationships while building a consistent new business pipeline. The manager also requires up-to-date knowledge of digital marketing trends and video solutions to effectively consult clients and ensure sustained business development success.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Business Development Manager
1. BDM Duties
- Client Acquisition: Drive the development of new client relationships through effective daily planning, prospecting, cold calling and appointment setting
- Sales Performance: Meet weekly sales metrics that will lead to annual personal sales and gross profit objectives
- Lead Qualification: Pursue companies that fit the Advanced Resources ideal client profile
- Needs Assessment: Collaborate with client contacts to understand current and future staffing needs
- Brand Representation: Represent Advanced Resources as the most respected staffing firm in our industry
- Stakeholder Interaction: Interact with clients, consultants, and vendors regularly
- Expectation Management: Continually clarify client expectations and establish goals for advancing client partnerships
- Referral Development: Expand business relationships within each client via referrals to new departments, and exceed client expectations to the degree that clients refer us to new companies
- Relationship Building: Fosters positive relationships to encourage increased sales, proactively markets consultants to clients and works proactively with clients to pull orders
- Account Management: Manage accounts and continually seek new business
- Team Collaboration: Work with internal staffing operations so that recruiting activities complement sales activity
- Internal Communication: Build team relationships with staffing teams and communicate frequently on open orders and upcoming client needs
- Revenue Alignment: Work with the staffing team toward meeting overall division revenue and GP goals
- Client Communication: Interact with clients, consultants, and vendors regularly
- Information Comprehension: Comprehend written sources of information (read reports, reference materials) as well as verbal sources of information
- Regulatory Understanding: Read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations
- Effective Communication: Communicate effectively and clearly in writing and orally, both in one-on-one and in-group presentation situations
- Cross-Level Communication: Interact and communicate with all levels of staff
- Numerical Reasoning: Calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, percentages, and volume
2. Business Development Manager Details
- Account Management: Develop and maintain branch accounts
- Client Prospecting: Canvass for new clientele via outside sales activity
- Relationship Cultivation: Cultivate existing client relationships to increase candidate placement
- Solution Selling: Sell staffing solutions to prospective clients
- Action Planning: Effectively create a daily call/action plan to meet activity expectations
- Data Accuracy: Maintain accurate current and potential client profiles
- Team Communication: Share information daily with team members
- Market Awareness: Retain current competitor/market knowledge
- Salary Monitoring: Monitor the candidate pool relating to competitive salaries in the local market
- Core Values: Uphold core values and beliefs that include team spirit, customer focus, responsibility, and entrepreneurship
3. Business Development Manager (BDM) Responsibilities
- Trend Analysis: Understand industry trends to support targeted growth strategy
- Supplier Identification: Identify potential Suppliers by collaborating with Merchant Group and Analytics, attending trade shows, etc.
- Sourcing Strategy: Implement strategic sourcing plans with each Buying Group built around assortment needs
- Supplier Qualification: Qualify targeted suppliers' sales, operational potential, and potential risks
- Supplier Engagement: Engage and follow up with potential Suppliers to move them through the acquisition process including onboarding
- Pipeline Management: Document and maintain an acquisition pipeline of qualified Suppliers at each stage of the process
- Marketing Collateral: Assist in creating acquisition marketing collateral including pitch decks
- Sales Toolkit Development: Continually research and expand the sales toolkit specific to each category
4. Business Development Manager Job Summary
- Customer Insight: Understand in depth the customers’ business, identify their needs and provide a solution that will add value to their business
- Product Demonstration: Service prospects with quotes, engage in product demonstrations and provide sample products
- Sales Conversion: Maintain a high lead-to-sales conversion rate
- Sales Reporting: Reporting and internal administration to include CRM activity log, monthly reports to management, order administration, creating NB analysis and preparing proposals
- Customer Nurturing: Continue to provide value to prospects to bring them on as customers and identify risks and opportunities
- Competitive Intelligence: Gather a strong working knowledge of competitive intelligence
- Market Knowledge: Develop the company’s product, technical and alternative investment market knowledge
- Strategy Planning: Develop and deliver to management quarterly territory strategy plans
- Team Collaboration: Collaborate with colleagues and internal departments to achieve goals
5. Business Development Manager Accountabilities
- Account Acquisition: Identify, research, qualify, pursue, sign and transition medium and large-sized plant maintenance manufacturing accounts
- Value Proposition: Develop value-based proposals and other offers to communicate the value, quality, and strengthen the relationship of prospects and existing customers
- Contract Negotiation: Coordinate, develop, propose, and secure agreements with prospective organizations by contacting the appropriate management and decision-makers
- Revenue Optimization: Work with financing and negotiate pricing and terms of new agreements to maximize revenue and profits and minimize risk
- Agreement Implementation: Ensure all agreements are rapidly implemented, communicated across the sales team, and supporting functions are completely trained
- Sales Communication: Communicate with the sales team and customer support staff on travel plans, customer needs/expectations, forecasted sales, and addressing shortfalls
- Market Insight: Understand the Market Dynamics and customers' goals for a proactive approach to maximize their growth in Plant Maintenance MRO Product sales
6. Business Development Manager Functions
- Team Motivation: Bring a high level of energy and a positive attitude that embodies core values and keeps the team of BDRs engaged and motivated
- Talent Development: Hire and onboard new BDRs while providing ongoing coaching, training and development to the team
- Performance Management: Manage and support individual BDRs, ensuring each is fully prepared and focused on achieving their pipeline goals
- Process Implementation: Develop and implement processes and regimen to help BDRs hit their weekly, monthly, and quarterly objectives
- Performance Forecasting: Forecast monthly and quarterly performance metrics
- Data Analysis: Analyze performance data, understanding which actions drive desired results
- Learning Opportunity: Identify areas of opportunity for learning and development
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Develop and maintain relationships with internal teams (Sales, Marketing, Operations)
- Talent Pipeline: Lead the intern program and create a continuous talent pipeline
7. Business Development Manager Job Description
- Commercial Strategy: Own, define and execute commercial strategy in collaboration with the lead team
- Go-to-Market Planning: Contribute to Engagement Leadership to define go-to-market plans, service architecture and solution design
- Revenue Delivery: Deliver on monthly, quarterly, and yearly revenue targets
- Sales Operations: Responsible for excellence in sales operations and pipeline follow-through
- Customer Growth: Identify customer growth, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities with Drawbotics' most strategic customers
- Marketing Collaboration: Manage and work with marketing to create and execute
- Business Portfolio: Build, manage and grow a portfolio of new business for Shootsta
- Pipeline Creation: Continuously create and implement a new business pipeline
- Opportunity Generation: Generate new opportunities through networking, events and referrals
- Relationship Management: Nurture relationships and ensure outstanding customer relationships
- Video Consulting: Become a trusted consultant in all things video to clients
- Product Knowledge: Maintain accurate and up-to-date Shootsta product knowledge
- Digital Trends: Stay up to date on trends and best practices in digital marketing
- Revenue Achievement: Consistently achieve revenue growth targets
- Video Insight: Genuine interest in the role of video for businesses today, whether from a socio-economic perspective, technology evolution or its exponential growth
8. BDM Overview
- Contract Negotiation: Negotiate contracts with prospective fleet accounts to drive revenue and growth
- Lead Maximization: Maximise leads and orders from existing leasing, broker and fleet partners
- Stakeholder Networking: Network with and present to senior stakeholders (both clients and internal)
- Fleet Management: Account manage fleet accounts including monthly reporting, query resolution and leading regular monthly meetings
- Client Liaison: Act as the liaison between fleets and internal teams, ensuring clients’ needs are met
- Fleet Expertise: Become a subject matter expert for Fleet within Pod Point
- Sales Innovation: Stay up-to-date with internal and external developments, and suggest new ways to increase sales
- Performance Reporting: Report directly to the Head of Automotive on forecasting, growth and necessary channel performance
9. Business Development Manager Details and Accountabilities
- Market Development: Develop the market, find opportunities and drive business
- Account Planning: Develop an account plan to focus on client acquisition and meeting revenue targets within the industry
- Client Understanding: Understand the client, business development and business approaches
- Strategy Input: Provide inputs to the quarterly, half-yearly and annual strategy plan with the targeted hunting revenue numbers
- Brand Leveraging: Leverage Aus Newtech's branding and marketing activities such as round table sessions, networking events etc.
- Thought Leadership: Develop business white paper analysis, case studies, proofs of concept and other thought leadership to present Aus Newtech's differentiated offerings
- Client Engagement: Conduct presentations, executive meetings, and workshops at the client organization to shape their thinking and initiate buying
- Solution Structuring: Work closely with the pre-sales team and the CEO to structure the solution and the deals
- Client Interaction: Interact with the client to keep them engaged in the development of the solution and the deal
- Commercial Negotiation: Lead negotiations on commercial terms to ensure revenue flow and profitability
10. Business Development Manager Tasks
- Channel Management: Manage business development and operations for one or many YouTube Channels
- Opportunity Identification: Focus on uncovering new business opportunities and driving revenue
- Market Research: Research and understand the competitive landscape on YouTube
- Growth Strategy: Strategize for the channel's optimal viewership and engagement growth
- Team Leadership: Use a collaborative management style to motivate, develop and train the team
- Process Implementation: Implement processes that ensure efficiency
- Audience Analysis: Analyze day-to-day channel audience behaviour
- Progress Reporting: Report growth progress to the Unit Manager every week
- Networking Events: Attend appropriate external functions and events with referral partners
- Client Engagement: Face-to-face client meetings, presentations and follow-up
- Cold Calling: Regular cold calling to generate appointments, in line with team targets
- Product Demonstration: Perform phone-based demonstrations of the corporate offering and online platform
- Pipeline Management: Undertake accurate and timely administrative tasks associated with managing own sales pipeline
- Client Onboarding: Collect necessary documentation from prospective clients and follow internal compliance processes
- Sales Participation: Attend and actively participate in weekly sales meetings
- Team Collaboration: Actively collaborate with colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of OFX's strategic, business and operational plans
- Brand Promotion: Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of OFX at all times, including the promotion of OFX values