WHAT IS A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE?
Updated: Jun 22, 2025 - The Business Development Executive (BDE) works collaboratively with marketing leadership, field sales, and account teams to identify, engage, educate, and create demand with key buying groups at target accounts. Their primary goal is to advance inbound leads or newly uncovered contacts to qualified status, based on criteria with a foundation in BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs, Timeline) and schedule in-person meetings for their sales partners to generate new opportunities.
Need-to-Know Overview of a Business Development Executive
1. Functions for Business Development Executive
- Develop and execute a territory lead generation and account engagement strategy, in partnership with Account Executives, to exceed performance metrics and financial goals.
- Prospect through outbound channels including telephone, email, and LinkedIn to achieve monthly scheduled meeting quota.
- Qualify inbound leads resulting from demand generation programs, web inquiries, referrals and events.
- Research and record key buying groups at target accounts, and add persona values to contacts within those groups
- Support marketing campaigns and thought leadership efforts by conducting one-to-one personalized outreach to key personas at target accounts, driving engagement and demand
- Develop effective messaging around Verint’s XM solutions and thought leadership that creates awareness and gains interest and engagement from key buyers
- Partner with Account Executives to nurture opportunities through the sales cycle.
- Maintain effective relationships with established customers and develop strategies to maximize services depth and revenue opportunities.
- Provide routine updates to Salesforce.com with account activity and status.
2. Requirements for Business Development Executive
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in business
- 3 years experience in Inside Sales or like function
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, specifically MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Ability to articulate business value aligned to a prospect’s critical business issues
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
- Positive attitude and demonstrated ability to deal with rejection
- Successful completion of a background screening process including, but not limited to, employment verifications, criminal search, OFAC, SS Verification, as well as credit and drug screening, where applicable and in accordance with federal and local regulations
- Practical experience using salesforce.com
- Practical experience using a sales automation platform like Outreach or SalesLoft
- Familiarity with prospecting technology tools including ZoomInfo/DiscoverOrg and LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Experience in the software as a service (SaaS) or internet technology industry
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