What is a Business Development Manager?
A business development manager or director is usually tasked with winning new clients for the organisation they are employed by. Business development managers are instrumental to a company’s growth and whilst the role can vary, most companies seeking to recruit them have a framework in mind.
Business development roles typically require the following skills:
- The ability to identify and develop new business opportunities.
- The experience to scope out opportunities for new products you can provide, feeding information back into your NPD team.
- The ability to build key contacts with prospective clients via consultative methods.
- The ability to explore and exploit all lead generation avenues.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
- Extensive industry knowledge in their particular sector.
- Demonstrable experience in closing and negotiating deals.
Depending on the size and complexity of the company, there can be several roles within a business development team. These range from a Junior Business Development Executive who will look after admin and support tasks, up to Business Development Director level, with responsibility for strategy and setting targets. A Business Development Manager is a common role within a company, and this individual usually works independently covering either a specific brand or a particular group of products. Often the roles require a deep technical understanding of a product area, and they can use this knowledge to build confidence of their products within their target customers.
Skills for Business Development roles
Business Development roles typically suit candidates who are results and targets driven. The ideal person for this type of role should be:
- Self-starter, and highly motivated.
- Positive, with an unwavering enthusiasm and energy.
- Happy working independently and being out in the field and with clients in person where required.
Recruiting for Business Development roles
Recruitment for business development roles is one of our core areas of expertise. We understand exactly what candidates’ motivations are, and what drives them to succeed in this type of sales role. What they sometimes lack in academic qualifications they usually more than make up for in communication and negotiation skills. Often, having customer service skills is an advantage for potential Business Development candidates, as this allows them to retain clients, and turn issues into opportunity.
These roles are often filled on a candidate’s personality, attitude, and demonstrable previous performance, coupled where necessary with a very specific skillset and understand of a key field. We fill these roles through pro-active methods, targeting your competitors initially as the best people are recruited very quickly when in the open market. So, if you are looking for a recruitment agency that understands what will attract the very best Business Development Managers, Directors & Executives to your organisation, give us a call for a confidential discussion.