How To Be A Successful Business Development Manager

 
Business Development Managers (BDM) are one of the lynchpins of corporate success. It is their responsibility to grow business opportunities, chiefly by using sales and marketing strategies and by employing teams to pursue leads and convert prospects.

But exactly, what is a Business Development Manager and what skills do you need to become a successful one?

Let’s take a closer look.

Contents

• What is a BDM?
• Business Development Manager Skills
• 18 Business Development Ideas and Tips
• The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful Business Development Managers

 

What is a BDM?

Business Development Managers have several main roles:

• To develop new leads and prospects for sales teams.
• To identify new market opportunities.
• To nurture key client relationships for revenue maximization.
• To be the point of contact between senior executives and sales and marketing reps.
• To be fully knowledgeable about products and services.
• To forecast sales revenues and improve them.

Although such roles don’t always have any specific degree requirements, BDMs sometimes have marketing, business or sales qualifications. Alternatively, they may have risen through the ranks of marketing and sales divisions, having begun in sales rep or marketing assistant roles, before being identified as having what it takes to become a successful BDM.

A BDM must have fantastic people skills which range from finding, prospecting, and qualifying new business through to liaising with senior stakeholders and valued clients to create new opportunities if that’s part of their role.

However, the most essential aspect of their work is feeding the sales and marketing division with new leads and prospects or for themselves. Some BDM’s are hunters for their own pipeline.

Sales Planning and Predicting the Future

While nobody would expect a Business Development Manager to have a crystal ball for seeing into the future, they ought to be able to accurately predict the coming quarter’s revenue, based upon past performance and observed trends.

If you want to know how to do this then please check out our blog How To Create A Sales Plan.

Fortunately, although crystal balls are ineffective, there are a host of software tools at BDMs’ disposal to assist in the process of revenue prediction. These include business intelligence systems, customer sentiment analysis, competitor intelligence gathering and churn reduction methods using AI to spot trends which indicate the risk of customer attrition.

That said, an experienced BDM will, as often as not, develop a gut instinct for how well a particular sales funnel is performing, and what to do when it isn’t working.

Strategy is Key

The managerial side of a BDM role can be misleading. A BDM does not normally manage anyone other than themselves. Rather than taking a purely supervisory role over a sales team, the business development part of a BDM’s job requires them to think more strategically.

After all, it’s all about protecting and generating revenue. There are several ways to do this, including:

• Maintaining relationships with key clients and upselling.
• Developing strategic partnerships with affiliated businesses.
• Seeking out new markets in which to introduce the brand.
• Figuring out new conversion strategies including deals, sweeteners, and pricing.
• Generating new ideas to motivate sales and marketing teams.
• Developing new ideas for products and services to expand current offerings.

Although not all BDM job descriptions will range as widely as the above list might imply, it’s a challenging role which can involve creativity, problem solving and interpersonal skills. The role of a BDM needs to be clearly defined from the outset and then a sales strategy should be created around it.

Let’s look next at the ideal BDM skillset in more detail.

 

Business Development Manager Skills

Here’s a wish-list of the skills that a perfect BDM might possess:

1. Communication. So much of a BDM’s role revolves around liaison and persuasion, that this must be considered the most desirable skill. From cold calling through to negotiation skills, the BDM needs to be a first rate communicator.
2. Organisation. There are a lot of tasks to juggle in a BDM’s day, with many different deadlines and stakeholders. Having strong organisational and prioritisation abilities are key.
3. Self-Motivation. Although BDMs do have bosses, they are expected to be highly self-sufficient in terms of setting their own sales targets and priorities. BDMs who tie their assessment of their own performance in with revenue and opportunity generation are the likeliest to succeed.
4. Process, Product and Service Knowledge. In a sense, a BDM is a walking product bible. You’ll be expected to have a thorough grounding in the company’s products and services, as well as how its key departments function.
5. Technical Skills. BDMs should be able to use all the software tools, particularly your CRM, as well as key analytic and organisational tools which help keep the company head and shoulders over its competitors. Being au fait with the tech stack is a given. These skills can, of course, be built up over time.
6. Contacts. This isn’t really a skill, but a lot of companies hiring BDMs from outside will expect them to have built up a portfolio of industry contacts to source for new leads or opportunities. While this may be an unrealistic expectation, it’s a definite plus is you fit the bill.

Some of these skills and qualities will be learnt or improved on the job, but others are a prerequisite to being hired in the first place. Certainly, the first three items on the list above are mandatory, while numbers four and five may need to be renewed for each new workplace.

Building upon these skills with specialist Sales Training Provider can help to fill a vital knowledge gap.