What is a Business Development manager?
Business Development Managers assess current sales performance and identify opportunities to expand and grow a company. They are the backbone of any successful business since they bring in new income and help companies increase revenue.
Their primary goal is to identify new business prospects. As a Business Development Manager, you will be looking for new market opportunities, new alliances, and alternative ways to reach the existing market. You will also explore new products/services that better fit the present market while taking advantage of these opportunities to boost revenue.
Your role as a Business Development Manager is to supply firms with new ideas and initiatives with the goal of improving overall business prospects and driving the operation of various business units. It is not about selling, marketing, or collaborating individually. Instead, your role is to observe your company and its many divisions as an ecosystem. This lucrative vocation with excellent professional advancement possibilities is ideal for individuals who are self-driven, goal-oriented, and motivated by commission.
Responsibilities
Though responsibilities and duties of a Business Development Manager vary, depending on the sector, location, company and experience, your duties will include a combination of the following:
- Generate leads, and cold-call targeted customers.
- Create opportunities in the target market with the help of marketing.
- Create and nurture relationships with primary customer accounts.
- Attending face-to-face meetings with the clients.
- Training members of your team, arranging external training as needed.
- Ensure alignment with other departments
- Offering specialist advice on the products or services you are selling.
- Wherever possible, attend seminars, conferences, and events.
- Follow up on trends and changes in the business world. For example performing SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)
- Working strategically in order to implement operational changes
If your work in business development is more sales-oriented, you may also need to:
- Create a sales pipeline
- Negotiate pricing with customers and suppliers
- Assist in the planning of sales campaigns
- Enhance business sales
- Conduct sales forecasting and analysis
- Work with clear sales target
Salary
Business Development Managers salary is determined by experience, location, size, and type of business. According to National Career Service UK, wages for Business Development Managers in the United Kingdom range from £25,000 to £60,000, depending on skill set, region, company and experience.
London is a thriving business hub. The UK capital is home to 40% of the European Headquarters of the world’s top companies, more than any other European city. London excels in a variety of areas, including technology, finance, life sciences, and creative, and it is the ideal location to take advantage of the fascinating intersection of these fields. In fact, just over a third of all UK businesses are in London or South East UK. In addition to your salary, bonuses are common, and they can be quite lucrative, sometimes matching your annual pay. Another benefit for a Business Development Manager is the commission. A sales commission is the percentage of the value of a sale you earn after you close an opportunity. Commission can be capped (have a predefined maxim amount) or it can be uncapped.
Other perks may include a pension, health-care plan, and a corporate car.
Working hours and work location
The majority of Business Development Managers work full-time, Monday through Friday, between 36 and 40 hours per week. Their work environment varies. Some Business Development Managers work in offices, while others work entirely from home or alternate between the two. In recent years, this hybrid way of working – office/homework – has become increasingly popular. Experts in this sector frequently travel for conferences, conventions, and client meetings.
Qualifications
A bachelor’s degree in business related studies is not a must-have for this position. As a Business Development Managers you can rise through the ranks of a company by earning experience in sales or marketing and completing on-the-job training. However, a BA in International business can benefit you – particularly in making you more competitive on the job market. In general, there are several ways to qualify as a Business Development Manager, these are:
- A university course
- An apprenticeship
- A college course
- Applying directly
- Graduate training
Let’s have a look at each of these five ways individually.
Entry level positions for Business Development Managers are open to all University graduates. However, a degree in relevant subjects will expedite your climb on the company ladder.
These degrees include:
- Business management
- International business
- Finance
- Accounting
- Economics
- Computing
- International relations
Apprenticeships are another option to go into Business Development Management.
They’re a fantastic way for graduates to acquire the best of both worlds: work experience and education.
Apprenticeships are also appealing to employers as they are partly funded by the UK government.
There are several apprenticeships that run at any given time. For more information check out the UK Gov Higher and Degree Apprenticeships website.
You can also find business development specific apprenticeships on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education website. And, if you need a helping hand with finding the right placement, there are a lot of training providers out there that can give you advice on what would fit best with your level of education and experience.
As previously mentioned, a degree in International Business or a similar area is highly beneficial, but even those without a formal business degree can work in Business Development.
People frequently start working in Business Development immediately after University and work their way up the company ladder to a more senior position. You may, for example, begin at a junior position and work your way up through promotions. However, advancement when starting at a low entry level employment may take longer than it does for those with a business related degree.
Another way to speed up your promotion is to participate in professional training. Work-based training courses are an excellent method to develop your abilities and advance your career. Some employers will also pay for you to do the training. Companies love to develop talent, so if you’re good at what you do, you’ll have no trouble convincing them to let you start a fully compensated work-based course.Check out the UK Governments Skills For Life campaign for a range of courses that could help you move up in the company.
There are no official admission criteria for becoming a business development manager, so you can apply to companies directly.
Employers may request:
- GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C) in mathematics, English and IT
- sales, marketing or business management experience
- a degree in any subject
Some companies and organisations provide graduate training programs.To apply, you must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Skills
Business Development Managers need to have various hard skills and soft skills. Some examples include:
must have skills:
- Advanced communication skills
- Organisational skills
- Time-management skills
- Computer skills
- Collaboration Skills
- Negotiation & Persuasion skills
- Project Management skills
- Research & Strategy skills
- Business Intelligence
- Ability to work independently
You may already possess some of these skills, which puts you in a better position from the get-go. Others can be learned on the job or through training.
Work experience
As a business development manager you could be working for a number of industries. In general, Business Development is divided based on the audience you will be selling to. Specifically:
Business-to-business refers to transactions that take place between businesses rather than between businesses and individual customers. If you are working in the B2B sector your job will be to sell to companies.
Business-to-consumer refers to the process of businesses selling products and services directly to consumers, without the need of a middleman. As a B2C business manager you will be selling products or services directly to individual customers.
Business to government refers to the process of selling goods and services that are sold and marketed to federal, state, and local government agencies. Business development managers working in the B2G sector generate revenue that comes from the public sector.
Career prospects
What Jobs Can You Do with an International Business Degree?, is one of the most important questions to ask yourself when deciding to pursue a career in Business Development. Although business development can be applied to practically any type of company, you may choose to focus on a specific industry, such as:
- Technology
- Human Resources
- Personalised Health And Nutrition
- Life Sciences And Biotech
- Decision Intelligence
- Construction
- Manufacturing
- Finance
- Education
- Healthcare
- Telecommunications.
The typical personal development plan in the Business Development Management industry will look something like:
Business Development Manager > Business Development Specialist > Business Development Representative > Vice President of Business Development> Director of Business Development.
And, the career prospects in this field are positive, with many companies looking to hire Business Development Managers in the next year. In fact, business Managers rate first in the top 5 priority full-time hires.
Employers
As a Business Development Manager, you could get hired by some of the biggest global companies in the world. After all, every company needs sales and will have some form of business development departments you can join. Some examples of employers that are known to offer a lucrative salary, commission and bonus structure in business development are:
Related Courses
This is a full-time curriculum, delivered by University of the West of Scotland London. To accommodate their schedules, students can choose from a variety of start dates. UWS London provides their students with the opportunity to learn from industry experts and guest lecturers, as well as professionals with years of experience. The best thing about this course is that it is held at the London Campus, in the very heart of the UKs business capital.
Other related courses
- B.A. (Hons) In Economics & Management
- BSc Business Management
FAQ Summary
Business Development Managers assess current sales performance and identify opportunities to expand and grow a company. They are the backbone of any successful business since they bring in new income and help companies increase revenue.
Business Development Managers salary is determined by experience, location, size, and type of business. According to National Career Service UK, wages for Business Development Managers in the United Kingdom range from £25,000 to £60,000, depending on skill set, region, company and experience.
A bachelor’s degree in business related studies is not a must-have for this position. As a Business Development Managers you can rise through the ranks of a company by earning experience in sales or marketing and completing on-the-job training. However, a BA in International business can benefit you – particularly in making you more competitive on the job market.
