Business development is one of those careers with a very vague term. Unless you are a part of this field, the majority of people are totally oblivious to this term. Business development representatives are the unsung heroes of the sales industry.
In fact, they are some of the most influential people when it comes to the future of a company. Therefore, it is high time we learn about what it is.
In this blog, we will be discussing business development representatives, responsibilities, required skills for this role, and salary expectations.
30-Second Summary
Ready to start your career in business development? In this blog, learn about the role of a Business Development Representative, its core responsibilities, skills, career path, and salary. Moreover, explore keywords for your resume and interview questions to prepare for this role.
What is Business Development?
Before moving forward, let’s make our concepts clear about business development. This field encompasses identifying and utilizing opportunities to help a business grow. It has a broad definition because business development deals with a wide range of disciplines.
BD intertwines with almost every business department. For example, it can be associated with sales growth, business expansion, converting high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and boosting profitability.
In short, business development is an organization-wide initiative, and every department has to be aligned and on board for this initiative to be successful.
What is a BDR (Business Development Representative)?
Business development representatives generate new opportunities for your business. They basically create long-term value for an organization through qualified leads and lucrative ventures.
BDRs contact potential customers through cold calling or emails. They schedule meetings with a salesperson and have to report to the BD manager. The progress is tracked by the meetings they schedule and the customers they recruit.
A BDR also participates in other roles to grow a business, such as finding new strategies to improve inventory practices.
What does Business Development Representative do?
The work of BDRs revolves around finding new opportunities for the business to expand and scale. However, they do not close deals. Their task is to identify and reach qualified leads and present them to a salesperson who closes the deal through creating and signing contracts.
The typical duties of a BDR are
- Researching competitors, market trends, customer behavior, and product development
- Analyzing demographics of the target audience to generate leads
- Creating lists of potential leads with their contact information
- Cold calling prospects
- Developing and implementing email campaigns to generate leads
- Collaborating with sales teams for increased conversions
- Networking through professional events
- Managing an organization’s inventory by finding new vendors
Difference between BDR and SDR
Many people think that a business development representative and a sales development representative are the same roles. However, there is a difference.
SDRs mostly focus on inbound leads generated through marketing. On the other hand, BDRs focus on outbound prospecting to create new business opportunities and foster long-term relationships.
Take a look at the clear breakdown of business development vs sales representative roles.
SDR
Focus: Inbound leads generated through marketing efforts.
Activities: Follow up on leads from webinars, forms, and other marketing methods, and qualify and nurture them to move further in the sales pipeline.
Objectives: To engage with consumers who are interested in the service and prepare them for an initial sales conversation.
BDR
Focus: Outbound prospecting to create new business opportunities.
Activities: Engaging with prospects through cold calling, emailing, and social media who may not be familiar with the company.
Objectives: To find new business connections and nurture relationships for long-term opportunities.
Business Development Representative Skills
Let’s look at the hard and soft skills of a BDR.
Soft Skills
Creativity: Your prospect probably has an inbox full of emails and calls. To set yourself apart, you need to think outside the box.
Communication: When someone picks up the call or opens your email, your communication skills need to win them over. You should have strong communication skills across all channels, including calls, emails, and social media.
Research: You need to identify prospects and find their contact information and other details. Find ways to make the connection personal, such as through a mutual connection, alma mater, or a common place you both visited.
Resilience: It is common to face rejection in this role. You need to cope with the hard part of the job to find the strength to call the next prospect. Learning new strategies and finding like-minded people helps with developing coping skills.
Hard Skills
- Knowledge of basic sales and marketing software
- A bachelor’s degree in business, communications, or a relevant industry.
- 1 to 3 years of experience in the sales department
A BDR should have an understanding of the following areas.
- Using CRM and other tools
- Current market growth predictions
- Competitor’s growth plan
- Customers’ profiles and personas
- Long-term goals for the company
- How to qualify leads
This shows that a BDR does not have a specific set of skills. They just need to be intelligent, curious, and have a passion for learning new things.
Role of a BDR in the Sales Process
BDRs are generally the first human contact from the company. They play a crucial role in creating the first impression.
Their contributions include
- Serving as the entry point of the sales funnel
- Taking out unqualified leads to save the time of the sales executive
- Creating a pipeline of qualified prospects
- Warming up leads and shortening sales cycles
- Growing revenue by constantly providing new opportunities to the company
Business Development Representative Career Path
BDR is an entry-level position. The career progression looks like this:
- Business development representative: entry-level role
- Sales development representative or Account executive: handles more advanced sales conversations.
- Business Development Manager or Sales Manager: leads teams and strategies for business growth.
- Director or VP of Sales: oversees vast sales operations.
Business Development Representative Salary
A BDR’s salary is basically a combination of two things: a base salary and performance-based incentives. It means that they get paid not only for showing up to work but also for the results they provide to the company.
Average Salary Range
Entry-level: The typical salary range is $35,000 to $50,000 annually. These positions also have training programs for recent graduates and career switchers.
Mid-level: When you have experience of 1 to 3 years, the salary ranges from $50,000 to $65,000.
Experienced: People with several years of experience can get $70,000 or more, particularly in high-growth industries, such as software and technology.
Commissions and Bonuses
In addition to base pay, BDRs also get paid for meeting and exceeding their targets.
Per-meeting bonuses: They get paid for every qualified appointment they schedule.
Pipeline bonuses: These are the rewards for adding a certain number of leads to the sales funnel.
Performance bonuses: These are the extra payouts for surpassing monthly and quarterly quotas.
Factors Affecting Compensation
Industry: Fields such as Tech, SaaS, and finance offer higher salary packages than other industries, like retail and manufacturing.
Location: Salaries in major business hubs, such as New York, London, and San Francisco, are higher. Remote BDR positions get standardized pay.
Company Size: Larger organizations have a bigger salary budget. They often provide better base pay, stronger commissions, and more structured career growth.
Experience and Skills: BDRs with more experience, skills, and familiarity with tools (like Salesforce, Hubspot, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator) can demand higher salaries.
Non-Monetary Compensation
Apart from salaries, many companies offer non-monetary perks to BDRs.
Some of them include
- Health insurance
- Retirement plans
- Paid training and career development courses
- Hybrid or remote work options
- Travel allowances in the field-based BDR role
- Promotion to an account executive or managerial position
How to become a Business Development Representative?
Follow the given steps to become a BDR.
Get a Bachelor’s Degree
Most companies need candidates to have a bachelor’s degree in communications, business, or other related fields.
While doing your degree, you can also consider doing some courses, such as public speaking, business management, professional communications, research methodology, and marketing.
Do an Internship
You can also apply for internships during your degree to gain professional experience. A business internship will be excellent to equip you with the knowledge and skills important for your future career.
You can consult your academic advisor or career center at your school to see if they can find you a suitable internship.
Develop Technical Skills
If you want to pursue your career in BD, it is wise to develop technical skills you may use in this role. You can also become a Certified Business Development Manager by taking classes and exams from the American Institute for Business Management and Communication.
Some other technical skills you need are
- Cold calling
- Market research and data analysis
- Marketing software
- Product knowledge
- Business communications
- Appointment scheduling
Gain Valuable Experience
After getting your bachelor’s degree and building relevant skills, you can start applying to entry-level positions. You can also start as a sales development representative and switch to business development after gaining valuable experience.
Business Development Rep Job Description
Here is a sample of a BDR job description. You can get an idea of what companies look for in this role.
Job Title: Business Development Representative
Overview
We are on the lookout for a passionate Business Development Representative who will work with and support our sales team. This role involves bringing in new business opportunities, identifying prospects, engaging potential clients, and qualifying leads for sales conversions.
Responsibilities
- Identify new business opportunities.
- Conduct outreach through calls, emails, and social media.
- Qualify leads and schedule meetings for the Account Executive.
- Maintain accurate records in CRM systems.
- Meet and exceed quota goals.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills
- Strong organizational skills
- Resilience and goal-oriented
- Familiarity with CRMs and sales tools is a plus.
What We Offer
- Market-competitive salary with commission
- Training and career growth opportunities
- A clear path to senior positions
Business Development Representative Resume Keywords
Due to tough competition, it is necessary that your resume stands out, not only to recruiters but also to the Application Tracking System (ATS). This system scans for specific keywords to match with the job description.
Below are some strong keywords you should add to your resume.
Core Responsibilities
- Outbound sales
- Cold calling
- Prospecting
- Lead generation
- Sales pipeline management
- Opportunity identification
Skills and Tools
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Negotiation
- Email campaigns
- Communication skills
Industry and Strategy
- Market research
- B2B sales
- Competitive analysis
- SaaS sales
- B2B sales
- Sales strategy
Achievement and Performance
- KPI achievement
- Exceeded quota
- Pipeline development
- Revenue growth
- Business growth
- Account development
Additional Tip: Do not list these keywords; instead, incorporate them naturally in your achievements and work experience. In this way, you can show the impact and satisfy both ATS and the recruiter. For instance
- Consistently exceeded quota by 20% through cold calling, email campaigns, and lead qualification.
- Generated $1M in pipeline through Salesforce and LinkedIn Sales Navigator for outbound prospecting.
Business Development Representative Interview Questions
An interview for the position of BDR is all about showing your communication skills, understanding of the sales process, and resilience.
The company wants to know how you generate leads, handle rejection, and contribute to its growth.
Let’s see some important questions for the BDR interview.
General Questions
- Can you tell me about yourself?
- Why are you interested in this role?
- What do you know about our company and its services?
- How do you define the role of Business Development Representative?
Skills and Experience
- Can you describe a time when you successfully generated a lead?
- How do you research and identify prospects?
- What tools have you used in your previous role?
Situational and Behavioral Questions
- What is your approach to handling rejection?
- Describe a situation when you exceeded your quota.
Sales Process and Strategy
- Can you tell how a BDR contributes to a company’s overall growth?
- How do you prioritize which prospects to reach out to first?
- What is your approach to qualifying leads?
Culture and Growth
- What are your strategies to stay motivated in a high-pressure work environment?
- What made you think that you are ideal for this role?
- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Additional Tip: Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method when you are preparing for these questions. In this way, you will be able to show the situation you were in, the action you took, and the resulting impact of it.
The Bottom Line
A Business Development Representative is crucial for a company. This role drives conversions by connecting with potential clients through cold calling, identifying new opportunities, and providing businesses with more growth and expansion.
If you are looking to start your career in sales, BDR is an ideal role. It will act as a stepping stone and can take you to higher positions as well.
Interested in more information like this? Explore the Modern Business Guide to stay updated on all business-related updates.
FAQs
What does a Business Development Representative do?
A Business Development Representative (BDR) identifies and connects with potential clients and qualifies leads. This role is also responsible for connecting leads with Account Executives or Sales Representatives to close deals. The main focus of BDR is prospecting and building a sales pipeline.
Is BDR the same as Sales Development Representative (SDR)?
No, these roles are not exactly the same. BDRs focus on outbound lead generation while SDRs deal with inbound leads that come through marketing.
How can you become a BDR?
Firstly, you need a bachelor’s degree in communications, business, or a related field. You can also do internships and get technical certifications alongside your degree to showcase your skillset. Moreover, you need to work on your communication skills and resilience.
What Tools do BDRs Use?
BDRs mostly use Salesforce, Hubspot, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Is BDR a Stressful Job?
This role can be stressful as BDRs handle multiple things, such as cold calling, emails, tight deadlines, and meeting quotas and sales goals. They also face rejection and have to maintain motivation. This is why resilience and problem-solving are two crucial qualities every aspiring BDR should have.
How do BDRs use Social Media?
BDRs use social media to identify and engage with potential leads. They use various social platforms to share relevant content, send personalized messages, and establish credibility. In this way, they warm up leads and create stronger connections for sales.
