The business development specialist job description explains that candidates must value communication and be able to foster cooperation between various parties. Problem-solving ability and curiosity are expected of professionals in this position.
An individual in this position sells products or services to new customers, uses management techniques to attract potential customers, conducts focus groups to identify customer needs, uses organizational software, and schedules meetings with these potential customers.
This article will explain how to become a successful business development specialist.
What is a Business Development Specialist?
Investing in a business development specialist can help companies flourish and grow their businesses. This professional identifies ways to promote and maintain brand relevance, despite competitive pressures.
A business development specialist's responsibility is to explore new business opportunities, create business plans, and keep up with industry-specific trends. This professional typically reports to a business development manager or director. Independently and in a team, they must be capable of working together. The job requires them to sit for long periods, work overtime, and on weekends if needed.
Business Development Specialist Duties and Responsibilities
Businesses can grow by identifying new leads for expansion and developing new ways to grow. A number of responsibilities make this task possible, such as:
Market Research: The business development specialist must conduct extensive market research to understand how to position a brand in a given industry. Maintaining a close eye on competitors' product developments, marketing strategies, and emerging trends is crucial to this task.
Analysis of Business Processes: Business development specialists must analyze current business processes to recommend ways to increase revenue. They review spending habits, marketing efforts, and performance factors during this process.
Financial Management: Business development specialists analyze and reconcile financial information as well as forecast sales and profits. Cash flows, income statements, balance sheets, and ratio analysis provide information.
Customer Relationship: Business development specialists are often tasked with developing and maintaining client relationships, as sales growth is the main method of increasing revenue. They create new client presentations, conduct client interviews, work with CRM platforms, and attend networking events to assess prospective clients. Customers must be able to explain the product to them, pitch the sale, and have issues addressed promptly.
Business Development Specialist Skills
Communication and writing skills are crucial for business development specialists, and business and development knowledge and interpersonal skills to foster collaboration with colleagues and clients.
In order to qualify for a business development specialist job, you should possess these core skills:
Analytical and research skills
Creating actionable business plans
Technical computer skills
Business partner and client communication skills
Advanced skills
Business Development careers can be enhanced by adding advanced skills to your resume:
Advertising and marketing knowledge
Experience in sales
Work experience in new business development or at a start-up
Experience in manufacturing
Business development software experience
Tools You'll Need
Employers often require these tools
Tools for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, such as Microsoft Office
Email and scheduling applications, such as Outlook Personal computers
Business development and management software, such as Trello and CEO-ME.
Education and Experience
Business, marketing, or other related fields are commonly studied by professionals in this field, or in a field related to the product being sold. Master's degrees aren't required, but some specialists have them. To develop a successful business, you will need sales experience, primarily in the business sector. Customer service experience is also valuable.
Work Environment
As a candidate for this position, you can expect to spend most of your time indoors. Business development specialists spend most of their time on the phone and behind a computer. Most work weeks last longer than 40 hours, Monday through Friday, sometimes including evenings.
Customer and potential customer meetings usually require some travel. Consequently, this position often requires a valid driver's license and steady access to a vehicle. However, nowadays, most business meetings are scheduled and conducted through business development software.
Business Development Specialist Salary
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a business development specialist earns an average salary of $61,570. The top 90th percentile earns $80,000, while the bottom 10th percentile makes $35,000.
Frequently Asked Questions for Business Development Specialists
What are Some of the Responsibilities of a Business Development Specialist?
Business development specialists identify, evaluate, design, and develop plans to help organizations grow and create new products, services, and lines of business. Successful business strategies require an organization to grow, build and improve its capabilities, and business development specialists identify strategies and tactics for growth, including marketing and sales approaches.
Furthermore, business development specialists identify potential new lines of business based on market trends and competitor analysis and create business cases to justify adding new products, services or lines of business. Business development specialists may also be involved in mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, and joint ventures.
What Challenges Do Business Development Specialists Face?
Business development specialists often face challenges related to industry changes and shifts. For example, tech innovations are changing the dynamics of nearly every industry sector. As a business development specialist, you must remain aware of industry dynamics, including moves by competitors, and decide whether new opportunities are being presented, as well as new threats.
Which Skills are Most Needed for this Position?
Most of the skills used at this job are negotiating, data analysis (demographic, financial, competitor), sales, and presentations. Public relations, marketing, and legal analysis may also be required.
How Should Someone Prepare for a Career as a Business Development Specialist?
Considering regional, national, and global trends can help determine which industries offer the best opportunities for business growth. Is it possible for you to be responsible for the growth of a company's revenue? Writing, market research, financial analysis, and persuasive arguments to "sell" your new product idea are some of your favorite activities.
How Would Someone Succeed in this Position as a Business Development Specialist?
It takes a self-starter with exceptional analytical skills as well as good relationship-building and sales skills to succeed in a business development position. In this type of job, people who understand how market data impacts their business and perceive growth areas will thrive.
Which Aspect of the Job is Most Rewarding?
The most rewarding aspect of being a business development specialist is building a high-performing, interdisciplinary team of diverse individuals from across the organization. You'll be expanding or developing a new service, and seeing the results of your efforts to develop the business case, create a product, and execute a sales plan when we reach our growth targets. This success is felt by the team and throughout the organization, instilling a sense of pride and strength.
Conclusion
An Account Manager, Sales Manager, or Director can rely on you as a business development specialist for building relationships and trust. You'll be working with Account Managers to find solutions for their customers' needs and help their business books grow in the process.
A development specialist not only works with sales, but also with Product Management to grow our business numbers. Using business development software, you can bring topics to Account Managers and help them dig deeper into their customers.
As a business development specialist, staying ahead of the curve with the latest software is vital. Try out CEO-ME for free!