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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Development Associate

💰 $50,000 - $80,000

SalesBusiness DevelopmentB2BSaaS

🎯 Role Definition

The Business Development Associate is an early- to mid-career revenue driver responsible for identifying, engaging, and qualifying new business opportunities. This role combines outbound prospecting, inbound lead qualification, account research, and cross-functional coordination to build a predictable sales pipeline and help the company meet monthly and quarterly revenue targets. Strong CRM discipline, consultative selling, and data-informed prioritization are essential.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Sales Intern / Sales Development Representative (SDR)
  • Marketing Coordinator with lead-generation experience
  • Customer Success or Account Coordinator transitioning into growth

Advancement To:

  • Account Executive / Sales Executive
  • Senior Business Development Manager
  • Partnerships Manager / Channel Sales Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Marketing
  • Customer Success / Account Management
  • Growth Marketing / Demand Generation

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Prospect, research, and qualify new business opportunities through targeted outbound activities (cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn outreach, and relevant social selling) that consistently feed a healthy sales pipeline.
  • Manage inbound leads from marketing campaigns, website forms, events and partner referrals; perform rapid qualification and routing using BANT/ANUM or company-specific qualification frameworks to accelerate conversion.
  • Build and maintain an up-to-date sales pipeline in the CRM, including accurate stage updates, next steps, engagement notes, and forecasting inputs to support reliable monthly and quarterly revenue forecasting.
  • Conduct deep account research and account-based outreach for mid-market and enterprise prospects, developing tailored value propositions that map our solution to the prospect’s business objectives and pain points.
  • Prepare and deliver concise, persuasive sales presentations and product demonstrations (live or recorded) that communicate ROI, use cases, and competitive differentiation to executive and technical stakeholders.
  • Collaborate with marketing to design and iterate on targeted campaigns, nurture sequences, and content that drive higher-quality lead flow and improve conversion rates across funnel stages.
  • Draft, review, and submit proposals, statements of work (SOWs), and responses to RFPs/RFIs in coordination with legal and sales leadership to ensure compliance and competitive positioning.
  • Conduct discovery calls and needs assessments to surface additional stakeholders, decision criteria, timing, and budget information; build client-specific opportunity plans to advance deals to close.
  • Negotiate commercial terms and pricing within delegated authority; prepare clear contract redlines and coordinate approvals with finance, legal, and leadership to ensure timely closure.
  • Use CRM reporting and sales analytics to track KPIs (meetings booked, opportunities created, win rate, average deal size, sales cycle length) and translate insights into actionable improvements for outreach and qualification.
  • Collaborate with product and customer success teams to coordinate proof-of-concepts, pilots, and onboarding handoffs; ensure a seamless transition that preserves momentum and demonstrates value quickly.
  • Identify and pursue strategic partnership and channel opportunities, including referrals, resellers, and technology alliances, to expand market reach and accelerate lead generation.
  • Maintain high-quality lead and contact data hygiene (accurate titles, emails, phone numbers, firmographics, and engagement history) in the CRM to enable effective reporting and automation.
  • Respond to competitive intelligence queries by tracking competitor activity, pricing changes, and feature gaps; provide feedback to product and marketing to refine positioning.
  • Drive outbound cadences using sales engagement platforms, A/B test messaging sequences, and iterate on subject lines and call scripts to improve response and meeting-acceptance rates.
  • Achieve and exceed individual monthly and quarterly targets for meetings booked, qualified pipeline created, and revenue attributable to owned opportunities.
  • Coordinate and attend industry events, trade shows, webinars and conferences as a brand representative; establish follow-up schedules and convert event contacts into qualified opportunities.
  • Prepare weekly and monthly pipeline reviews for sales leadership, outlining blockers, risk mitigation plans, and prioritized actions to close high-potential opportunities.
  • Owner of early-stage account plans for assigned territories or verticals, documenting stakeholder maps, buying processes, competitive positioning, and next-step strategies for each target account.
  • Conduct discovery interviews and needs assessments that surface cross-sell and upsell potential within existing accounts and liaise with account managers to execute expansion plays.
  • Maintain and expand personal knowledge of product releases, roadmap, technical integrations, and common deployment models to provide credible, consultative guidance during sales cycles.
  • Mentor and share best practices with newer team members; contribute to playbook updates including objection handling, demo scripts, and discovery frameworks to scale team performance.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc market research requests, competitor analysis, and opportunity sizing projects to inform territory planning and go-to-market strategies.
  • Assist in the creation and refinement of sales enablement materials including case studies, one-pagers, and ROI calculators used in prospect conversations.
  • Help maintain and optimize lead-scoring models and CRM automation rules to improve lead routing and reduce time-to-contact for high-priority prospects.
  • Participate in cross-functional project teams (product launches, pricing changes, marketing initiatives) to provide field insights and ensure coordinated execution.
  • Facilitate pilot programs and POC logistics by coordinating internal resources, documenting success criteria, and tracking outcome metrics tied to buyer objectives.
  • Support renewal and expansion cycles for smaller accounts, including basic contract amendments and collaboration with account managers for upsell outreach.
  • Capture and document customer feedback and use-case examples to support product improvements, competitive rebuttals, and new vertical go-to-market plays.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM management and reporting (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) — strong data hygiene and pipeline forecasting.
  • Sales engagement & automation tools (Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, Yesware) for scalable outbound cadences.
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling techniques for executive-level prospecting.
  • Cold outreach (phone, email, LinkedIn) and multi-touch cadence design to generate meetings and demos.
  • Proposal and RFP writing, SOW creation, and basic contract review with commercial acumen.
  • Basic sales analytics and KPI tracking using Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools; ability to extract actionable insights from data.
  • Presentation and demo tools (PowerPoint, Keynote, Loom, Zoom, product sandbox environments).
  • Familiarity with CPQ tools, pricing models, and margin sensitivity in deal construction.
  • Market research, competitive analysis, and territory segmentation to prioritize outreach and resource allocation.
  • Experience with lead scoring, marketing automation (Marketo, HubSpot), and campaign performance metrics.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional verbal and written communication with strong storytelling and consultative selling ability.
  • Relationship building and stakeholder management across executive, technical, and procurement audiences.
  • Strong negotiation skills and commercial judgment to structure deals that meet customer needs and company targets.
  • Resilience, grit, and persistence in a high-activity outreach environment; comfortable with rejection and rapid iteration.
  • Highly organized, detail-oriented, and disciplined time management to balance prospecting, follow-ups, and pipeline administration.
  • Critical thinking and problem-solving to diagnose client pain points and recommend pragmatic solutions.
  • Active listening and empathy to build trust and uncover latent customer needs.
  • Cross-functional collaboration and the ability to synthesize feedback from product, marketing, and customer success.
  • Adaptability and learning agility to onboard new product features, vertical knowledge, and selling motions quickly.
  • Presentation and demo facilitation skills that engage audiences and drive clear next steps.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, Communications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s in Business Administration, Marketing, Finance, or a related discipline.
  • MBA or relevant professional certifications (Salesforce Admin, HubSpot Sales, Sandler, MEDDIC training) considered a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Communications

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–3 years in sales, business development, or related roles (SDR, lead generation, account coordinator) with measurable results.

Preferred:

  • 2–4 years of B2B sales or business development experience, ideally in SaaS, technology, professional services, or enterprise solutions with experience managing full sales cycles or supporting the middle-of-funnel activities.
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