What is business development?
According to Hubspot:
Business development is a process that helps your company establish and maintain relationships with prospects, learn about your buyer’s personas, increase brand awareness, and seek new opportunities to promote growth.
In contrast, sales teams sell your product or service to customers and work to convert leads into customers. Business development-related work simplifies the work of a salesperson or sales manager.
While related to sales, the business development/demand generation role differs in important ways.
Relevant MS Marketing courses
Besides the classes listed below, these two courses are recommended to anyone who wants to prepare for a business development/demand generation role in business:
MKT 6334 – Digital Sales Strategy (3 semester credit hours) The course explores three distinct areas within marketing and sales namely, digital marketing, traditional sales prospecting, and executive sales organization and strategy. The continuing convergence of the digital marketing and sales funnels has created a strategic continuum from digital lead generation to digital sales. The course identifies the current composition of this digital continuum while providing opportunities to evaluate sales and marketing digital strategies. The course will cover concepts including the difference between inbound and outbound digital marketing strategies, tracking CRM inquiries in the funnel, and lead scoring. Prerequisite or Corequisite: MKT 6301. (3-0) Y
MKT 6374 – eCommerce and Marketing Automation (3 semester credit hours) This course will provide students with both strategic and hands-on experience in e-commerce and marketing automation (email/push/SMS). Topics include best practices of e-commerce platforms, design, funnels, competing against larger corporate websites, and integration with email, CRM, and web analytics. Concepts such as online merchandising, pricing, content management, image formats, sizing and editing, and split A/B page testing will be introduced. Hands-on experience will be acquired by working in teams to create two fully transactional e-commerce websites using two major platforms: WordPress and one of the popular shopping carts such as Shopify. Students will also learn how to create in Hubspot a website, pages, a blog, and email/text automation campaigns, No programming knowledge or experience is needed. (3-0) Y
About Business Development Roles
Job Analysis for Demand Generation Specialists
An early career demand generation specialist with one to four years of experience earns an average total compensation (includes tips, bonus and overtime pay) of $55,321, based on 121 salaries. A mid-career demand generation specialist with five to nine years of experience earns an average total compensation of $56,748, based on 30 salaries. An experienced demand generation specialist with 10 to 19 years of experience earns an average total compensation of $68,784, based on six salaries. In their late career (20 years and higher), employees earn an average total compensation of $87,500. Source: PayScale
The top respondents for the job title business development associate are from the companies Corporate Executive Board (CEB), Gartner Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMCC). Reported salaries are highest at Booz Allen Hamilton, where the average pay is $102,000. Other companies that offer high salaries for this role include JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMCC) and Brighton Jones, earning $83,971 and $70,000, respectively. Politico pays the lowest, at $39,631. Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and Gartner Group Inc. also pay on the lower end of the scale, paying $44,000 and $44,764, respectively. Source: PayScale
What is the size of the job market?
Searches for “demand generation manager” returned approximately 9,761 results on Indeed.com in November 2019; and a keyword search for the skill “demand generation” in the same time period on the same site returned 19,875 jobs.
Searches for “business development associate” returned approximately 158,517 results on Indeed.com in November 2019; and a keyword search for the skill “business development” in the same time period on the same site returned 23,151 jobs.
A Typical Job Description from Gartner – Irving, Texas
Gartner Business Development AssociateWhy join Gartner?
When you join Gartner, you’ll be part of a fast-growing team that helps the world become smarter and more connected. Gartner is the world’s leading research and advisory company, achieving consistent double-digit growth by steering clients toward the right decisions with business and technology insights they can’t find anywhere else. Gartner associates enjoy a collaborative work environment, exceptional training and career development — as well as unlimited growth opportunities. If you like working with a curious, supportive, high-performing team, Gartner is the place for you.
Ideal Candidates:
Are you driven by results and achieving goals? Have a passion for problem solving? You’ve come to the right place. We’re seeking a Business Development Associate to join our Global Business Sales team. You’ll be part of a fast-paced, dynamic team providing the highest level of sales support in procuring C-level individuals in some of the world’s most successful companies as potential new clients.
Apply strategic thinking and relationship building to help get executives on board to solve the most pressing business challenges affecting Fortune 500 executives from around the globe. Understand their critical initiatives, align Gartner research and expertise, and help Gartner maintain its growth by ensuring strong business development of new clients.
We do it for the impact.
Our GBS business development team engages prospective clients with high-value research and insights that address their mission critical priorities. We are an unstoppable force of proactivity, engagement, resourcefulness, and application. We offer relevant information and actionable insight to leaders at more than 11,000 companies to manage talent, benchmark performance, and achieve critical objectives—effectively changing their futures. That’s why we sell research and technology.
What candidates get out of this opportunity:
- Conduct lead generation, prospecting, and qualifying leads.
- Utilize business acumen to research companies, C-Level executives, business trends, competitive intelligence to create detailed research based strategic communication plans.
- Proactively schedule calls with prospective clients via phone and email (including cold calling).
- Educate prospective clients on the value of Gartner’s renowned Global Business Sales products and services.
- Partner with Business Development Managers to create customized plans for sales territories, with a goal of supporting their monthly, quarterly and annual revenue targets.
- Coordinate internal staff to ensure the right individuals are present to support a prospective client on the issue/challenge to be discussed during the sales pitch call and/or sales presentation.
Required Experience/Skills:
- Bachelor’s degree (all majors welcome)
- Relevant work or internship in sales or customer service
- Unmatched ability to establish credibility with senior-level executives
- Advanced computer and internet search skills
- Varsity-level communication, writing, problem-solving, and time management skills
- Ability to plan and prioritize daily tasks/responsibilities
- Demonstrated ability to work well under pressure
- Collaborating with others to overcome challenges
Long-term Benefits:
- We show you a clear career path for advancement and offer a unique training curriculum specifically designed to foster a long-term career in the field (you did say you’re passionate).
- We take care of you with competitive compensation and a benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid time off, employee stock purchase program, flexible spending, and tuition assistance.
- Diversity and inclusion are at our core—join established Veterans’, Women’s, LGBT, and cultural groups to celebrate our differences.
- An upbeat, positive and collaborative working environment.
- Opportunity to develop your career in the world’s leading Research and Advisory Company which is facing incredible growth looking into 2020.
| Top skills Mentioned by at least 10 major companies with this job title posting |
Courses See the syllabus for each course for relevant skills, as not all skills are taught in every course. |
|---|---|
| Socially adept, listen intently, ability to update sales funnel or customer management platform |
MKT 6334 Digital Sales Strategy MKT 6343 Social Media Marketing and Insights |
| Qualifying leads and nurturing relationships with clients, setting goals and developing action plans, negotiating skills |
OB 6301 Organizational Behavior OB 6332 Negotiation and Dispute Resolution |
| Understanding people’s buying patterns and trends, identifying the match between a product and a market segment with potential customers |
MKT 6310 Consumer Behavior ENTP 6370 Innovation and Entrepreneurship BPS 6360 Management and Organizational Consulting: Theory and Practice |
| Data Analysis tools such as Python, R, SPSS and Data Visualization tools such as Tableau |
MKT 6353 Customer Analytics and Insights MIS 6380 Data Visualization OPRE 6332 Spreadsheet Modeling and Analytics |
| CRM Software – HubSpot, SAP, Salesforce, Pipedrive CRM, Really Simple Systems, Nimble, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Infusionsoft, Sage | MKT 6374 eCommerce & Marketing Automation |
| Survey Tools (Qualtrics, Decipher, ConfirmIt). MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, Google slides for Presentations/sales displays |
MKT 6309 Marketing Data Analysis and Research OPRE 6301 Statistics and Data Analysis |
| Exceptional numerical skills, proficiency in written and verbal communication, client interaction, creative at problem-solving, project management skills | OPRE 6362 Project Management in Engineering and Operations |
Typical Job Titles
- Business Development Manager
- Business Development Specialist
- Business Development Representative
- Vice President of Business Development
- Director of Business Development
Creative Job Titles for Business Development
- Strategic Partnerships Manager
- Strategic Alliance Specialist
- Senior Solutions Consultant
- B2B Corporate Sales
- Senior Account Executive
Blogs
Associations
Certifications
- Demand Generation Certification from the Online Marketing Institute
- HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification
Companies with the Highest Business Development Salaries
Indeed.com is a good job search site because at a glance it shows average salaries, years of experience for many mid-level positions, the number of available jobs and their locations. I looked at 10 to 15 job descriptions from major companies and the skills most frequently mentioned at such employers as AT&T, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, YUM! Brands, and others. However, there is NO substitute for your doing your own searches and analyses.
Recommended Books
- Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline, by MaryLou Tyler and Jeremy Donovan (New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2016)
- The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million, by Mark Roberge (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2015
- Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know, by Mark Jeffery (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, s010)
- Hacking Sales: The Playbook for Building a High-Velocity Sales Machine, by Max Altschuler (Hoboken, New Jersey: Max Wiley and Sons, 2016)
- The New Rules of and Marketing and PR: How to Use Content Marketing, Podcasting, Social Media, AI, Live Video, and Newsjacking to Reach Buyers Directly, 7th ed., by David Meerman Scott (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2020)
- What, Exactly, Is Business Development?: A Primer on Getting Deals Done by Scott Pollack, (Independently published: 2018)
- How Clients Buy: A Practical Guide to Business Development for Consulting and Professional Services by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2018)
