Essential skills of a business developer

A business developer is very similar to the profession of a development director. The specialist is engaged in the qualitative change of business processes and the company’s promotion on the market. He can be either an employee of the firm (or an entire department) or an outsourced specialist – usually a consultant or consulting firm. The business developer does not make decisions on his own. His main task is to unlock the company’s growth potential and create long-term value on the market. He must have a broader view of the company’s problems than a manager.
Essential skills of a business developer:
Analytics. This is the crucial task of a BD manager. It is essential not only to see the opportunity but also to check it in detail: to identify the market vertical, to reach the right people, and to identify their needs. Here technical education comes in handy, even if a manager does not work in the IT field. It shapes systemic thinking and instills an analytical approach to problem-solving.
Sales. The positive result of a business developer’s activity is a deal, or rather a series of agreements with companies in the same industry. Success, in this case, depends on the manager’s ability to work “long term” since it can take six months, a year, or even more make a sale from working out a hypothesis. A business developer is a marathon runner set up for long-term results.
Creativity. Like any salesperson, a development manager must be proactive and enjoy making new things more critical.
Ability to take risks. Any specialist should understand that before you find a gold mine, you can miss three or four times, spending your time and energy on an industry that won’t be able to apply the product you offer. However, it is in the manager’s interest and the business he is developing to ensure that such situations occur as rarely as possible.
Most of the specialist’s working day is a cold contact with new clients and meetings to assess the prospects of working in this direction and identify the client’s needs.