How to Become a Business Development Manager

What Does a Business Development Manager Do?

A business development manager identifies and pursues opportunities that help a company grow. That might mean researching new markets, approaching potential clients, pitching proposals, or negotiating contracts. The day-to-day varies a lot depending on the company and sector. In a SaaS business, you might spend your mornings reviewing your pipeline in Salesforce, your afternoons on calls with prospects, and your evenings at a networking event. In a professional services firm, you could be writing bids, managing client relationships, and working with marketing on campaign strategy. The position often spans the full sales cycle: from identifying who to talk to, through the initial outreach and discovery calls, to presenting solutions and closing the deal. But it goes beyond pure sales. You are also thinking about partnerships, market positioning, and long-term strategy. A lot of the job is pattern recognition: spotting opportunities before your competitors do. Some days you are deep amid spreadsheets, forecasting revenue and analysing which channels are actually working. Other days, you are in a room with a potential client, trying to understand their problems well enough to offer something genuinely useful. It requires a mix of commercial instinct, persistence, and the ability to build trust quickly with people.

Why Does Business Development Matter?

Companies that do not grow eventually shrink. That sounds obvious, but it is surprising how many organisations rely on existing customers without a clear plan for finding new ones. Business development is the function that fills that gap. It connects a company to markets it has not reached yet, customers it has not spoken to, and partnerships that could change its direction entirely. Without it, revenue becomes dependent on a shrinking pool of existing clients. With it, there is a pipeline of future opportunities that keeps the business moving forward. It also feeds valuable intelligence back into the organisation. BDMs talk to the market every day. They hear what customers need, what competitors are doing, and where the gaps are. That information shapes product decisions, pricing strategies, and marketing campaigns. In subscription-based and B2B businesses, especially, the cost of acquiring new customers is high. A good BDM does not just bring in leads; they bring in the right leads, ones that convert, stay, and grow over time.

Is Business Development Management a Good Career?

It is one of those roles that combines commercial impact with genuine career flexibility. Here is what makes it worth considering.

• Roles exist in every sector. Finance, tech, healthcare, construction, education, telecoms: business development is a function that every sizeable organisation needs. That means you are not locked into one industry. If you fancy a change of scenery, your skills transfer. Not many careers give you that kind of mobility.
• A natural step in the sales career ladder. Business development management fits neatly within the wider sales career. The typical entry point is an SDR or BDR role, from which people branch into either closing roles (account executive) or growth-focused roles (business development manager). From BDM, the progression leads to senior BDM, head of business development, director, and eventually VP-level positions. The career ladder is well-defined, and the skills transfer across both tracks.
• Strong earning potential. If you are starting out in sales as an SDR or BDR, expect somewhere between £25,000 and £35,000. Once you have moved into a BDM role with a few years of experience, the typical range is £45,000 to £65,000, with the national average sitting at around £52,500. From there, stepping up to sales director or VP of sales can take you past £90,000. Performance-related bonuses and commissions are common across the sales career path, and OTE usually adds another 20–50% to base pay.
• Hybrid and remote options are growing. While the role traditionally involved many face-to-face meetings and travel, the change to remote work has opened up opportunities. Plenty of BDM roles now operate on a hybrid or entirely remote basis, especially in tech and professional services. Video calls, CRM platforms, and LinkedIn have replaced much of the in-person legwork, though client meetings and events still happen.
• It is creative and strategic. This is not a role where you follow a script. You are constantly thinking about where opportunities might come from, how to position your company, and what approach will work with a particular prospect. If you enjoy solving problems and thinking a few steps ahead, the work stays interesting.
• You build a powerful network. Few roles put you in front of as many different people. Over time, you build a network of clients, partners, and industry contacts that becomes genuinely valuable, not just for your current job, but for your entire career. That network is yours to keep.

How Do I Become a Business Development Manager? A Step-by-Step Guide

There is no single route into business development management. Some people study business, others work their way up from sales or marketing roles, and others come in from completely different backgrounds. What matters is building the right combination of commercial skills, industry knowledge, and a track record of results.

1. 1
   Understand what the role actually involves. Before committing to this path, make sure you know what you are getting into. Business development management is not the same as account management or pure sales, though it borrows heavily from both. A BDM focuses on finding and creating new opportunities, whether that means entering new markets, building strategic partnerships, or landing new clients. The emphasis is on growth, not just maintaining what already exists. Read job descriptions from different industries to see how the role varies. Follow communities on LinkedIn and Reddit to hear from people doing the job. The more you understand the role, the easier it is to prepare for it.
2. 2
   Build a foundation in sales or marketing. Most business development managers do not start with that title. The typical entry point is a junior sales or marketing role, such as SDR, BDR, sales executive, or marketing coordinator. These positions teach you the fundamentals: how to prospect, how to handle rejection, how to communicate value, and how to manage a pipeline. If you are still in education, look for internships or placements that give you hands-on commercial experience. If you are already working, any role that puts you in front of customers and entails generating revenue is building relevant skills. The goal is to learn how businesses acquire and retain customers, because that is the foundation on which everything else sits.
3. 3
   Consider formal education, but know it is not essential. A degree can help, especially for getting onto graduate schemes at larger companies. Business management, marketing, economics, and finance are the most directly relevant subjects, but employers accept most degree disciplines. What matters more is what you can demonstrate. If you do not have a degree, it is not a dealbreaker. Plenty of BDMs got where they are through work experience, apprenticeships, or internal promotions. Degree-level apprenticeships, like the Level 6 B2B sales professional programme, let you earn while you study and come out with both a qualification and real experience. College courses in sales or business at Level 3 can also provide a useful stepping stone if university is not for you.
4. 4
   Develop your commercial and strategic skills. Technical sales ability is only part of the job. BDMs need to think strategically: comprehending market trends, identifying where a business should focus its efforts, and positioning offerings against competitors. Work on your commercial awareness by following industry news, reading about business strategy, and learning how companies in your sector make money. Get comfortable with CRM tools like Salesforce or HubSpot, because you will use them daily. Learn to read financial reports, build business cases, and present proposals to senior stakeholders. Project management skills help too, since you will often coordinate across sales, marketing, and product teams. The wider your skill set, the more effective you will be.
5. 5
   Sharpen your people skills. Business development is fundamentally about relationships. You need to be able to cold-call someone and keep them talking. You need to listen well enough to understand what a client actually needs, not just what they say they need. You need to negotiate without burning bridges and present ideas clearly to rooms full of senior people. These are skills you can practice in any role. Volunteer to lead a meeting. Practise pitching ideas to colleagues. Read about consultative selling and influence techniques. The people who succeed in business development are not necessarily the loudest in the room; they are the ones who ask the best questions and follow through on their promises.
6. 6
   Build a track record you can point to. When you go for a BDM job, employers want to see proof that you can get results. Start gathering that proof early. Whatever role you're in right now, there's probably something worth documenting. Closed a deal? Write it down. Ran a campaign that brought in leads? Save the numbers. Helped keep a client who was about to leave? That counts. Even things that aren't strictly commercial, like pulling together a cross-team project or organising a company event, can work in your favour if you can show what actually came of it. The point is to have real examples that show you made an impact, whether by growing the business or solving a tough problem.
7. 7
   Pick up relevant qualifications. You don’t need certifications, but they can boost your CV, especially if you don’t have a traditional business background. The Institute of Sales Management has sales qualifications, while the Chartered Institute of Marketing offers courses in marketing strategy and digital skills. Picking up certifications in areas like negotiation, project management (think PRINCE2 or Agile), or CRM platforms shows employers you’re committed to the field. If you’re just starting out, check out the Level 3 Award in Business Development Skills or the Level 3 Certificate in Sales and Account Management. Both are practical and don’t require years of experience.
8. 8
   Start applying and keep moving up. If you have a couple of years of experience in sales or a related field, you can start applying for BDM roles directly. If you are earlier in your career, look for titles like business development executive, sales executive, or account manager as stepping stones. Tailor your CV for each application: emphasise results, not responsibilities. Show that you understand what business development means (not just sales) and why you want to do it. Use LinkedIn actively; many BDM roles are filled through networks and referrals. Join industry events when you can. The first BDM role is the hardest to land, but once you are in, the career path is clear: senior BDM, head of business development, director, and beyond.

Resources and Further Reading

• Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP) – Formed from the merger of the Institute of Sales Management and the Association of Professional Sales. This is now the main professional body for salespeople in the UK, with around 10,000 members. They run apprenticeships, qualifications, events, and ongoing training and development.
• The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) – If your BDM role involves marketing (and many do), CIM courses are worth a look. They cover things like digital marketing and customer insight, which come up more often than you would expect in business development.
• Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) – Mostly relevant once you are managing people or want "leadership" on your CV. They offer qualifications at different levels, so there is something for you, whether you are a first-time manager or further along.
• HubSpot Academy – Completely free, and genuinely useful. Their CRM and inbound sales courses teach you tools you will probably end up using on the job anyway. The certificates aren't going to blow anyone away, but they show you have put in the time.
• LinkedIn Learning – Good for filling gaps: negotiation, sales strategy, CRM basics. The real bonus is that LinkedIn itself is where most BDMs do their networking and prospecting, so you are learning and building your presence at the same time.
• National Careers Service - Business Development Manager – The UK government's profile on the role. Covers entry routes, what you might earn, and what the day-to-day looks like. Nothing groundbreaking, but a reliable starting point if you are still figuring out whether this career suits you.
• Find an Apprenticeship – The government's apprenticeship search portal. Worth checking if you want to earn while you study. There are business development and sales programmes at various levels, including degree-level options.
• r/sales – People sharing what actually happens in sales jobs: the wins, the frustrations, the career advice you will not find in a textbook. Some threads are gold, others less so. Browse the top posts to get a feel for whether this world appeals to you.