How to Get Hired as a Business Development Manager: 5 Must Have Skills

Wondering what it takes to get a business development position?

Already a BDM, but checking to see if you have these skills?

Read on. Whether you want to be a BDM or are already a Business Development professional, these 5 things will make you stand out.

At Wahl+Case we have helped hundreds of candidates land jobs in business development with companies like Stripe, Niantic, and Smartnews.

So, I consulted with our team of experts to bring you the top 5 skills you need to get hired as a Business Development Manager.

Worried you don’t have these skills?

I have included strategies on how to grow them that you can try out today!

*Disclaimer: This is not an intro to what a BDM does.

These are specific strategies to get you a business development job. If you are not familiar with the business development positions, please start with our business development manager position overview here.

Alright, let’s get started.

1. Sales Skills

This is probably the most obvious.

Business Development, at its core, is a sales role. This means you need to know how to use empathetic listening to understand your client’s needs and show them the best ways your solution can solve their problems.

Skill Building Strategies:

How can you get good at sales if you are not client-facing? Here are some places to start.

Selling is not just sales.
Think back to your week, have you had to move someone to do something that you wanted them to do? I am betting you did, and so did Dan Pink, Author of To Sell is Human, which gives great strategies on how to improve your sales abilities. Give it a read (or listen) to get started on your sales journey.
Practice empathy.
Put yourself in the shoes of your direct customers, what problem is your product really solving for them? How can you solve even more problems or where are their bottlenecks affecting their experience?
Now, Work on solving those issues within the scope of your own work. If you are not sure where to start, ask more questions!
Ask More Questions.
Sales is more about empathy today than ever before, so you need to hone your listening skills, how do you do that? By asking more open-ended questions! “How do you feel about that?”, “What is on your mind?”, “What else?” You will be surprised at how much people are willing to share. We will dive into this more in the section on coaching.
Learn to Influence.
Sales can be seen as exerting influence, so why not read the book on the behavioral economics of just that: Influence — The Psychology of Persuasion. Robert Cialdini wrote this book to raise awareness of the tactics that salespeople are using to influence us, so it is a great place to start!

2. PRESENTATIONS

I know I just said that selling is all about listening, but there is an opposite side of the BDM coin as well.

You need to be able to present your solution in a way that will stick, otherwise, your clients will move on to one of your competitors that were more memorable.

Skill Building Strategies

Getting practice making sales presentations can be tough if you are not in a sales role, here are some places to gain some experience before you land your first business development position.

Learn to make your ideas stick.
Why do some ideas go in one ear and out the other, but others stay with you forever? Made to Stick by brothers Chip and Dan Heath , dives headfirst into why this happens and how you can avoid the pitfalls that lead ideas to the waste bin. This is a must-read for anyone trying to deliver messages.
Youtube.
Have a hobby that you are passionate about? Start a youtube channel diving into the knowledge you have around the subject. Here is a great resource for how to make videos. This could also be a blog as blog writing and scripting youtube videos share a lot of key factors.
Internal Training sessions.
Are you an expert at a certain part of your job? Ask your manager if you can hold a training or a series of trainings to help get others on your team up to speed.

3. YOUR NETWORK

I know what you are thinking, “my network isn’t a skill, maybe networking would be the skill”

Although networking is a valuable skill, that is not quite what I mean. In order to boost your chances of getting hired as a Business Development Manager, you need a network in the industry you are going to be working in.

When I have met with hiring managers, this is one of the skills they emphasize over and over. Having a strong network of people that you can call on will take you far in almost any industry.

Skill Building Strategies

Now I am guessing you are thinking "But Wahl+Case Blog, how can I build a network of people I am not working with?” Here are the strategies that have worked for almost every recruiter in Japan.

LinkedIn.
As obvious as this may seem, I have to put this first because it is the best tool for connecting to people already working in the industry. You can search by company, title, or industry and you will instantly have a direct line of communication with the people you are trying to reach.

The best way I have found to network on LinkedIn is to send connection requests to all as many people as you can and when people accept, be sure to message them and thank them for connecting. Then ask them for their honest advice, let them know what your goals are, and genuinely ask them for help.

In Japan, only 2.3% of the population is on the platform, but that is still 2.862 Million people. You will be able to build a strong foundation for your network on LinkedIn.

Put on Events.
This is something of a theme for Business Development. Not just attending, but holding events or meetups is probably the fastest way to grow a network. It will take a big commitment upfront, but the bond between yourself and the community you build will be stronger than any other network-building strategy. With virtual events, the commitment is lessened, but I would recommend trying to start a recurring meetup around the industry you are interested in.
Creating Content.
In a broad sense, you can now reach almost anyone on the planet through social media. This means messaging the people you want to connect with and creating content that makes people want to connect with you. Youtube is a great platform, but even TikTok gives new users a huge boost, so if you get started on your networking journey there, there will be plenty of opportunities to grow your community.

4. COLD OUTREACH

There was a time where this would have been cold calling.

But the times have changed and there are many forms of cold outreach. This includes emails, LinkedIn messages, calls, networking events, social media messaging, and really anywhere that you can reach people without prior contact.

At first, this may not seem like a skill, which probably means you don't have this skill.

There is an art to the cold outreach, you need to get the ball rolling by acknowledging the awkwardness without enhancing it, you need to come off as warm and friendly to a complete stranger, you need to say just enough to gain trust, but listen enough to actually understand the issues your service can solve, and last but not least (in fact most importantly), you need to overcome the immense fear of rejection.

If you get good at cold outreach, that persistence will be a skill that can carry your entire career.

Skill Building Strategies

How do you get good at cold outreach?

By doing it over and over, adjusting your methods, and overcoming the fear of rejection. Here are some ways to set you off on the right foot.

LinkedIn.
Again, this one should be obvious, but you need to be on the platform and messaging people. I am not telling you to spam, but drop people a hello and give them your actual thoughts on what they are doing.

Cold calling.
This is vital, every business development manager (and recruiter) knows the struggle of calling and calling and getting shut down time and time again. In fact, when I had to do business development, I became friends with some of my cold outreach gatekeepers because of the number of times I called and got shut down. And although it can seem discouraging, once you start you realize that even if you fail, there is no real consequence. Creating a sense of a "remote miss" and the thrill of overcoming the fear builds courage in yourself and confidence in your abilities.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! ( Sorry, I couldn't resist) but really who would you call? Anyone you can. Look into the industry you want to work in and find the numbers of the people you want to be connected with, call the number for the companies you want to work for and try to get on the phone with the hiring manager. I promise you won't get blacklisted... probably.

Go to events alone.
This works best if you are alone because you have no safety net. Go to an event and talk to people. The best part of events is that there is usually a theme that makes for a great starting point. Strike up a conversation about the key learnings, things you didn't like, or why you were interested in the first place.

Even if it is a virtual event, get a list of attendees if you can and message them after.

5. EYE FOR OPPORTUNITY

This is the most important skill on this list and one that every good business development skill list should have.

It is also the most complex skill to understand and to build. There are several parts to having an eye for opportunity.

I will break them down one by one now.

Curiosity
For me, this represents a hunger to learn and the need to become an expert. As a business development manager, you will need to be on top of all industry trends and how they will affect your place in the market. Even if you haven't worked in the industry, you need to be an expert in the field.

Skill Building Strategies

Here are some key ways to gain industry knowledge and keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

Articles, blogs, and newsletters.
We have reached a point where almost every person with more than 5 years of experience is happy to share that with the world. Find the place that serves the best news for the industry you want to be a part of and read as much as time allows.

Podcasts and audiobooks.
No time to read?
Not only are people writing articles, but they are getting together and recording themselves speaking on all of the developments you need to know about. You can find podcasts on almost any topic, just type the subject with the word podcast and be overwhelmed.

The nice thing about audio is that you can listen while washing dishes, hanging laundry, walking, vacuuming, exercising, the attention cost required to get the most from the platform is much less than reading.

Attend industry events.
This will be a common recommendation throughout this list because events provide a place to build several layers of skills.

Webinars, seminars, meetups, whatever it is, go there and listen, then network. Industry events really provide the dual benefit of the content of the event and the social aspects of meeting people within the industry.

Creativity

Patrick Dang does a great job of explaining this in his video about business development skills.

This is at the core of having an eye for opportunity.

As a Business Development Manager, you need to constantly be on the lookout for new ways to grow your business. These could be unconventional and connect dots that may have not been connected previously. Is there a customer in an industry that you have not considered? Are there new technologies that would be valuable to partner with?

This way of thinking is crucial to being a business development manager and has come up time and time again when I met with clients who are looking to hire a BDM.

Skill Building Strategies

This is tough to recommend as it really comes from you, but here are some ways to get into a creative mindset.

Give yourself space to be creative
Even if Especially if you do not consider yourself a creative person, you need to give yourself the space to be creative. This could be with creativity exercises, through a hobby you love, or simply writing down all of your ideas about your current work.
Feedback and solutions
As I mentioned in my blog on feedback, giving feedback and creating solutions is a great way to affirm your own creativity. I am sure that we all have gripes with the way that certain processes are done in our workplace, so tell your boss or manager your thoughts. Be nice about it and frame it as suggestions, but all workplaces should be open to receiving feedback. This will help put you in the idea-generating mindset as you find ways to solve the issues you have at work.
Consume, Consume, Consume
A musician friend of mine, who was featured on John Krasinski’s Some Good News, once told me that in order to create you need creative fuel: content. Read books, watch movies, play video games, listen to music, do whatever makes you feel inspired. Try to think about what makes these things great and see how you can incorporate some of those same principles into what you do.

Assessing Commercial Viability

It’s not enough to be able to find unique opportunities, you need to be able to assess if those opportunities are commercially viable.

This means having a core understanding of how your business operates and how it can integrate with partners, customers, or acquisitions.

It also means knowing when to say ‘no’. Is the deal favoring one party over the other? Will this be limiting to your future plans? Do the logistics make sense?

You need to be able to see down the line to where issues may occur and be able to course-correct.

Skill Building Strategies

How do you get experience assessing commercial viability? Here are some ways you can try today.

Start a company
This doesn’t mean you need to throw away your life savings to create your dream business. Start small, if you have an idea that you think would work, put time into researching what it would take to get it off the ground. Even if it fails, companies love to see people who have had the courage to try, plus you will learn so much about developing a business that you will feel confident in your ability to do so.
Talk to founders
This will also help you create your network. Reach out to any people you know that are running their own business and ask them what their struggles were. Ask them how they built it now. There is even a whole podcast dedicated to “How I Built This” stories.

Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that there were 6 pictures in the banner image at the top. That’s because I have included a bonus skill. It is a skill needed for both Business Development and Customer Success, so I just copied the text. This is why I included it as a bonus.

BONUS: NAVIGATING HIGH-LEVEL CONVERSATIONS

Almost all companies have roleplays in their interview process. In these role-plays, One of my clients was infamous for asking questions that they knew the interviewee would not be able to answer.

On the surface, it looked like she just wanted to see the candidates squirm, but the real purpose was to see how the interviewee would handle navigating such a question from a client. Were they comfortable guiding the conversation back to where they wanted it to be? How would they say that they didn’t know? Would they lie and make up an answer?

Skill Building Strategies

So how do you get experience navigating high-level conversations? Well, what the interviewer was really looking for was the ability to stay confident in situations where they were put under pressure and the assertive instincts to be able to stay on track with what needs to be covered. So here are a few places you can start:

Ask your CEO out to lunch. If you are friends that should be easy. If you have never spoken, even better, you will definitely feel nervous, but that is the exact feeling you are trying to overcome. It doesn’t need to be a serious conversation, just make it a casual chat.
Roleplay the roleplay. If you are working with a recruiter, ask them to have a trial roleplay with you and not to hold back on some of the more technical aspects of the product. You can practice guiding the conversation back to the areas that you are intended to cover. Any one of our career consultants on the AdTech, Enterprise Tech, or Client Facing Engineering team here at Wahl+Case will be happy to help you improve your communication skills!
Talk to your customers or clients. Often when you are talking with a client it will feel like they hold all of the power in the conversation, so practice respectfully standing your ground by being assertive and making it clear why you are the expert and why they should trust your insights.

Conclusion

Business Development Manager is one of the most in-demand positions in this market and, as I mentioned in our guide to sales positions, will often be the first hire when companies open a new office. If you want to get into the tech industry, these 5 business development skills will definitely get you hired. If you are not sure how to get your foot in the door, a great entry-level business development position is a BDR, Business Development Representative, read all about this position here.

If you would like to learn more about how to get a job in Business Development, please get in touch with us here.