Responsibilities :

As a business development manager, you'll need to :

- Research and identify new business opportunities - including new markets, growth areas, trends, customers, partnerships, products and services - or new ways of reaching existing markets

- Seek out the appropriate contact in an organisation

- Generate leads and cold call prospective customers

- Meet with customers/clients face to face or over the phone

- Foster and develop relationships with clients

- Understand the needs of your customers and be able to respond effectively with a plan of how to meet these

- Think strategically - seeing the bigger picture and setting aims and objectives in order to develop and improve the business

- Work strategically - carrying out necessary planning in order to implement

operational changes

- draw up client contracts - depending on the size of company, this task may be completed by someone else or agreements may not be as formal

- Have a good understanding of the businesses' products or services and be able to advise others about them

- Ensure staff are on board throughout the organisation, and understand the need for change and what is required of them

- Train members of your team, arranging external training where appropriate

- Discuss promotional strategy and activities with the marketing department

- Seek ways of improving the way the business operates

- Attend seminars, conferences and events where appropriate

- Keep abreast of trends and changes in the business world.

If your business development role is more sales orientated, you may also :

- Help to plan sales campaigns

- Create a sales pipeline

- Increase sales of the business

- Carry out sales forecasts and analysis and present your findings to senior management.

- Develop the business sales and marketing strategy.

Skills :

You'll need to have :

- An excellent telephone manner for making initial contact and for ongoing communication with customers and business associates

- Interpersonal skills for building and developing relationships with clients

- Written and verbal communication skills - needed for communicating with a range of people, both internally and externally, as well as presentation skills

- IT skills, including the use of spreadsheets

- Teamworking skills and a collaborative approach to work

- Decision-making skills

- The ability to multitask and prioritise your workload

- Project management and organisational skills

- The ability to motivate yourself and set your own goals

- Negotiating skills

- The ability to think strategically

- The ability to analyse sales figures and write reports

- A flexible approach to work with the ability to adapt to a fast-paced, ever-changing environment

- Initiative and the confidence to start things from scratch