About the role
A Manager, Business Development job description covers finding and closing partnership and sales opportunities, building key customer relationships, and negotiating contracts. The role drives revenue growth and market position by turning market insight into a coordinated sales strategy. Hiring managers should assess sales and negotiation, strategic communication, relationship building, and AI fluency.
This role is also known as a Business Development Manager. The person defines strategic goals, contacts potential partners, and negotiates contracts for key accounts in sales teams that rely on new deals and strong customer relationships. Key responsibilities of a business development manager include:
Strategy. Develop and implement business development plans to reach sales goals and profitability.
Opportunities. Identify potential deals by contacting partners and exploring new opportunities.
Key accounts. Nurture key customer relationships and negotiate contracts on the most advantageous terms.
What are the essential Manager, Business Development skills?
The essential skills are sales and negotiation, strategic communication and presentation, relationship building, strategic and critical thinking, and AI fluency.
Skill | Why it matters | Bryq assessment and level |
|---|---|---|
Sales and negotiation | Finds deals and secures the best contract terms. | |
Strategic communication and presentation | Pitches to partners and presents proposals clearly. | Strategic Communication (intermediate) |
Relationship building with clients and partners | Keeps key accounts strong across diverse clients. | Relationship Building (intermediate) |
Strategic and critical thinking for business planning | Shapes strategy and responds to market trends. | Strategic & Critical Thinking (intermediate) |
AI Fluency | Speeds up research and proposals while outputs are checked. | AI Fluency Assessment (functional) |
The core work is identifying deals, negotiating contracts, and nurturing key accounts. Strategic communication carries the pitch, relationship building keeps accounts strong, and strategic thinking turns market trends into plans. AI tools now support research and proposal work.
Levels are a starting point. Bryq lets you set the level each role needs.
Which nice-to-have skills help a Manager, Business Development stand out?
Customer relationship management tools, market and sales data analysis, presentation design, and people management add value but are not needed on day one.
Customer relationship management tools. Keep accounts and pipelines organized.
Market and sales data analysis. Turns numbers into sharper strategy.
Presentation design. Makes proposals and pitches more persuasive.
People management and team coordination. Helps align marketing and management colleagues.
Use these skills as tie-breakers between candidates who are equally strong on the essentials. Never screen out candidates who can learn them on the job.
Which competencies predict success as a Manager, Business Development?
The essential competencies are Communication and Leadership Potential.
Communication. Crucial for pitching, negotiating terms, and presenting proposals.
Leadership Potential. Influences clients and leads proposal coordination across teams.
Empathy adds a deeper understanding of client needs, and Learning Agility adds quick tracking of market shifts.
What AI skills does a Manager, Business Development need?
A Manager, Business Development should use AI daily for prospecting, proposals, and market intelligence, because it speeds up work that is central to winning deals, and should check every output. Strong AI fluency makes that possible.
AI matters here because tools now speed up prospect research, proposal drafting, and market analysis. Deep workflow design is not usually required. The risk is sending AI output to clients or into strategy without checking it for accuracy and tone.
Partner research. Use AI to research target partners and summarize their priorities before outreach.
Proposals and follow-ups. Draft and tailor client proposals and follow-up emails with AI, then review for accuracy and tone.
Market analysis. Analyze competitor activity and market trend reports with AI to inform the business development strategy.
How do you assess Manager, Business Development candidates with Bryq?
Bryq measures all the essential skills and traits for a Manager, Business Development in one integrated candidate profile: cognitive ability, personality traits, soft and hard skills, including AI fluency. Bryq builds an ideal profile for the role and matches candidates against it.
Profile Fit. Profile Fit measures cognitive ability and personality traits, matched against the ideal profile for the role.
Sales and negotiation. Sales Roles measures sales and negotiation skills.
Strategic communication. Strategic Communication measures strategic communication and presentation skills.
Relationship building. Relationship Building measures how well candidates build relationships with clients and partners.
Strategic and critical thinking. Strategic & Critical Thinking measures strategic and critical thinking for business planning.
AI fluency. The AI Fluency Assessment measures how effectively candidates work with AI tools.
Optional add-ons. Customer Relationship Management, Data Analysis, Microsoft PowerPoint, and People Management cover the nice-to-have skills.
Competency profile. Through competency mapping, assess Communication and Leadership Potential, with Empathy and Learning Agility as optional additions.
All Bryq assessments are validated by I/O psychologists. Profile Fit is independently bias-audited under New York City Local Law 144 (code4thought, April 2026). The AI Fluency Assessment is built on peer-reviewed and subject-matter expert research. A person makes every hiring decision.
Manager, Business Development (Business Development Manager) job description template
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Manager, Business Development |
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About [Company name][Add a short description of your company.] About the roleWe are looking for a Manager, Business Development to improve our market position and drive financial growth. You will define strategic goals, build key customer relationships, and identify new business opportunities. Your work turns market insight into a coordinated sales strategy. Responsibilities
Qualifications
Skills and competencies we look for
Working with AI
What we offer
Equal opportunity[Add your equal opportunity statement.] |
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Author
The Bryq I/O Team
Bryq’s I/O Psychology Team is a group of industrial-organizational psychologists who design and validate the science behind our assessments. They write about what research says on hiring, skills, personality, and performance, and how HR leaders can apply it to make fairer, evidence-based decisions.
