Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between account directors and business developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an account director has an average salary of $114,728, which is higher than the $101,635 average annual salary of a business developer.
The top three skills for an account director include account management, project management and work ethic. The most important skills for a business developer are healthcare, CRM, and customer service.
| Account Director | Business Developer | |
| Yearly salary | $114,728 | $101,635 |
| Hourly rate | $55.16 | $48.86 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 132,260 | 193,469 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 80% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 46 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 8 | - |
An account director is responsible for managing client accounts, monitoring budgets, and sales forecasting. Their goal is to maintain stable account management strategies, meet clients' demands, develop healthy professional partnerships that would generate revenues, increase profitability, and achieve the organization's long-term goals objectives. Account directors supervise the account management staff, ensuring the project's successful completion with the highest efficiency and accuracy. An account director also plans training programs to maximize their performance and productivity, especially when dealing with deadlines and clients' requests.
A business developer specializes in conducting in-depth business analysis and crafting various strategies that would not just help a business grow, but also strengthen client base and brand awareness. One of their primary responsibilities revolves around identifying areas in need of improvement. They come up with new services that will boost customer satisfaction, examining the potential for revenue and figuring out new opportunities from trends or other pre-existing programs within the company. All of this is conducted according to the vision, mission, and policies of the organization.
Account directors and business developers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Account Director | Business Developer | |
| Average salary | $114,728 | $101,635 |
| Salary range | Between $82,000 And $158,000 | Between $66,000 And $156,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | California |
| Best paying company | BuzzFeed | Apple |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between an account director and a business developer in terms of educational background:
| Account Director | Business Developer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 80% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Southern California | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between account directors' and business developers' demographics:
| Account Director | Business Developer | |
| Average age | 46 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1% | Male, 65.8% Female, 34.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 11% |