A business development specialist is a professional who decides on an opening for selling tactics to upsurge an enterprise expansion. As an individual fulfilling this role, you will execute enterprise operation and monetary evaluation, efficient network generation, and enterprise strategy effectuation.

This job demands understanding and technical know-how in handling an enterprise. You must also handle plans, supervise engineering and designs, acquire placements, maintain connections with dealers, and ensure client exertion and machinery. You are also expected to accept incoming and execute outgoing calls when necessary to help clients with charging, account records, and solve technical problems that may arise.

To fulfill this role, you must have a sound education in business, marketing, or communication, hence gaining a bachelor's degree or at least a master's degree. Additionally, you must display excellent analytical, communication, and writing skills. Also, you must be creative and detail-oriented. You will earn at least an annual salary of $48,894 or $23.51 per hour.

What Does a Business Development Specialist Do

There are certain skills that many business development specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and creativity.

Learn more about what a Business Development Specialist does

How To Become a Business Development Specialist

If you're interested in becoming a business development specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 72.7% of business development specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.1% of business development specialists have master's degrees. Even though most business development specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Business Development Specialist

Business Development Specialist Career Paths

Average Salary for a Business Development Specialist

Business Development Specialists in America make an average salary of $57,410 per year or $28 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $85,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $38,000 per year.
Average Business Development Specialist Salary
$57,410 Yearly
$27.60 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Business Development Specialist

The role of a business development specialist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general business development specialist responsibilities:

  • Provide expertise and knowledge to improve branch personnel productivity
  • Maintain and analyze specific vertical market end customers databases, top engineers/specifiers database,
  • Works with business owners and it business analysts during the business analysis phase of the software development life cycle (sdlc) to identify business rules with the potential for conversion to functional decision services participates, with developers

There are several types of business development specialist, including:

Business Development Manager

Role:

A business development manager is responsible for making sure their team or staff is regularly receiving opportunities for enhancing their skills and knowledge. Since a lot of people apply for a job where they'll be able to grow, many businesses hire a business development manager to figure out how to present such opportunities to employees.

These managers are known as people persons because the majority of their day is spent talking with people. The business development manager position isn't for newbies. In addition to needing a bachelor's, or even a master's, degree, you need a bit of experience under your belt. Once you've got all that and nailed down your communication skills, then you're ready to venture into the business development manager role.
  • Average Salary: $100,769
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Business Developer

Role:

If you want to earn an average salary of $90,301 per year, you can try working as a Business Developer. With a job growth rate of 8%, you are also given a chance to further your career after some time.

With enough experience and years of working, you can be an Account Manager, a Regional Sales Manager, and a National Sales Manager after beginning as a Business Developer.

As a Business Developer, you will conduct in-depth business analysis and craft different strategies to help businesses grow and raise brand awareness. You will identify areas that need to be improved and come up with new ideas to strengthen your client base.

As a Business Developer, you are expected to be creative, have great interpersonal skills, and possess excellent organizational skills. When you have these skills, there is a big chance that you will land the job and do well in the field.

  • Average Salary: $101,635
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Business Development Representative

Role:

Business development representatives are tasked with the development of a business or a company's customer base. This means that they tend to the customers' needs and make sure that the customers are happy and satisfied with the company's performance. They need to have a wide knowledge of their project in order to be able to communicate their value to the customers.

Good communication, organizational, and writing skills are highly important to succeed as a business development representative; having a high level of self-confidence is also part of the job. Earning $35.00 per hour or $73,000 a year is one of the perks of venturing into the field.

They mostly major in Business, with Marketing coming in at second place. The most common degree level for a business development representative is bachelor's degree, and one can apply for the job with a high school diploma as well.

  • Average Salary: $47,240
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Business Development Specialist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active business development specialist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where business development specialists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Business Development Specialist Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California6,672$53,535
2Florida3,746$45,964
3Texas3,612$51,958
4Pennsylvania3,375$66,646
5New York2,569$63,458
6Ohio2,564$63,856
7Georgia2,254$50,915
8North Carolina2,156$59,151
9Illinois2,108$63,026
10Minnesota2,077$62,753
11Michigan2,037$68,052
12Virginia1,848$65,368
13Massachusetts1,649$66,723
14Wisconsin1,590$71,955
15Maryland1,551$61,765
16Missouri1,531$56,563
17Tennessee1,517$49,962
18Indiana1,492$60,342
19Washington1,375$66,043
20Colorado1,180$62,236
21New Jersey1,170$70,958
22Arizona1,170$50,366
23Alabama1,103$49,260
24South Carolina994$50,122
25Iowa961$51,480
26Utah951$69,265
27Kentucky921$54,723
28Oregon859$64,761
29Arkansas830$51,693
30Kansas818$51,822
31Louisiana727$54,162
32Oklahoma674$49,702
33Nebraska656$58,783
34New Hampshire602$64,883
35Nevada595$50,951
36Connecticut534$68,397
37New Mexico522$45,812
38Mississippi465$49,545
39Rhode Island355$58,098
40West Virginia348$57,924
41Maine346$56,679
42South Dakota297$58,614
43Hawaii297$46,144
44Alaska285$50,989
45Montana265$57,741
46North Dakota250$55,693
47Idaho248$53,789
48Vermont236$57,318
49Delaware228$70,519
50Wyoming165$52,135

Business Development Specialist Education

Business Development Specialist Majors

32.7 %
10.6 %

Business Development Specialist Degrees

Bachelors

72.7 %

Masters

11.1 %

Associate

9.7 %

Top Colleges for Business Development Specialists

1. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$3,926

Enrollment

9,835

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Marketing
Criminal Justice
Psychology
Accounting

2. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Communication
Accounting
Economics
Public Relations

3. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Finance
Business
Economics
Political Science
Marketing

4. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Psychology
Criminal Justice
Communication
Economics

5. Georgetown University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,104

Enrollment

7,089

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Political Science
Economics
Finance
Public Relations

6. Ball State University

Muncie, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,896

Enrollment

15,529

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Psychology
Accounting
Public Relations
Marketing
Communication

7. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Economics
Communication
Psychology
Political Science

8. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Political Science
Public Relations
Psychology
Business
Economics

9. Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,105

Enrollment

13,729

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Psychology
Marketing
Accounting
Finance

10. SUNY College at Plattsburgh

Plattsburgh, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,369

Enrollment

5,229

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Psychology
Accounting
Marketing
Political Science

Top Skills For a Business Development Specialist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.2% of business development specialists listed work ethic on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Business Development Specialist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Business Development Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Business Development Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Business Development Specialist Demographics

Business Development Specialist Gender Distribution

Male
Male
51%
Female
Female
49%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among business development specialists, 49.3% of them are women, while 50.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among business development specialists is White, which makes up 70.4% of all business development specialists.

  • The most common foreign language among business development specialists is Spanish at 45.6%.

Online Courses For Business Development Specialist That You May Like

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The fourth course in the Salesforce Sales Operations Professional Certificate — Reports, Dashboards, and Customer Success in Salesforce — is for anyone who is curious about entry level sales roles that require foundational skills in Salesforce, the sales operations specialist role specifically, how to use tools in Salesforce to improve customer service at a business, how to leverage data in Salesforce to improve the overall performance of a sales team, and the path to becoming a Salesforce...

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The Ultimate Sales Methodology for Business Development & B2B Sales to Learn Sales Strategy, Sales Skills & Deal Closing...

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Best States For a Business Development Specialist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a business development specialist. The best states for people in this position are Wisconsin, New Jersey, Delaware, and Utah. Business development specialists make the most in Wisconsin with an average salary of $71,955. Whereas in New Jersey and Delaware, they would average $70,958 and $70,519, respectively. While business development specialists would only make an average of $69,265 in Utah, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Wisconsin

Total Business Development Specialist Jobs: 1,590
Highest 10% Earn:
$110,000
Location Quotient:
1.25

2. Utah

Total Business Development Specialist Jobs: 951
Highest 10% Earn:
$108,000
Location Quotient:
1.3

3. Pennsylvania

Total Business Development Specialist Jobs: 3,375
Highest 10% Earn:
$102,000
Location Quotient:
1.27
Full List Of Best States For Business Development Specialists

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Top Business Development Specialist Employers

We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ business development specialists and discovered their number of business development specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Volkart May was the best, especially with an average salary of $54,041. ManpowerGroup follows up with an average salary of $48,368, and then comes SAP with an average of $69,512. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a business development specialist. The employers include BNY Mellon, The Marsh, and AmerisourceBergen

Most Common Employers For Business Development Specialist

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1IBM$79,061$38.0115
2Intelligent Transportation Society of America$72,000$34.6222
3American Express$71,708$34.4818
4SAP$69,512$33.4238
5Schneider Electric Industrial Services$67,882$32.6423
6Euler Hermes$63,759$30.6515
7Newark$61,626$29.6315
8Collabera$59,853$28.7822
9InsideSales$59,117$28.4215
10*n/a*$57,765$27.7720

Business Development Specialist Videos