How To Become A Market Development Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a market development representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Kevin Buckley

Market development representatives are often the missing link in the marketing-to-sales handoff process. They are specialized salespeople who bridge the gap between marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads. The market development representative qualifies prospective customers through targeted questions about their business strategy and challenges, then leverages this information to align and position the company's product offerings.

The functions that come along with the position include being responsible for generating leads by making outbound calls and printed/online mailings, as well as qualifying prospective members to become professional representatives. In addition, computer skills are necessary in this position for the use of particular software programs and creating and receiving reports, and they must also be able to sit or stand for long periods of time. These representatives must always maintain a positive demeanor to work well in a team environment and improve relationships with clients and other business contacts. A bachelor's degree is often a minimum requirement for this position, and market development representatives are also responsible for maintaining the highest standards for the marketing team and promoting the company in a positive light.

The average hourly salary for this position is $23.01, which amounts to $47,870 annually.

What general advice would you give to a Market Development Representative?

Kevin Buckley

Professor of Practice, Sales & Marketing, University of Southern Mississippi

The biggest factor in earning potential is performance - salespeople get paid based on their ability to hit and exceed quotas through revenue generation. With a sales career, you have a lot of control over earnings. My advice is to be metrics-driven and have a plan to intentionally grow your sales skills through training, mentors, and personal development. Build a reputation for consistent over-achievement. It's also important to do research and understand typical compensation benchmarks. Some may offer higher base pay, while others offer more earnings leverage through aggressive commission/bonus structures.

ScoreMarket Development RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

4.7

Avg. Salary $59,685

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.1

Growth Rate 4%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.38%

Asian 5.57%

Black or African American 6.74%

Hispanic or Latino 16.28%

Unknown 4.05%

White 66.98%

Gender

female 40.24%

male 59.76%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress Level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.0

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a market development representative

Explore market development representative education requirements

Most common market development representative degrees

Bachelor's

79.5 %

Associate

9.3 %

Master's

7.8 %

Start to develop specific market development representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Sales Process	11.61%
Product Knowledge	11.04%
Salesforce	10.49%
Sales Training	8.46%
Lead Generation	6.73%

Research market development representative duties and responsibilities

Manage payroll functions including check preparations, payroll reconciliation, and wire transfers.
Manage and record all activity by outwardly communicating via phone and email and notating in SalesForce.com
Review cost/benefit analysis of potential promotional programs to justify the ROI and manage budgets set aside to support promotional activities.
Assist all ADP users with payroll issues and software trouble shooting and installation.

Prepare your market development representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your market development representative resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a market development representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Market Development Representative Resume templates

Build a professional Market Development Representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Market Development Representative resume.

Apply for market development representative jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a market development representative job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average market development representative salary

The average Market Development Representative salary in the United States is $59,685 per year or $29 per hour. Market development representative salaries range between $43,000 and $82,000 per year.

Average Market Development Representative Salary

$59,685 Yearly

$28.69 hourly

How do market development representatives rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

Market Development Representative reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2021

Pros

Cultivating relationships with customers and accessing customers needs , I like solving their problems with the product or service that I am pre selling to them before passing the lead to a sales executive.

Cons

I am passionate about my role as a BDR and there is nothing that I don't like. I don't like to be put in a box so to speak I enjoy reaching high and don't like to limited.