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How to hire a market development specialist

Market development specialist hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring market development specialists in the United States:

  • In the United States, the median cost per hire a market development specialist is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • Human Resources use 15% of their expenses on recruitment on average.
  • On average, it takes around 12 weeks for a new market development specialist to become settled and show total productivity levels at work.

How to hire a market development specialist, step by step

To hire a market development specialist, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a market development specialist, you should follow these steps:

Here's a step-by-step market development specialist hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write a market development specialist job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new market development specialist
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a market development specialist do?

A market development specialist works on different marketing programs and projects to secure sales and premium goals. They develop and execute training strategies and programs, perform market research and analyses to find business opportunities, study the consumers and competitors, and create sales pitches ideal for field operations. They may also reach out directly to clients by calls, emails, or appointments, offer products and services, and establish positive relationships through efficient services. Additionally, a market development specialist oversees every marketing project's progress, producing reports for managers regularly.

Learn more about the specifics of what a market development specialist does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    First, determine the employments status of the market development specialist you need to hire. Certain market development specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    Hiring the perfect market development specialist also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

    This list presents market development specialist salaries for various positions.

    Type of Market Development SpecialistDescriptionHourly rate
    Market Development SpecialistMarket research analysts study market conditions to examine potential sales of a product or service. They help companies understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price.$18-41
    Digital Marketing ConsultantA digital marketing consultant specializes in developing marketing strategies for a company's products and services, aiming to expand customer engagement and brand awareness through digital media. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify the marketing trends and opportunities, recommending marketing techniques and plans through reports and presentations, and producing cost estimates for clients... Show more$23-48
    MarketerA marketer specializes in performing research and analysis to identify marketing opportunities and client needs. They primarily devise strategies to secure sales, such as promotions, discounts, calls and correspondence, campaigns, and walk-in recommendations... Show more$8-41
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Market Development
    • Healthcare
    • Heart Failure
    • Sales Growth
    • Trade Shows
    • Customer Events
    • Market Strategy
    • Product Management
    • Product Line
    • Channel Marketing
    • Marketing Campaigns
    • Sales Support
    • Business Development
    • Market Research
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage all negotiations of catalog advertising for reseller channel, including proofing and approving placement of ads.
    • Conduct keyword research and selection for pay-per-click campaigns and SEO projects.
    • Provide ongoing support of all SEO initiatives including reporting, analysis and optimization recommendations.
    • Maximize equipment productivity by ensuring proper placement and usage by developing working relationship with suppliers, distributors and their sales force.
    • Strengthen cross-selling opportunities by cultivating, building, and maintaining relationships with clients across different business channels.
    More market development specialist duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the market development specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A market development specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

    For example, the average salary for a market development specialist in Missouri may be lower than in Delaware, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level market development specialist. Additionally, a market development specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average market development specialist salary

    $58,991yearly

    $28.36 hourly rate

    Entry-level market development specialist salary
    $39,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 24, 2025

    Average market development specialist salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1Delaware$77,257$37
    2California$74,891$36
    3Washington$74,531$36
    4Maryland$70,955$34
    5New York$70,922$34
    6New Jersey$68,492$33
    7Pennsylvania$63,374$30
    8North Carolina$62,777$30
    9Massachusetts$56,280$27
    10Illinois$55,596$27
    11Colorado$55,582$27
    12Ohio$55,060$26
    13Montana$54,595$26
    14Texas$52,397$25
    15Tennessee$49,518$24
    16North Dakota$49,024$24
    17Florida$47,062$23
    18Georgia$45,161$22
    19Missouri$41,533$20
    20Mississippi$37,506$18

    Average market development specialist salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1Amazon$104,096$50.05173
    2Medtronic$91,857$44.1652
    3Calumet Specialty Products Partners$88,620$42.61
    4Thermo Fisher Scientific$86,964$41.8171
    5Humana$80,969$38.9344
    6Edward Jones$80,580$38.742
    7Ingram Micro$66,254$31.855
    8Avient$60,396$29.042
    9Baillie Lumber Co.$59,429$28.57
    10Gannett$57,181$27.49
    11Pax8$55,937$26.89
    12Evergreen Turf, Inc.$55,937$26.89
    13Odeko$55,937$26.8911
    14CPS$55,937$26.89
    15The Independent Traveler$55,926$26.8917
    16Land O'Lakes$55,521$26.6922
    17Douglas Machine$54,136$26.031
    18GROWMARK$49,313$23.711
  4. Writing a market development specialist job description

    A job description for a market development specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a market development specialist job description:

    Market development specialist job description example

    About Us

    Odeko is on a mission to champion your neighborhood cafes, local coffee shops, and bakeries through technology. Whether we're saving small business owners 10 hours a week with our AI-backed supply platform, reducing CO2 emissions with overnight deliveries, or developing a user experience that makes every new customer feel like a regular, Odeko supports our small business partners from open to close. Your local coffee shops and cafes are the backbone of any given community, and we're here to help manage the day-to-day tasks with a platform so intuitive, it's kinda like magic.

    About the role:

    We're looking for a Market Development Specialist (MDS) to join our expanding Sales & Success Team. While working closely with our virtual account executives and other MDSs, this is an opportunity to be a leader in your city in representing the Odeko mission of supporting small business. Through sampling, marketing, coffee events and conversation, you will become a key partner and companion to your local independent coffee shops! You get to bring solutions to your market that reduce cost and support growth for small business owners! You succeed by building relationships and demonstrating the value of Odeko local supply delivery and the Odeko mobile ordering app. Your extraordinary communication skills help you connect with customers by email, phone and in-person shop visits - quickly establishing trust and creating allies in the marketplace. Your ability to connect and build rapport, creates a customer journey that is a true partnership. This role will require 40% of travel.

    Core Responsibilities

    • Gain the commitment of independent coffee shop owners to proceed to Odeko onboarding for local supply delivery and Odeko's mobile ordering platform.
    • Leverage Odeko's data-driven prospect database to develop new client relationships that help drive high-speed growth of partnerships in the market
    • Responsible for achieving monthly and quarterly goals of new shop growth
    • Keep meticulous records in our CRM tool (Hubspot), to report activity and conversations. This helps to enhance the customer experience in the customer's journey with the rest of the Odeko success team.
    • Develop new and creative outbound strategies to create and nurture new market opportunities for growth and partnership.
    • Work closely with the onboarding and account management teams to ensure new customers have a smooth onboarding process and become long-term partners with Odeko
    • Work closely with Odeko's vendor partners to collaborate in local coffee events and to conduct sampling campaigns for prospective customers
    • Assist in the formation and leadership of your city's Odeko Cafe Council that brings together shop owners, baristas and roasters for information sharing and community building.
    • Play a vital role in all of these same sales and success efforts in the next Odeko cities - both virtually on the phone and occasionally traveling to another city to partner with the local MDM.

    Experience:

    • 2+ years of relevant sales/business development experience OR local coffee community leadership experience
    • B2B and small business sales/partnerships experience preferred
    • Self-directed and comfortable in a constantly evolving environment
    • Experience meeting and exceeding sales goals
    • Excellent communication and negotiation skills
    • Process-driven with attention to detail
    • Active in the community through partnerships and/or service

    Why you'll love it here:

    • Collaborative, high growth work culture
    • Competitive salary and equity options
    • Comprehensive and affordable medical, dental, and vision benefits. HSA, FSA available
    • 401k matching program so you can invest in your future
    • Flexible PTO

    Remote with travel.

    What you'll love about Odeko:
    • Fast-paced environment and growth opportunities - plenty of room for you to directly impact the company and enhance your career!
    • Competitive compensation, healthcare benefits, and opportunity for equity
    • Other great perks - Full lists of benefits available upon request

    Odeko is proud to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive employer. We encourage all to apply regardless of educational background, race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status.

    #LI-REMOTE

  5. Post your job

    There are various strategies that you can use to find the right market development specialist for your business:

    • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
    • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
    • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
    • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your market development specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit market development specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
    • Use field-specific websites such as swipe files, exit five, marketinghire, american marketing association.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    Your first interview with market development specialist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

    Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new market development specialist

    Once you've found the market development specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

    You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

    To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
    Sign up to download full list

How much does it cost to hire a market development specialist?

Before you start to hire market development specialists, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire market development specialists pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

You can expect to pay around $58,991 per year for a market development specialist, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for market development specialists in the US typically range between $18 and $41 an hour.

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