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Job outlook for regional directors of business development in the United States
Regional director of business development job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected regional director of business development job growth rate is 5% from 2018-2028.
About 23,800 new jobs for regional directors of business development are projected over the next decade.
Regional director of business development salaries have increased 12% for regional directors of business development in the last 5 years.
There are over 30,322 regional directors of business development currently employed in the United States.
There are 139,637 active regional director of business development job openings in the US.
The average regional director of business development salary is $104,909.
Are regional director of business development jobs in demand?
Regional director of business development job and salary trends over time
Regional director of business development jobs over time
Regional director of business development job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 30,322 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 28,857 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 28,398 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 26,025 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 23,986 | 0.01% |
Average regional director of business development salary over time
Regional director of business development salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $104,909 | $50.44 | +4.5% |
| 2025 | $100,428 | $48.28 | +1.9% |
| 2024 | $98,509 | $47.36 | +2.6% |
| 2023 | $96,003 | $46.16 | +2.6% |
| 2022 | $93,545 | $44.97 | +3.6% |
Regional director of business development jobs by state
Most common states for regional directors of business development
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 465 | 67% |
| 2 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 396 | 46% |
| 3 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 513 | 38% |
| 4 | Vermont | 623,657 | 218 | 35% |
| 5 | Alaska | 739,795 | 223 | 30% |
| 6 | West Virginia | 1,815,857 | 501 | 28% |
| 7 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 299 | 28% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 10,273,419 | 2,817 | 27% |
| 9 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 523 | 27% |
| 10 | South Carolina | 5,024,369 | 1,324 | 26% |
| 11 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 1,246 | 26% |
| 12 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 786 | 25% |
| 13 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 3,039 | 24% |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 1,394 | 24% |
| 15 | Arkansas | 3,004,279 | 714 | 24% |
| 16 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 693 | 24% |
| 17 | Hawaii | 1,427,538 | 332 | 23% |
| 18 | Oklahoma | 3,930,864 | 867 | 22% |
| 19 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 698 | 22% |
| 20 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 125 | 22% |
Most common cities for regional directors of business development
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annapolis | 1 | 3% | $94,100 |
| 2 | Bremerton | 1 | 2% | $105,227 |
| 3 | Olympia | 1 | 2% | $105,272 |
| 4 | Chicago | 2 | 0% | $98,014 |
| 5 | San Francisco | 1 | 0% | $112,292 |
| 6 | San Jose | 1 | 0% | $111,573 |
| 7 | Washington | 1 | 0% | $116,708 |
Regional Director Of Business Development job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of regional director of business development experts
Georgia State University
Texas Christian University
University of Saint Mary
The Pennsylvania State University
Baylor University
Christopher Newport University
Longwood University
Montana State University
Fordham University
MHI – Material Handling Industry
What will help Regional Directors Of Business Development increase their earning potential?
Salomao De Farias: Likes: IB analysts often see a direct impact of their work on company decisions and strategy, which can be highly satisfying. IB roles offer varied problems to solve, which can make every day interesting and intellectually stimulating. Working with international markets offers exposure to different cultures and business practices, enhancing personal and professional growth. Travelling internationally, getting to know different countries, cities and cultures around the globe. Dislikes: I wouldn’t call dislikes, rather challenges. I will start pointing that the stakes are high, as incorrect analysis could lead to poor strategic decisions. This pressure can be stressful. Also, navigating various international regulations, economic conditions, and cultural nuances can be daunting and complex. Depending on the markets covered, working hours might be irregular to overlap with different time zones.
Ken Corbit Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in MarketingTexas Christian University
Specialized Sales, Merchandising And Marketing Operations
What general advice would you give to a Regional Director Of Business Development?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: Strategic
Company Selection:
Focus on joining companies with robust sales training programs, emphasizing consultative selling. Look for organizations that invest in your development, providing live calling experiences, quota-driven sales processes, and exposure to tools like Salesforce.
Tech
Proficiency and Sales Tools Mastery:
Familiarize yourself with cutting-edge sales technologies, including CRM tools like Salesforce. Your proficiency in these tools will not only streamline your sales processes but also position you as a tech-savvy professional in the competitive sales landscape.
Hands-On
Experience:
Actively engage in live calling, take ownership of sales funnels, and work with senior hiring authorities during your training. This hands-on experience will not only build your confidence but also prepare you for the challenges of consultative selling.
Research
and Decision-Making Skills:
Develop strong research skills to evaluate companies based on fit, growth opportunities, compensation structures, and overall potential. This informed decision-making approach will set you apart and empower you to navigate the sales landscape strategically.
Mentorship
and Networking:
Seek mentorship both within and outside your organization. Building relationships with mentors who invest in your sales skills and knowledge will provide valuable insights. Additionally, actively participate in online forums to connect with practical sales
knowledge and best practices.
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs, Coordinator of All-University Honors ProgramUniversity of Saint Mary
Division of Business and Information Technologies (DBiT)
What hard/technical skills are most important for Regional Directors Of Business Development?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Familiarity with software-basic windows packages, particularly MS Word and Excel. Candidates should not be afraid of quantitative data analysis. Analytics are necessary to figuring out what your business is doing and how it can grow. Also, familiarity with whatever social media platforms are used in that industry can be very important.
What skills will help Regional Directors Of Business Development earn the most?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: One consideration is, does the position pay commission? If so, the soft skills listed above are extremely important because the more you apply those skills, the more likely you are to grow your business.
When a manager is not on commission, there's little correlation between skills and pay while doing the job. The employer will hire you at a given salary level, and it is your job to negotiate to the best position. Once they have chosen you-that's the moment when you have the most leverage. You will never get a raise that is as substantial as what you might be able to ask for upon hire. After that, most raises are not going to be tied mechanically to performance and skills. Your next chance at a raise will be when you move or are promoted to a new position. Thus, those soft skills can affect your ability to negotiate.
I will repeat a previous theme: education and experience are probably more important than skills in terms of making more money. An employer can't really tell what your skills are from your resume. Just because you say you have a skill doesn't mean that you really do. They can reasonably guess that somebody with a degree is responsible enough to have accomplished something big. Somebody who makes it through a graduate program is probably very good at what they know. And somebody who has been in the industry and/or in a similar job is more likely to be able to walk in with little orientation and know what they are doing. Employers take risks on employees and hope that they can deliver. Thus, with more education and more experience, you are able to apply for higher-level jobs, which usually come with higher salaries.
What skills stand out on Regional Director Of Business Development resumes?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Resumes are hard. It is very difficult to predict what any employer is looking for on any resume. The "skills" section of a resume is probably not the first thing most employers are looking at. The first consideration is probably education. Those with a bachelor's degree will be sorted first in fields-such as those who have business degrees, or particularly sales and marketing majors. Those with MBAs will be placed on the top. Those who have MBAs and marketing concentrations will likely be valued the most. The second consideration would probably be experience. Someone with several years of experience in business development or sales and marketing will be moved to the top. Someone with a bachelor's degree who has a lot of experience might beat out a fresh MBA. However, MBA plus experience beats almost everything. Someone with an MBA going for an entry-level position with little experience needed will likely beat out all bachelor challengers. For new graduates, getting some kind of internship in sales and marketing can differentiate them from those who do not.
Most hiring managers will probably assume that somebody who has sales and marketing education and/or experience probably has the skills necessary to do the job. An interviewer may probe on specific skills. I'll comment more specifically on other kinds of skills below, but it's also fair to say that a candidate's soft skills should shine in the interview. Simply saying that you have certain skills on a resume doesn't mean that you actually have them.
I think that the best thing a candidate can do is to research the company they hope to work for and tailor their resume to that employer. What does the business do? What kinds of things do you think that development manager is going to do in that particular industry? How do your skills as a candidate match what you guess they're looking for? The more you customize your resume, the better chances you have of resonating with the company. Employers are impressed when you already know something about the job and the industry.
What soft skills should all Regional Directors Of Business Development possess?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: First, critical and creative thinking. Employers value problem solvers. A Business Development Managers' problem usually is finding growth opportunities. Candidates need to learn to take the initiative to figure out how to solve problems like those.
Second, writing. The best employees know how to communicate in writing. More and more communication occurs through email and other forms of social media and apps, and as such, this skill is absolutely critical. You don't need to be a creative writing genius, but you do need to know how to write in a professional tone, present your ideas in an organized way, get to the point, and avoid errors. There is a direct line between a student's ability to write an academic essay with a clear thesis and an employee's ability to write a good email or proposal. If you can't do those things, then you risk embarrassment and possibly limited options for promotion.
Third, speaking. The American business world discriminates against introverts-sometimes at their own peril. Everyone needs to know how to give a quality speech, but more importantly, you need to sound confident and assertive in a board room during meetings. You need to be confident in front of clients. Fake it if you have to. The way you present yourself is absolutely critical.
Fourth, social skills. You need to be friendly. Get to know co-workers and clients. Find out what they like and show an interest. Find common ground. Your undergraduate degree hopefully exposed you to a wide diversity of topics you may have thought were irrelevant at some point. Now is the time to remember that stuff and use it to connect with people. Nearly everything you learned will have some application someday. It will help you connect with others. In addition, put away your cell phone when you are at work or on social occasions. To some people, a preoccupation with a cell phone communicates a lack of interest in the person you are with. It can alienate bosses, co-workers, and clients.
James Wilkerson Ph.D.
Business Program Coordinator, Project and Supply Chain Management Program CoordinatorThe Pennsylvania State University
Business Department
What skills stand out on Regional Director Of Business Development resumes?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skills, experience, knowledge, and abilities that matter especially strongly include target market analysis (including market research skills and knowledge), product/service positioning within competitive field, project work or coordination with sales staff, major client relationship management, and enough general business and industry knowledge to be able to relate business development to operational/production realities.
What soft skills should all Regional Directors Of Business Development possess?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Verbal skills (both speaking and writing), negotiation skills, unfailing honesty, ability to empathize with clients' wants, and teamwork skills suitable for working collaboratively with sales and operations staff.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Regional Directors Of Business Development?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Spreadsheet (Excel) skills (including graph production from data), basic statistical knowledge, and online information search skills.
What skills will help Regional Directors Of Business Development earn the most?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skill at rapidly learning market trends, relating business development to product development, and persuading major prospective clients when brought in to help with closing sales. Bottom line: the business development manager must be on the cutting edge of new market conditions and new business opportunities to help the firm organically grow its sales, especially in new markets or product/service lines.
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.
Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021Baylor University
Hankamer School of Business
What hard/technical skills are most important for Regional Directors Of Business Development?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: One of the growing technical skill requirements for sales managers is in the area of data analytics. Our performance and customer systems provide a myriad of data, and the role of the sales manager is to be a sense-maker of that mound of data. What are the implications for changes in strategy or behavior evident in last quarter's activity? How can the sales manager help a specific seller "see" where the data suggest new approaches?
What skills will help Regional Directors Of Business Development earn the most?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: People who can recognize patterns (in data, in people), build connections with and across others, create a focus on high-performance behaviors, and lead with a confident humility are those who will win today and in the future business environment.
Todd Lee Goen
Instructor & Internship DirectorChristopher Newport University
Department of Communication
What's a good job out of college for Regional Directors Of Business Development?
Todd Lee Goen: Pandemic or no pandemic, the best job out of college is one that sets you on the path to achieve your ultimate career goal(s). Reflect on where you want to be in five or ten years or even twenty-five years. Then consider positions that will set you on the path to achieve that goal. Very few people land their dream job upon graduation - dream jobs are typically those we're not qualified to do without some additional work experience and training. A good job is one that will help you achieve your goal(s) - just don't frame it that way in the interview.
Good jobs pay a livable salary for the location, offer benefits (health insurance and retirement at minimum), and provide professional development opportunities (these can take a variety of forms). Too often, college grads overlook professional development. If an employer isn't willing to invest in you, there's no guarantee you will succeed in the job. Good employers understand they need qualified employees who continually develop their skills and abilities, and good employers will make sure employees have the resources they need to succeed.
What technical skills for a Regional Director Of Business Development stand out to employers?
Todd Lee Goen: Technical skills are often industry and/or position specific. Applicants should highlight any technical skills related to the position advertisement and those that add value to the position/organization. Most importantly, requirements for technical skills change with time and technological advances. This means employers value workers capable of adapting to change and continually improving and acquiring new technical skills. Thus, it's usually more important to demonstrate you are capable of learning and developing technical skills than it is to have a specific skill set upon hire (although this is not true for some positions/industries).
That said, technical skills related to online presentations, virtual meetings, virtual networking, remote working and the like are hot commodities right now. While most organizations were in the process of adopting many of these technologies and ways of doing business pre-pandemic, the pandemic accelerated the process. Organizations are making it work, but they often don't know best practices or the most efficient means of working in the largely virtual, pandemic environment. Post-pandemic, many of the remote/virtual changes the pandemic brought will stay in some form. Technical skills that support this type of workplace will make applicants stand out to many employers because they need/want to do virtual/remote business better.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Regional Directors Of Business Development to find work opportunities?
Dr. David Lehr: Most job growth will continue to be in urban centers and the surrounding suburbs. Rural areas will continue to struggle (remote work notwithstanding).
What skills stand out on Regional Director Of Business Development resumes?
Dr. Angela Woodland Ph.D.: Skills that are immediately useful stand out on resumes. Right now, data analytics skills are in hot demand. A desirable job candidate should be able to import large data sets in various formats, clean data, manipulate data, interrogate data, and draw conclusions from the data. Additionally, the job candidate should be able to prepare informative and easy-to-follow data visualizations of the results. This skill set allows a job candidate to be immediately useful in an organization. It is the new way of analyzing and communicating.
What type of skills will young Regional Directors Of Business Development need?
Peter Johnson DPS: There are three things that employers are looking for:
1. Demonstrated ability to solve problems
2. Ability to analyze and make decisions based on data
3. Communication skills with management, teams, and clients
Michael Mikitka
Executive Vice PresidentMHI – Material Handling Industry
Knowledge Center and Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC)
What type of skills will young Regional Directors Of Business Development need?
Michael Mikitka: Courses and internships are essential. While the required depth of knowledge may vary from one position to another, employers are generally looking for candidates with strong "people-related" skills, those who are willing to continue to learn, and those with the ability to be flexible and adapt.
By "people-related" skills, I mean the abilities associated with effective communication (listen and express ideas and direction) and the skills related to working independently and a team.
As for the interest to continually learn... from a technology, data, and equipment perspective, today's supply chain looks very different than it did 10-years ago. The willingness and ability to continually learn are essential for anyone in a leadership role.
As for flexibility and adapting...supply chain/logistics is as much about responding to disruption and demand as it is planning for it. There is a predictable demand (i.e., seasonal...everyone knows when back-to-school shopping begins). Then there is the unpredictable demand (i.e., power-outages, wildfires, pandemic) that impact market and the ability to operate. Candidates that express flexibility and problem-solving skills will be much sought-after.