Business Development Manager
A Business Development Manager identifies and pursues new business opportunities, fosters strong client relationships, and drives sustainable growth. In this sample the focus is skilled trades education, blending market analysis, strategic planning, and partnership development. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Business Development Manager do?
This Business Development Manager role is designed for a driven, strategic professional who is passionate about identifying and pursuing new business opportunities, fostering strong client relationships, and driving sustainable financial growth. The role blends innovative thinking, effective communication, and a track record in developing successful business strategies, and plays an integral part in shaping the organization’s future in its market.
In this sample, the focus is the skilled trades sector, where the role connects educational programs to employer and market demand. It supports the education and workforce-training market.
A Business Development Manager in skilled trades education drives growth by uncovering market opportunity for trades programs, building partnerships, and developing proposals. Familiarity with the technical aspects of welding, plumbing, electrical, HVAC/R, and sustainability is advantageous, since the role must translate program offerings into employer and market language.
What does the Business Development Manager own?
Key responsibilities of a Business Development Manager
- Perform market analysis to uncover potential for educational programs within the skilled trades sector.
- Stay abreast of industry trends, standards, and technical advancements to pinpoint innovation and growth opportunities.
- Formulate and implement strategic plans to bolster domestic market presence.
- Craft persuasive proposals and presentations that resonate with client needs.
- Establish and nurture essential relationships with business stakeholders and partners, and collaborate to forge partnerships and actualize opportunities.
- Scout for alternative projects and initiatives within skilled trades education, and prepare business justifications for projects.
- Handle project management for business development activities across a diverse client base.
- Offer strategic sales and development support to the Vice President of Client Solutions.
- Work with internal teams, including Accounting, Marketing, and Operations, to guarantee flawless project delivery.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Bachelor’s degree in an analytical field such as engineering, economics, or business, or equivalent experience.
- 5 to 7 years of business development experience, with a preference for backgrounds in skilled trades.
- Proficiency in legal principles related to commercial contract negotiations, and the ability to manage complex, multi-component projects.
- A champion of innovation and eco-friendly practices, able to assimilate complex technical information quickly.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, innovative problem-solving, and an independent, motivated outlook.
- Availability for business travel as required.
Why is the Business Development Manager role important?
Business development drives the growth pipeline. In skilled trades education, the role connects training programs to employer and market demand, turning industry relationships into sustainable enrollment and revenue at a time when the trades face a well-documented workforce shortage.
Because the role sits between technical programs and commercial relationships, the strongest candidates can speak credibly to a welding or HVAC employer and still build a clean business case and contract. That blend of technical fluency and commercial discipline is what sets the role apart from general sales.
A hiring note from Excelon
Skilled trades business development rewards people who understand both the technical work and the commercial side. Through our education and workforce practice, we look for BD professionals who can hold a credible conversation about welding, electrical, or HVAC/R programs while building the partnerships and proposals that turn employer demand into enrollment, since technical credibility opens doors that polished sales talk cannot.
The strongest candidates can speak credibly to a trades employer and still build a clean business case and contract.
Related sample job descriptions
Business Development Manager: frequently asked questions
What does a Business Development Manager do?
A Business Development Manager identifies and pursues new business opportunities, builds client relationships, and drives sustainable growth. In this sample, the focus is skilled trades education, including market analysis, strategic plans, proposals, and partnerships.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires a bachelor’s degree in an analytical field such as engineering, economics, or business (or equivalent experience) and 5 to 7 years of business development experience, with a preference for a skilled trades background.
What sectors does this role cover?
This sample centers on skilled trades education, with familiarity in the technical aspects of welding, plumbing, electrical, HVAC/R, and sustainability considered advantageous.
Who does the role support?
The Business Development Manager offers strategic sales and development support to the Vice President of Client Solutions and works with internal teams including Accounting, Marketing, and Operations to deliver projects.
Why is this role important?
Business development drives the growth pipeline. In skilled trades education, the role connects training programs to employer and market demand, turning industry relationships into sustainable enrollment and revenue.
Hiring a Business Development Manager?
Excelon Associates recruits business development managers, partnership leaders, and growth professionals for education and workforce-training organizations across the United States through our education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.