Moving from sales into business development is realistic if you've been hitting targets for a year or two, because the core skills (prospecting, qualifying, closing) carry straight across. What changes is the horizon: you stop being measured on this month's number and start being measured on relationships and revenue that land six to eighteen months out.
Is business development actually different from sales?
Yes, though the line is blurrier than job adverts suggest. Sales usually means closing known demand against a quota. Business development, in most UK firms, means creating demand that doesn't exist yet: partnerships, new markets, channel deals, strategic accounts.
The titles muddy things. Some companies use "BDM" for what is really an outbound sales role with a nicer name. Read the job description for words like partnerships, alliances, market entry and stakeholders. If it's all pipeline and quota, it's sales wearing a different badge.
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Which of my sales skills will transfer?
Most of them, but not equally. Negotiation, objection handling, pipeline discipline and CRM hygiene (Salesforce or HubSpot, usually) all move across without much fuss. Commercial judgement does too, if you've ever walked away from a bad deal.
What doesn't transfer automatically is patience. A BDM might spend four months on a conversation that never touches a contract. If your sales career has been built on fast cycles and weekly commission, you'll need to show you can work without that feedback loop.
What do recruiters look for in a business development manager?
Recruiters look for evidence that you've opened doors, not just walked through ones someone else opened. That means new accounts you sourced yourself, partnerships you initiated, a market or segment you cracked.
In my experience, the candidates who stall are the ones whose CV says "exceeded target by 120%" and nothing else. Hiring managers for BD roles want the story behind the number. How did you find the account? Who did you have to persuade internally? What did it take to get a second meeting?
How do I reposition my CV for a BDM role?
Rewrite your bullets so they describe origination and relationships, with the target mentioned second. Compare these two:
- Before: "Exceeded annual quota of £600k."
- After: "Identified and opened a new mid-market segment from scratch, building a £250k pipeline in nine months and converting three accounts into multi-year contracts."
Same person, same year. The second one reads like a BD hire. Put your headline at the top too, something like "Commercial professional with a record of opening new markets and building partnerships" rather than "Results-driven sales executive".
On LinkedIn, do the same. Recruiters search for "business development" and "partnerships" as keywords, so make sure they appear in your headline and About section. LinkedIn's own guidance on profile keywords is worth ten minutes.
How should I answer BDM interview questions?
Expect questions about long cycles, ambiguity and influence. "Tell me about a deal you started with no inbound interest" is a common one, and "How do you decide which partnerships are worth pursuing?" is another.
If you're a graduate or early-career, lean on any project where you built something from nothing, even a society sponsorship or a campus partnership. If you're switching from a few years in sales, use a real deal you sourced and describe it in stages. A usable line: "I wasn't handed that account. I spotted the gap, found the decision-maker through a mutual contact, and spent three months building trust before we discussed price."
And prepare a point of view on the company's market. BD interviews reward candidates who've done their homework on where growth might come from.
What does a BDM earn in the UK?
From what I see in the market, entry-level BDM roles commonly sit between £30,000 and £45,000 basic, with mid-level roles reaching £50,000 to £70,000, and OTE often well above that in tech and professional services. Pay varies widely by sector and by how much of the package is variable. Check current benchmarks on the ONS earnings pages for the wider picture, then compare against live adverts on OHUB's jobs board.
If you're weighing this against staying in sales, the sales career progression guide lays out the alternative routes side by side.
What's the smartest first move?
Find one person already in a BD role at a company you'd want to join and ask them a specific question about how their pipeline works. Not for a job. For a conversation. OHUB's HubFluencer programme is one way to build visibility while you do it.
This week: rewrite three bullets on your CV so each one starts with something you originated, then send a short message to one BDM on LinkedIn asking how they find their first meeting.
