The profession of sales continues to evolve. Over time, the role of the salesperson has been sliced into two different roles, the business development representative (BDR) and the salesperson who closes the deal. The business development rep is responsible for cold outreach and qualifying the prospective client. Once they have connected the prospective client and qualified them, the BDR turns the prospect and sale over to an experienced salesperson. In this post we'll compare the two roles and provide guidance on what sales leaders should to do improve their long-term success.
Business Development versus Sales: Value Creation for Their Company
The question of business development versus sales begins with a question of what value they provide for their company. Both roles are valuable.
The business development representative creates value for the company by contacting their prospects to open a conversation. Companies that use this role believe salespeople who are capable of closing deals should not spend their time making cold calls. Instead, they should work on real, qualified opportunities. BDRs also create value for their company by serving up qualified opportunities. Once the BDR hands over the opportunity to the closing salesperson, they work on identifying and pursuing others.
Business Development versus Sales: Value Creation for their Prospective Clients
In addition to creating value for the company, anyone in a sales role must also create value for prospective clients. The business development rep creates value for the contacts they engage with during prospecting. This starts with a conversation about how the prospective client might improve their results. In the next part of the conversation, however, the BDR must qualify the prospective client, something that creates anti-value. It seems odd that someone would call a prospective client to ask them a set of questions that would disqualify them in a first meeting.
No prospective client finds it valuable when a business development representative asks if they have a budget, authority, need, and deadline to make some change that might be enabled by whatever the BDR's company sells.
Once the questions about qualification are out of the way, the sales organization can create more value for the prospective client. The salesperson who accepts the opportunity engages in the parts of the sales conversation that create value, starting with discovery and ending with closing the deal that the BDR created.
In a contest of who creates more value for the client, it is probably the salesperson. Freed from having to discuss topics that are of little value to the client, they may have a better conversation.
Sales versus Business Development Representative: The Value of the Role
Salespeople who are currently in a business development role will do well in a full cycle sales role. Because they have become desensitized to cold calling, they have the skill to pick up the phone and schedule a meeting. Most people in the BDR role don't realize how well they are likely to do when they expand their role.
When sales work is split into BDR and sales roles, closing salespeople likely enjoy not having to make cold calls. While this might be nice for them at the time, failing to keep up their prospecting chops can cause them to struggle if they change jobs. Salespeople would do well to avoid becoming domesticated house cats that need someone to feed them.
It's also important to recognize that the salesperson is paid more for winning the deal, even though they only have it because the BDR created it.
Sales versus Business Development Representative: Overall Development
The business development person who does not participate in the opportunities they create will not automatically develop into a salesperson. They often lack the ability to listen to clients on a deeper level. And they do not have many opportunities to learn how to create value in a conversation with their contacts. These two factors will stunt their growth and may leave them stuck in a business development role for far longer than necessary.
A good business development rep, one that can book their meetings, will have little trouble finding a company that will let them create opportunities. Even if the company needs to help them acquire the skills they didn’t need in their BDR role, they are still appealing hires. Your BDR may soon become your competitor's new salesperson.
The salesperson who relies on others to create their opportunities for them may find they have regressed and lost their willingness to prospect for themselves. Those in organizations that have BDRs should maintain a hybrid role and spend time prospecting. Keeping up with their skills will help them be better prepared should they move companies.
In the question of overall development, the BDR wins because it is easier to hire and develop a salesperson who is skilled at creating new opportunities than it is to retrain someone who is out of practice when it comes to prospecting.
The Best Way to Use a Business Development Role
The best way a sales organization can use a business development role is for helping entry-level salespeople learn to create opportunities. But once they are competent at that, sales managers should force them to join salespeople on their calls to gain firsthand experience in how to create greater value for their prospective clients. This will prepare them to take a role that has them handling the entire sales conversation.
Those who churn and burn business development representatives make a mistake by not developing them into full-cycle salespeople. It’s a mistake when managers fail to recognize that the business development rep is ready for their next challenge and does not give them greater responsibilities for handling opportunities. If they want to grow their revenue, sales organizations will need salespeople who can create value for clients.
Business Development Representative versus Sales
There is value in both roles, but the differences between the business development representative and sales comes down to value. Each role provides a different level of value to the individual, their company, and their prospective clients. The risk to companies that organize their sales force by dividing it is that it makes the process feel transactional to the BDR and the companies they call.
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