Business Development Resume

To make it in business development, you need to convince companies that you have the confidence, leadership, and business expertise necessary to improve growth and bring an organization to the next level.

The best way to do that is with an effective resume.

Here are four expert tips for writing the best business development resume possible:

Highlight your business development skills

To show hiring managers that you’re capable of steering a business in the right direction, you need to demonstrate your ability to innovate and drive results.

That’s why including a detailed resume skills section that showcases your business development expertise is essential.

As a business development professional, you’ll be responsible for identifying new markets, arranging meetings with potential clients, and developing growth strategies depending on the company’s needs. ell.

To get you started, here are some of the most important hard and soft skills to include on your business development resume:

• Business forecasting
• B2B sales
• Relationship management
• Microsoft Office
• Problem-solving skills
• Sales experience and strategy
• Communication skills
• Public speaking
• CRM Software (Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce)
• Proposal writing
• Account management
• Interpersonal skills
• Vendor management

Open with a strong business development resume summary

As a business-savvy professional seeking a career growing profit margins, you need to know how to give a great pitch.

Think of your resume summary as an elevator pitch for your resume.

Done well, a resume summary will grab any hiring manager’s attention and convince them to keep reading the rest of your resume.

Here’s an example of what a strong business development resume summary looks like:

Example:

Business development professional with 8+ years of experience managing multi-million dollar construction projects, coordinating a team of 90+ subcontractors, and performing new client acquisition projects and analysis. Boosted company’s quarterly sales by 20% while reducing costs by 15% annually.

Include strong business development action verbs

As a business development professional, your value to a potential employer is what you do every single day to grow the company. Your experience section is where you show those actions off.

So how do you best communicate your past successes and responsibilities? By using strong business development action verbs.

Including action verbs on your resume helps bring your past job responsibilities to life by demonstrating the specific actions you took to achieve positive results.

Here are some action verbs to incorporate in your business development resume:

Target the job description

On your resume, emphasize different aspects of your skillset to match what the employer is looking for so they know you’re prepared to take on job-specific duties.

Targeting your resume to the job description lets employers know you’re qualified. It also increases your chances of getting interviewed, especially if the company is using applicant tracking systems (ATS) to weed out unqualified applicants.

For example, consider the following job requirements:

Required Qualifications:

• Experience working in consumer product goods
• Microsoft Office or Google Suite proficiency
• Ability to work collaboratively across channels to align priorities, optimize resources, and execute projects efficiently
• Adept at understanding customer concerns and priorities
• Experience building customer relationships and/or industry partnerships

Here’s how to effectively target these skills and experiences on a resume:

Business Development Specialist
Petco, San Diego, CA
June 2020 – August 2022

• Established and maintained strategic partnerships with key industry players, enabling cross-channel collaboration that increased customer satisfaction ratings by 22% and streamlined the sales process
• Used Google Suite tools to create detailed reports, analyze market data, and present findings to various departments, collecting feedback on how to better optimize resources and align priorities between departments
• Conducted customer-focused research and analysis, identifying trends and pain points, which informed the development of innovative CPG offerings that boosted customer retention rates by 12%

These work experience bullet points let the hiring manager know that the candidate has the job knowledge and experience necessary to succeed in the new role. Plus, success measures like improved customer satisfaction and retention show that they can do the job effectively.

Consider adding some descriptive examples and quantifiable achievements to your business development resume to show hiring managers what you can accomplish.