What are the roles and responsibilities of a business development executive?

Building a target account list, outreach by call, email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, fast response to inbound enquiries, qualifying prospects, running first meetings and demos, preparing proposals, following up, recording everything in the CRM and reporting the pipeline weekly.

What skills does a BDE need?

Clear communication, curiosity about the customer's business, persistence, organised follow-up, and working knowledge of spreadsheets, email, LinkedIn and a CRM. Industry knowledge helps but can be taught.

What are the KRAs of a business development executive?

Pipeline creation, outreach, conversion from meeting to proposal to order, speed and follow-up on leads, and data quality in the CRM. Each is measured by one or two numbers taken from the CRM.

Is a BDE the same as a sales executive?

Not quite. A BDE is measured on new opportunities created and may hand over for closing. A sales executive is measured on orders and revenue. Small companies often use the two titles for one job, so state the responsibilities plainly.

What qualification is needed for a BDE?

A graduate degree in any stream is the usual minimum. Some employers prefer an MBA. Freshers are widely hired and trained.

How should a BDE be paid?

Most companies pay a fixed salary plus an incentive. For long sales cycles, link part of the incentive to meetings or qualified opportunities, so the person is rewarded for the right activity before revenue arrives. The template leaves the amounts to you.

What should a BDE do in the first month?

Learn the product and the ideal customer in week one, build a target list and start reviewed outreach in week two, attend first meetings with a senior colleague in week three, and run meetings alone by week four.

BDE Job Description

Business Development Executive Job Description: A Template You Can Copy

Roles and responsibilities, skills, KRAs and KPIs, interview questions and a first month plan for hiring a BDE in an Indian business.

Last updated: 21 Jul 2026

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Quick answer

What does a business development executive do?

A business development executive creates new business for a company. The work is building a list of target accounts, reaching out, qualifying the need and the budget, running first meetings and demos, sending proposals and following up until the deal is won or handed to a senior colleague. The role is measured on opportunities created and orders won.

Copy the full template below, or download it as a Word file
Includes KRAs and KPIs, interview questions and a first month plan
For the meaning of the title, see BDE full form

BDE full form Sales executive job description

Business development executive job description template

Copy the text below, fill in the square brackets and delete what does not apply. It suits a company hiring someone to open new accounts, whether the selling is done by phone, online or in person.

Job title: Business Development Executive

Reports to: [Business Development Manager / Founder]

Location: [City, and whether field, office or hybrid]

Experience: [0 to 3 years]

Languages: [English, Hindi and the local language]

Role summary

[Company] provides [product or service] to [type of customer]. The business development executive creates new business: finding the right prospects, starting conversations, understanding the need, booking meetings or demos, sending proposals and following up until the deal is won or handed to a senior colleague to close.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain a list of target accounts that fit our ideal customer
Reach out by call, email, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, and reply to inbound enquiries within [30 minutes]
Qualify each prospect: need, budget, decision maker and timeline
Book and run first meetings and product demos
Prepare proposals and quotations with the manager
Follow up with a dated next step on every open opportunity
Represent the company at [events / exhibitions] where required
Record every call, meeting and email in the CRM the same day
Report pipeline created, meetings held and forecast every week

Skills and qualifications

Graduate in any stream. MBA preferred but not required
Clear spoken and written English, and [other languages]
Curiosity about how customers run their business
Persistence and organised follow-up
Working knowledge of spreadsheets, email, LinkedIn and a CRM

Performance measures

Qualified opportunities created per month
Meetings or demos held
Proposals sent and orders won
New leads contacted within the agreed time

Pay and benefits

Fixed salary of [amount] per month, plus incentive on [meetings / orders] as per the plan shared at offer. [Other benefits.]

How to apply

Send your CV to [email] with the subject Business Development Executive - [City].

Download the same text as an editable Word file: Business development executive job description (.docx). Replace everything in square brackets before you post it.

Business development executive job description template: role summary, responsibilities, skills, performance measures, pay and how to apply — The BDE job description as a one-page template.

KRAs and KPIs to put in the job description

A candidate should know how the job will be judged before accepting it. Put the key result areas in the advert and the target figures in the offer letter. Set the figures from your own history.

KRA	KPIs	Where the number comes from
Pipeline creation	Qualified opportunities created; value of pipeline added	CRM deals report, filtered by creator
Outreach	New prospects contacted per week; reply and meeting rate	CRM activity report
Conversion	Meetings to proposals; proposals to orders	CRM stage report
Speed and follow-up	Inbound leads contacted within the agreed time; open leads with a dated next action	CRM lead and task reports
Data quality	Accounts with decision maker, need and timeline recorded	CRM field completeness

How to write these is covered in KRA full form, and the measures in the sales KPIs guide.

Interview questions that reveal something

Pick a company you think should buy from us. Why them, and whom would you contact first?
Write a four-line first message to that person. Look for relevance, not length.
A prospect says send me details. What do you do next?
How do you decide that a lead is not worth more of your time?
Show me how you track your follow-ups today.
Tell me about a time you kept going after several no replies. What changed the outcome?

The sales hiring assessment helps you decide what kind of person you need before you interview anyone, and hiring your first sales rep covers the process end to end.

The first thirty days

Week 1. Product, pricing, ideal customer profile, the CRM and the outreach templates. Listen to recorded calls.
Week 2. Build a list of fifty target accounts. Start outreach with messages reviewed by the manager.
Week 3. First meetings, with a senior colleague present. Daily ten-minute pipeline check.
Week 4. Run meetings alone. Agree targets for meetings and opportunities for the next quarter.

Writing the advert: what to leave out

Leave out age and gender preferences, which narrow your pool and invite complaints. Leave out unlimited earning potential, which experienced candidates read as a low fixed salary. Never ask an applicant for money, for training or a deposit. And replace good communication skills with what you mean: the languages needed, and whether the work is on the phone, in person or in writing.

Short version for job portals and LinkedIn

Hiring: Business Development Executive, [City]. [Company] provides [product] to [customers]. You will find and contact prospects, run first meetings and demos, send proposals and follow up. [0 to 3] years experience. Fixed salary [amount] plus incentive. Send your CV to [email].

What the title means

If you are a candidate trying to understand the role, start with BDE full form, which explains the work, the skills and the path to BDM. Templates for the neighbouring roles: sales executive, telecaller and sales manager.

Give the new hire a system, not a spreadsheet

A BDE juggles dozens of conversations at different stages. HelloGrowthCRM keeps each one on a record with an owner, a stage and a next date, places calls and WhatsApp messages from that record, and shows the manager the pipeline each BDE has created. See lead management software, sales CRM, the sales commission calculator and India pricing.

Challenges we solve

Four hiring mistakes this template helps you avoid

Business development hires fail more often from a vague brief than from a weak candidate.

The company hires a BDE without deciding who the ideal customer is.

Write the ideal customer into the job description. A BDE without a target list spends the first two months guessing.Ideal customer defined

The BDE is measured on revenue in month one, in a business with a three-month sales cycle.

Measure early months on opportunities and meetings, and revenue later. Put both in the KRAs.Leading measures first

Outreach happens from personal email and WhatsApp, so there is no record.

Run outreach from the CRM, so every message and reply sits on the account record and survives a resignation.Outreach on the record

Inbound leads and outbound prospects are tracked in different places.

Keep both in one pipeline with a source field. The manager can then compare what each source turns into.One pipeline

What you get

Why teams choose HelloGrowthCRM

AI-powered CRM with the features you need to close more deals.

Every enquiry from your website, WhatsApp, phone calls, ads and marketplaces lands in one list as a lead with an owner

A visual pipeline shows each deal by stage, so a manager can see what is open without asking anyone

Follow-up reminders are created for each lead, so the next call or message has a date and a person against it

A built-in dialer places calls from the lead record and logs them, with recording where consent applies

A shared WhatsApp inbox on the official Business API lets the team reply from one number, with the chat saved on the customer record

AI lead scoring ranks leads by how likely they are to convert, so the best ones are called first

Quotations and GST invoices are created from the deal, so numbers are not retyped between documents

Reports show leads by source, conversion by stage and activity by team member

Mobile apps let field staff update a lead straight after the meeting, while the details are fresh

A free plan for one user lets you start without paying, and paid plans start at ₹899 per user per month plus GST

Compare HelloGrowthCRM to HubSpot, Salesforce & more

HelloGrowthCRM by the numbers

$12: per user/month list price — $10/user/mo on annual billing, ₹899/user/mo in India
$0: free forever starter plan — no credit card required
14-day: trial included on paid plans
259+: live integrations, from WhatsApp to Tally and QuickBooks
500+: teams worldwide run their pipeline on HelloGrowthCRM