How to become a business develpoment specialist

How to become a Business Development Specialist
There appears to be no one education or credentialing job qualification to become a business development specialist. Because the job has much to dowith generating new opportunities for a business, a lot depends on how successful a business developer has been in the past - one's track record and new business brought in speaks for itself. Businessdevelopments specialists have educational backgrounds that span the gambit, from formal marketing and business degrees to finance/accounting to science to liberal arts. It could be said that more sothan a formal education would be the value of one's network and who a business developer knows that counts when it comes to landing job opportunities. Business development specialist often have dynamicbackgrounds that sometimes span a number of industries over the years. Business development specialists at larger companies tend to be well seasoned, well connected individuals with an alreadyestablished presence in the marketplace.
What does a Business Development Specialist do?
The traditional terms for this role are sales and sometimes marketing. A business development specialist isresponsible for generating new leads for a company and helping with the new client/customer pursuit process. This is essentially a sales job and sometimes involves working with contact databases, coldcalling, networking, organizing and putting on events, attending tradeshows, participating in networking organization leadership, marketing and PR work, etc. The idea is to be working strategically in themarketplace to be in the places where your target clients/customers are and to be visible to those clients/customers in a way that keeps the company top of mind. Business development specialists aresometimes not alone when going out to drum up new business. For example, in a professional services organization like a law or accounting firm, there are principals who also do business development. In...