How To Become A Sales Development: What It Is and Career Path

What is a sales development and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The job of this personnel is centered around outbound sales strategy. You will create outreach strategies for new lead generation to get new clients. You will contact potential customers through cold-calling or respond to inquiries gotten from advertisements.

Furthermore, you will build relationships with customers to identify their potential needs, their interests, and viability to drive sales. Upon identifying clients' needs, you will share product or service information with them. You may have to work with sales executives to ensure the company's targets are met. Additionally, you will promote sales and link customers with the right salesperson.

To succeed in this position, you need communication, problem-solving, time management, analytical, interpersonal, teamwork, computer, and customer service skills. You'd be earning an average salary of $52,008 per year. This ranges between $36,000 and $75,000. For this role, you'd need a bachelor's degree in sales, marketing, or a related field. You must be familiar with prospecting applications.

ScoreSales DevelopmentUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $89,435

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.4

Growth Rate 5%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 31.68%

male 68.32%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress Level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.4

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sales development

Explore sales development education requirements

Most common sales development degrees

Bachelor's

75.5 %

Master's

9.4 %

Associate

8.9 %

Start to develop specific sales development skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	38.58%
Cloud	17.64%
Workflow Rules	2.82%
Custom Objects	2.53%
Apex	2.50%

Complete relevant sales development training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sales development learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sales development based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sales development resumes.

Research sales development duties and responsibilities

Manage the submission of all RFP responses for body worn cameras, software and relate services.
Manage corporate accounts and generate revenue from sales of treasury management services.
Manage logistics for large and complex equipment deliveries, overseeing domestic and international traffic to ensure compliance with multiple government regulations.
Manage distributor accounts including inventory management, allocations, and communicating internally with purchasing, logistics, finance and shipping departments.

Prepare your sales development resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sales development resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sales development resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Sales Development Resume templates

Build a professional Sales Development resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Sales Development resume.

Apply for sales development jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a sales development job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do sales development rate their job?