Could someone please explain;

SiaSia

what the main difference between a sales manager is and a business development manager/executive.

Just interested in hearing what the different positions entail and how exactly they differ in responsibilities and skills needed. thank you.

System

i would assume that a sales manager is a "basic" manager type role whereas a business development manager/executive may have a more proactive role in creating business.ie contacting potential customers [cold calling]

BackOnTrack

A sales manager would IMO be responsible for the day to day selling of a companies products and ensuring revenue targets are met. He may have some input into the strategy side of the sales i.e. who and how to target but I would expect to be mainly focussed on managing their sales team, perhaps being directly involved in some bigger deals and the reporting of these.

A business development manager I would expect to be a more strategic role and would be involved across a number of departments including sales, marketing, product development etc. Also looking internally at how the company can be more effective and better structured. I wouldn't expect them to be involved much at the day to day level.

They are very broad roles and in my experience can vary significantly between companies.

saintjammyswine

Sales is often referred to as Business Development within organisations that try to shy away from having a 'sales' function. For example a lot of education providers will have a Business Development dept. that will provide a sales function.

mizzbiz

In my experience, Business Development Manager has come about due to an element of shame in calling them Sales Managers. The companies I work with all have Business Development people these days whereas the same job used to be called sales manager/sales executive.

I think the only technical distinction really is that a Business Development Manager usually is involved directly in generating business (as I think has already been mentioned) whereas in two companies I came from the Sales Manager would co-ordinate the sales team, manage performance, collate statistics and report to the GM/MD without actually going int he field to make sales directly.

Sambucus_Nigra

Better to tell us why you are asking - as the argument could go either way......as to whether they are the same or fundamentally different.

poppy_f1

where i work business development managers source new business and sales managers deal with the day to dy accounts and pick the new business when they are trading with our company

cazziebo

BackOnTrack wrote: »

A sales manager would IMO be responsible for the day to day selling of a companies products and ensuring revenue targets are met. He may have some input into the strategy side of the sales i.e. who and how to target but I would expect to be mainly focussed on managing their sales team, perhaps being directly involved in some bigger deals and the reporting of these.

A business development manager I would expect to be a more strategic role and would be involved across a number of departments including sales, marketing, product development etc. Also looking internally at how the company can be more effective and better structured. I wouldn't expect them to be involved much at the day to day level.

.

This is a good explananation of what the roles should be but as some of the posters have said, the titles are often used indiscriminately, often to hide the dirty "sales" word.

If the OP can give some context, we might be better placed to advise.