What should a Business Development Manager CV show?
A Business Development Manager CV should make commercial impact visible. Recruiters usually want to see how you built pipeline, won new business, managed relationships and converted opportunities into revenue — not just that you were responsible for sales.
ApplyWell’s role benchmark is built from common UK terminology for Business Development Manager work. It is a useful starting point, but the actual vacancy should always take priority because employers describe similar jobs differently.
Common Business Development Manager CV keywords
These are examples of terms that can be relevant to Business Development Manager applications. Only use a term when it truthfully reflects your experience.
Responsibilities worth evidencing
Depending on the vacancy, a recruiter may expect evidence around responsibilities such as:
- Build and manage a sales pipeline
- Develop customer relationships and identify opportunities
- Negotiate and close sales
- Achieve revenue, activity and conversion targets
How to write your Business Development Manager personal profile
Your opening profile should position you for the target role in a few lines. Focus on relevant experience, the environment you have worked in and the strongest skills or results you can prove.
Business Development Manager with experience generating new business, building pipeline and developing long-term customer relationships. Skilled in prospecting, proposals, negotiation and CRM pipeline management, with a track record of delivering [insert genuine revenue, conversion or growth result].
Turn duties into stronger evidence
A CV becomes more convincing when responsibilities are supported with scale, quality, output or results. Use real figures where you know them, but do not invent numbers simply to make a bullet sound stronger.
Built and managed a pipeline worth £[X], converting [X%] of qualified opportunities into new business.
Won £[X] in new revenue across [period / territory / sector] through targeted prospecting and relationship development.
Improved conversion or average deal value from [A] to [B] by refining qualification, proposals or negotiation.
Alternative job titles to consider
Employers may advertise similar work under different titles. For this benchmark, related titles include BDM, Business Development Executive, BD Manager, and New Business Manager. Search broadly, but make sure the responsibilities genuinely match the work you want.
Common ATS mistakes on a Business Development Manager CV
- Using the same generic profile for every vacancy.
- Adding role keywords that are not supported by genuine experience.
- Listing duties without showing scale, quality, improvement or outcome.
- Hiding important experience inside long paragraphs instead of clear bullets.
- Relying only on a generic benchmark when the actual vacancy is available.
Check your CV against this role
ApplyWell’s free checker can preload the Business Development Manager benchmark and compare your CV with common role terminology. If you have the real job advert, paste that too for a more vacancy-specific comparison.