CBDO (Chief Business Development Officer)

Also known as: Chief Business Development Officer, Chief Partnerships Officer, SVP Business Development, VP Business Development, Head of Business Development.

What does a CBDO do?

A CBDO is an executive who looks for growth outside the current sales funnel: through partners, new markets and deals the company has never done before. In a tech company this means platforms, integrations and large partners that change the scale of the business. A CBDO's work is done when a signed deal brings revenue, not just a press release.

• Finds strategic partners and leads long negotiations with them.
• Prepares entry into a new market or segment: the model, partners, first customers.
• Agrees integrations and joint products with other companies.
• Takes part in M&A: looks for companies to buy and assesses what they would bring.
• Hands working partnerships over to sales and account management.

When does a company need a CBDO?

A company needs a CBDO when its next growth step depends on other companies: the product is ready for a new market, a large partner could open access to thousands of customers, and the founder no longer has time to lead such negotiations personally. Most often these are companies after product-market fit with a working sales channel of their own. The role will not work if the company has no repeatable sales or clear product yet: there is nothing to offer partners. In that case it first needs a CMO or a strong sales leader, and the CEO handles business development for now.

CBDO vs Head of Sales: what's the difference?

A CBDO differs from a Head of Sales in the type of work: a Head of Sales runs a repeatable sales process and owns the quota, while a CBDO opens what does not exist yet — new markets, partnerships and non-standard deals. These are different functions with different skills: a strong sales leader builds the machine, a strong CBDO finds where to point it. A CMO differs from a CBDO in channel: the CMO creates demand through marketing, the CBDO through other companies.

CBDO vs related roles: comparison

Why is it hard to hire a CBDO?

A CBDO is hard to hire because companies look for very different people under one title, and the result of their work is hard to verify from outside.

• The title means different things: in one company it is a dealmaker with a network, in another someone who builds a partnerships team, in a third an M&A lead.
• A deal's result shows a year or two later, and a CV rarely tells a deal the candidate conceived and closed from one where they were simply in the room.
• A candidate's value often lies in a network in a specific market, and such networks transfer poorly to another industry or country.
• Strong CBDOs rarely look for jobs openly: partners know them, and moves usually happen through personal contacts.

What to decide before hiring a CBDO?

• Which new revenue stream is needed in the first year? Partnerships, a new market and M&A need different experience, and without a choice the search sprawls.
• Who owns the revenue after the deal is signed? If this is not settled, the partnership gets stuck between the CBDO and sales.
• Which terms can the CBDO agree alone? Without authority over pricing and integrations, they will only carry proposals to the CEO.
• Is a personal network in a specific market required? It is the main search filter and is better named up front.

Where to find a CBDO?

CBDOs most often come from Head of Business Development and Head of Partnerships roles at platforms, B2B SaaS, fintech and marketplaces with a similar model, and from strategy teams at large tech companies. A strong profile signal is a partnership or new market the person opened that brought a noticeable share of revenue a year later. NEWHR looks for such candidates by the results of their work, not by applications to a job post.

How to assess a CBDO in an interview?

A CBDO is assessed through a walkthrough of two or three deals the candidate led and a case on the company's market. In the case the candidate chooses which partners and markets to go to first and why. On the company side the CEO and usually an investor take part; references come from the candidate's former partners.

Strong signals:

• explains what they gave up in a negotiation and why it was worth it;
• names a deal they walked away from;
• knows what a deal brought the business a year later.

Red flags:

• talks about signings and memoranda, not revenue;
• cannot explain how a deal worked after it was signed;
• proposes approaching every large player in the market at once, without priorities.

How long does it take to hire a CBDO?

We present the first candidates for the CBDO role within 5–7 days of the brief. The whole search usually takes one to six months.

Related roles

• CMO — creates demand through marketing, while the CBDO creates it through partners.
• CEO — leads large deals and partnerships personally until there is a CBDO.
• COO — owns the operations a new market needs to start working.
• Solutions Engineer — handles the technical side of integrations and partner deals.