Business Development Representative

Position Overview: We are seeking a highly motivated and results-driven Business Development Representative (BDR) to join our sales team within the IT / managed service provider (MSP) industry. The primary responsibility of this role is to identify and generate qualified leads for managed IT services (e.g., help desk, network management, cloud services, cybersecurity, and backup/disaster recovery). The successful candidate will initiate contact with potential customers, qualify needs and fit, nurture relationships, and convert qualified conversations into sales opportunities. This role is ideal for someone who aspires to grow into an outside sales position managing accounts and long-term relationships. You will be supported by a dedicated sales team, robust marketing resources, established procedures, and a strong brand. Success in this role requires comfort using a CRM to track outreach and activity; HubSpot experience is a plus but familiarity with any CRM is most important.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Lead Generation: Research and identify target accounts and contacts (e.g., local SMBs and mid-market organizations) using online research, intent signals, referrals, networking, industry events, and social channels.
2. Prospect Outreach: Execute early funnel outreach via phone, email, and social messaging to introduce Vancord’s managed IT services and book qualified discovery meetings. Clearly and professionally differentiate Vancord from competitors through value-based messaging.
3. LinkedIn Prospecting (Social Selling): Use LinkedIn and, where available, Sales Navigator to identify and engage target accounts and decision-makers. Build relevant lead lists, send professional connection requests and InMail messages, and engage with prospect content to improve response rates and meeting conversion.
4. Qualification and Needs Assessment: Qualify inbound and outbound leads by understanding their business goals, current IT environment, pain points (e.g., downtime, security risk, compliance requirements), decision process, timeline, and budget to determine fit.
5. Relationship Building: Build and maintain professional relationships with prospects by providing relevant information, responding to questions, and nurturing leads through the qualification process until handoff to the sales team.
6. Sales Opportunity Creation: Create and advance opportunities by articulating business outcomes (security, productivity, cost control) and confirming next steps, including scheduling discovery calls, assessments, or onsite/virtual consultations as appropriate. 
7. Collaboration: Partner with Sales and Marketing to align outreach with MSP offers and campaigns (e.g., cybersecurity assessments, compliance readiness, cloud migrations) and to provide feedback on messaging, objections, and market trends.
8.  CRM Management: Maintain accurate contact, company, and deal records in the CRM. Log all activities (calls, emails, meetings), manage tasks, use sequences where appropriate, and ensure clean handoff notes for Account Executives.
9. AI-Enabled Prospecting and Productivity: Use approved AI tools to improve prospect research, personalize outreach at scale, prepare for discovery calls (account briefs), and summarize interactions. Validate AI-generated content for accuracy and maintain confidentiality by avoiding entry of sensitive customer data into unapproved tools.
10. Performance Metrics: Achieve or exceed monthly and quarterly targets for activity, meetings booked, qualified opportunities created, and pipeline influenced. Provide regular CRM reports and updates on key performance indicators (KPIs).
11. Database Management: Maintain data hygiene in CRM (deduplication, required fields, lifecycle stages) and segment prospects using lists/properties to support targeted outreach. Analyze performance by segment to improve messaging and conversion rates.

Qualifications and Skills:

1. Proven Experience: Experience in lead generation, sales development, or a similar role in a B2B environment; experience selling IT services, SaaS, telecom, or MSP offerings is preferred.
2. Sales and Communication Skills: Strong discovery and communication skills with the ability to translate technical capabilities into business outcomes. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
3. LinkedIn Skills: Proficiency using LinkedIn for B2B prospecting, including effective profile hygiene, Boolean searching, building targeted lead lists, and applying professional outreach etiquette; Sales Navigator experience is preferred.
4. Relationship Building: Demonstrated ability to build trust quickly with business stakeholders (owners, operations leaders, finance) and to nurture prospects through a structured handoff to Sales.
5. Self-Motivated: Highly self-motivated and accountable, with a consistent track record of achieving activity and meeting targets in a high-volume outreach role.
6. Time Management: Strong organizational skills to prioritize accounts, manage multiple prospects, and execute follow-up with consistency.
7. CRM Proficiency: Comfortable using a CRM to manage pipelines or stages, log activity, set follow-ups/tasks, and maintain clean records for reporting and handoffs. HubSpot experience is preferred, but experience with any CRM (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho) is valued.
8. AI Literacy (Responsible Use): Comfortable using AI features in HubSpot (where available) and other approved tools for writing assistance, call notes/summaries, and research. Able to craft effective prompts, review outputs critically, and apply internal guidelines for data privacy, security, and ethical use.
9. MSP/IT Services Knowledge: Understanding of managed services and common solution areas such as Microsoft 365, networking, endpoint management, backup/disaster recovery, cybersecurity fundamentals, and (where applicable) compliance drivers (e.g., HIPAA, PCI, SOC 2).
10. Resilience: Ability to manage rejection professionally, learn from feedback, and maintain consistent outreach activity.
11. Team Player: Collaborative mindset and strong internal communication to ensure smooth handoffs, accurate forecasting, and continuous improvement.