Business Development Managers (BDMs)

Headline stats

88% male, 12% female
99% full time, 1% part-time
98% employed, 2% self employed
48% qualified to Level 4
13% Chartered

Size of organisation

BDMs tend to work in the much larger organisations with over half in the 1000 plus category and only 11 % working in firms with less than 50 people.

Type of organisation

BDMs in the Census work for a variety of types of organisation.

Salaries

Distribution of Salaries

Bonuses

Distribution of Bonuses

Earnings

Distribution of Earnings

Providers

The table below shows BDM earnings for each type of provider. BDMs for fund managers show the highest average earnings with over £160,000.

Impact of qualifications on BDM Earnings

Of course there is no regulatory requirement for BDMs to take these qualifications and the benefit in earnings is material but not substantial.

Comparing earnings for field based BDMs v Telephone Based

The gap of course is substantial between field based and Tele BDMs. Overall earnings for field based are 134% greater than for tele based. The differential for bonuses is even greater at almost 4 x. The figures for the previous year are similar and it’s clear that in most cases the roles are very different. With the move to remote working for all it might be expected that this traditional advantage of the face to face BDM might be eroded, but it seems not.

Method of Bonus for BDMs

KPI’s are the favoured method with Formula based and Discretionary also popular.

This shows the importance of the various areas where KPI’s are applied for BDMs

There remains a strong reliance on business production, though “attitude” just tops the list.

Impact of gender on salary, bonus and earnings

The earnings advantage for males is substantial at almost 50%, 39% for salaries and 75% gap for bonuses. We can suggest that male BDMs may have more experience but nevertheless with gender pay gaps at these levels we suggest providers have a look in detail to see if their own experience mirrors this census' results.

Age distribution of BDMs

44 is the average age of BDMs and we show below the spread.

Impact of age on BDM Earnings

40 to 50 is the high point for BDM earnings.