Business development job postings: fraud rules and decoded phrases before you apply

The business development job market has more fraud than any other function on this site. A role that pays on results is easy to fake. No one needs to pretend to have a salary budget for a commission-only job, and "unlimited earning potential" costs nothing to write.

This guide starts with rules. Then it covers where the real roles are and how to be the person they want.

What to take away

The rules

You do not pay. Not for training, a starter kit, a license, sample stock, leads, or a place on a program. Employers pay sellers; sellers do not pay employers. The consumer protection authority for your country publishes guidance on employment fraud and the patterns it currently sees, and it is worth reading once before a search.

You are not the product. If the money comes from recruiting other people rather than from selling something to a customer, it is not a sales job, whatever it is called.

Commission only is a business arrangement, not employment. Some legitimate work is done this way, by experienced people who chose it with their eyes open. For someone looking for a job, a role with no guaranteed pay is a role where the employer carries no risk and you carry all of it. Treat it as self-employment and price it that way, if you consider it at all.

Get the plan before you accept. Not a summary; the document. An employer that will not show it before you sign has told you what you need to know about the plan.

Check that the organization exists. Its entry in the national business registry, its own domain, the person contacting you in its own directory. This takes minutes and it removes most of the fraud.

Decoding the posting

Business development postings use a vocabulary that means more than it says.

None of these is disqualifying on its own except the last, which is a signal about who wrote the posting. The point is to know what job you are applying for.

Where the real roles are

The employer's own careers page. Organizations with a serious sales function list roles there first, with the product named and the base stated more often than on boards.

Recruiters who specialize. The business development market has agencies that place nothing else, and they know which employers are hiring, what the plans look like, and who has just lost a team. They are paid by the employer. One who asks you for a fee is not a recruiter.

The people who sold there before. Former sellers at an organization you are interested in will tell you what the plan paid in practice, how quota was set, and why they left. They are the most informative source and the least used.

Adjacent functions. Customer success, partnerships, and revenue operations teams hear about openings in sales before they are posted, and they know which territories are good.

Boards, last. Useful as a map of who is hiring. Least useful as a route in, because everyone else is using them.

What employers are screening for

Behind the requirement list there are four questions.

Presenting attainment honestly

A plan that pays a bonus rather than a commission can change what an overtime hour is worth for a non-exempt worker. The US Department of Labor explains that interaction in its fact sheet on bonuses and the regular rate.

Employers ask for your record against target, and some ask for evidence. State it exactly: the target, what you achieved against it, the period, and what the territory was like. If you do not remember exactly, say so and give the range you are certain of.

A candidate found to have rounded up is finished, and this is the field where the checking is most likely to happen. A period below target with an honest account of why is better than an inflated figure, because the account shows understanding and the figure shows nothing.

Before you apply

The business development guide sets out what to read in the plan once you have it. For the numbers, the pay guide for this field explains why the same title pays so differently between sectors and how to build a realistic range for a specific role.

For how the stages of the work sequence, and what each move costs, see the career path guide. And for the general discipline of running a search as a pipeline, which sellers are oddly reluctant to apply to their own search, see the job search guide.

Common questions

Is a commission-only role ever worth taking?

For someone with a product they know, a buyer they can reach and savings to carry the ramp, sometimes. For someone looking for a job, it is self-employment with none of the control, and it should be priced as such.

How do I check a plan is real before I have seen it?

Ask former sellers what it paid. Ask the employer what share of the team hit target last year. Ask for the document. An employer that answers all three plainly is real. One that answers none of them has answered.

What if I have no sales experience at all?

Look for the roles at the first stage of the path, where the job is generating and qualifying interest and the evidence wanted is discipline rather than a record. Be candid that you are starting, and show that you have found out what the work actually is.

Should I use my existing customers to get hired?

Know that some plans pay less on business you bring than on business you find, and that your obligations to your current employer may restrict what you can take. Check both before offering it.

How many sales roles should I apply for at once?

Fewer, better-routed ones. A seller who applies to everything on a board is running the search the way they would never run a territory. Qualify the employers first.