Sikich is a professional services firm that emphasizes growth and innovation, seeking a Business Development Representative for their Data & AI team. The BDR will be responsible for driving pipeline growth by managing outreach, qualifying prospects, and supporting account-based marketing strategies to generate business opportunities.
Responsibilities:
- Identify, qualify, and nurture high-potential accounts to grow the overall value of the sales pipeline
- Accelerate the movement of prospects through early funnel stages, from initial engagement to first meeting
- Monitor and report on pipeline value and prospect progression as key performance indicators
- Build and maintain a pipeline with a minimum number of target companies and related individuals, as defined by team goals
- Categorize targets based on the potential business value to Sikich, prioritizing high-value opportunities
- Collaborate with services and sales teams to apply clear criteria for adding organizations to the target list
- Ensure every target account is linked to the DAi service catalog, strengthening the relevance of messaging at both the organizational and individual level
- Conduct thorough research to confirm targets meet sales qualification standards, including monitoring industry news, financial performance, and organizational changes
- Keep target lists accurate and current in Microsoft CRM
- Continuously monitor prospect activity, including financial performance, job changes, strategy shifts, and public announcements
- Respond quickly to major changes at any prospect with targeted, timely outreach
- Use automation and modern technology (such as Copilot, GPT, and other AI tools) to support research and monitoring
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of Sikich DAi’s go-to-market strategy and service catalog to ensure messaging is relevant and reaches the right individuals
- Collaborate with marketing to measure and improve campaign effectiveness
- Ensure all communications are tailored, authentic, and do not sound AI-generated
- Manage contact records and target lists in Microsoft CRM, ensuring data is current and accurate
- Track engagement data from marketing systems (e.g., Marketo), LinkedIn, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Proactively conduct outreach via phone, email, LinkedIn, and other tools to identify opportunities aligned with DAi’s services
- Take initial phone calls and organize first meetings with qualified prospects, serving as the first point of contact in the sales process
- Be prepared to hold conversations with C-suite executives, focusing on the value of meeting with Sikich DAi and securing an appointment
- Strive to get target individuals interested and excited about engaging with Sikich DAi
- Execute ABM activities to build and maintain an active sales funnel at required quantity levels
- Engage in high-level nurture activity, including re-engaging prospects who have previously interacted but failed to reengage
- Nurture existing customer organizations to uncover additional opportunities for engagement
- Demonstrate creativity in outreach, composing targeted messaging to understand and address reasons for lack of engagement and reactivate relationships
- Establish and maintain strong, long-term partnerships with clients, ensuring they remain active recipients of outreach and are represented in the pipeline over time
- Work closely with marketing to leverage social media, podcasts, and other digital channels as part of a comprehensive strategy to reach and nurture prospects
- Compose friendly, professional, and recipient-relevant communications for outreach and follow-up
- Demonstrate excellent email communication skills, as much of the outreach will be performed electronically
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent years of experience
- 3+ years of experience in a consulting environment
- Experience managing targeted lists and conducting research for sales qualification
- Proficiency with Microsoft CRM, Marketo, LinkedIn, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Strong collaboration skills with marketing teams
- Excellent communication skills for professional outreach, especially written communication that feels authentic and personal
- Ability to organize and conduct initial prospect meetings and calls, including conversations with C-suite executives
- Understanding of account-based marketing and pipeline management
- Ability to leverage and automate processes using modern technology and AI tools
- Values driven – You embody and model absolute integrity and servant leadership and you have a bias for action and continuous innovation
- Uncompromising problem solver – You see opportunities in every business challenge and can develop, articulate and implement solutions
- Collaboration – You are a relationship builder across all levels of the organization and across all business units
- Instills trust – You do what you say, without ego, and you follow through on commitments consistently and credibly
- Impact & influence – You are relentlessly focused on making a difference and can gain support for ideas, proposals and solutions. You get others to act, with or without formal authority, to advance initiatives and objectives
- Experience with social media and podcast marketing is a plus