Business Development Representative

Overview

You're prospecting and qualifying ecommerce brands that should be using video commerce. You're cold calling, emailing, and LinkedIn messaging growth teams at DTC brands and retailers to book demos for Account Executives. You need to identify brands with active video/creator strategies and get them interested enough to take a meeting.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Private, likely bootstrapped or early-stage funded (35 employees, claims profitability)

Size: 35 employees

Growth: Actively building out sales team, CEO mentions "full pipeline" suggesting demand exists

Market Position: Smaller player in video commerce - you're often introducing prospects to the category itself, not just your product

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 70% Outbound - you're building lists of target brands and reaching out cold
• 20% Inbound follow-up - demo requests from website, content downloads, app store inquiries that need qualification
• 10% Re-engagement - old leads that didn't convert, past demo no-shows, churned trial users

SDR/AE Structure: You're feeding qualified meetings to AEs. Likely a small team of AEs (2-3) so your handoff is direct and visible.

Tools: You're probably using Outreach/Salesloft for sequences, LinkedIn Sales Navigator for research, some database tool for contact info.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: You're not deep in competitive intel yet - that's the AE's job - but you need to know Tolstoy, Firework, and general video platforms exist.

How They Differentiate: You're leading with the "full platform" story and AI features, but mostly you're just trying to get people curious about making their videos shoppable.

Common Objections: "We're already doing video", "Not interested", "Send me info" (the blow-off), "Talk to my marketing team" (the runaround)

Your Job: Create enough curiosity to get 30 minutes on the AE's calendar. You're not solving objections, just qualifying fit and interest.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Cold Outreach (50%) | Call/Email Follow-up (30%) | Research & Admin (20%)

Key Activities

• List building and research: You're on LinkedIn and company websites identifying DTC brands doing $5M+ in revenue with active Instagram/TikTok presence. Looking at their content strategy, checking if they have a creator program, seeing what platform they're on (Shopify is easiest).
• Cold calling: 50-70 dials per day to ecommerce teams, growth leads, digital marketing managers. Most don't answer. You leave voicemails and send follow-up emails. You're trying to get past gatekeepers or find direct dials to decision-makers.
• Email sequences: Multi-touch campaigns to prospects. You're personalizing the first line with something about their brand's video content, then explaining what Videowise does. Most don't respond. You're testing subject lines and messaging constantly.
• Qualification calls: When someone responds or answers, you have 5-10 minutes to understand their video strategy, budget authority, tech stack, and timeline. You're disqualifying as much as qualifying - bad fits waste the AE's time.
• Meeting handoffs: Writing up why this prospect is qualified, what they care about, and any context the AE needs. You're judged on meeting show rates and qualified opportunities created.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• The rejection is constant. You'll make 200+ calls a week and book 3-4 meetings if you're good. Most calls go to voicemail. Most emails get ignored. You get hung up on. People are rude.
• You're selling for a company most prospects have never heard of. You spend the first 30 seconds of every call proving you're not spam. Brand recognition would make this much easier, but you don't have it.
• Ecommerce buyers are overwhelmed with outreach. Everyone's pitching them conversion optimization tools. You need angles that make them curious - pointing out specific things about their content strategy, mentioning competitors using video commerce.
• Bad leads waste everyone's time. If you book unqualified meetings, AEs get frustrated and your numbers look bad. But you're also pressured to hit meeting quotas. Finding the balance is hard.
• "High-volume environment" means grinding through activity. If you're not hitting 60+ calls per day, someone's going to ask why.

What Success Looks Like

• Booking 15-20 qualified meetings per month consistently
• 70%+ show rate on meetings you book (means you're setting them properly)
• 50%+ of your meetings convert to qualified opportunities the AE works
• Building repeatable plays - finding accounts in specific verticals (beauty, fashion, etc.) that consistently respond
• Getting promoted to AE in 12-18 months if you perform

Who You're Selling To

Primary Targets:

• Ecommerce Managers/Directors (day-to-day platform owners)
• Growth Marketing leads (performance-focused, understand conversion metrics)
• Digital Marketing Managers (own social and content strategy)
• Creative Directors (at larger brands with video content teams)

What They Care About:

• Whether this is worth their time - they're busy and get pitched constantly
• Quick understanding of what this does - you have 30 seconds to make it click
• Proof it works - case studies, conversion lift data, brand names they recognize
• How hard it is to implement - they don't want a 6-month integration project

Requirements

• 0-2 years in SDR/BDR role, ideally selling to ecommerce or marketing buyers
• Comfortable with high-volume cold calling (50+ calls per day)
• Basic understanding of ecommerce concepts (conversion rate, Shopify, DTC brands)
• Coachable and resilient - you'll hear "no" a lot and need to keep going
• Self-motivated - remote role means no one's watching you dial, you have to manage your own activity
• Hunger to prove yourself and move into closing