What VP of Business Development Actually Means
The VP of Business Development title covers a wide range of actual mandates: channel partner development, strategic alliances, ecosystem integrations, OEM licensing, co-sell agreements, and market expansion through third-party distribution. Companies that hire a VP of Business Development without specifying which of these mandates they are actually funding typically get a generalist who does all of them moderately well and none of them well enough to matter.
Majhi Group places VP of Business Development leaders at high-growth technology companies. Every search begins with an explicit conversation about the commercial model underlying the BD mandate — what revenue these partnerships are expected to generate, how they will be measured, and what the VP will own versus support.
BD Mandate Taxonomy
VP of BD Role Variations
Assessment Dimensions
Revenue attribution clarity
BD candidates who cannot clearly articulate the revenue their partnerships generated — attributed, not influenced — are unlikely to produce measurable commercial outcomes. The best BD leaders define revenue attribution agreements with their partners before the partnership launches, not after the first review cycle.
Partnership lifecycle track record
Many BD executives are strong at initiating partnerships — the outreach, the relationship building, the signed agreement. Far fewer are strong at activating them. Assessment should probe the ratio of signed partnerships to productive partnerships in the candidate's track record.
Sales organisation alignment
BD partnerships that are not integrated with the sales organisation's motion produce pipeline that the sales team doesn't trust and doesn't close. Candidates who have built co-sell programs with genuine sales adoption are more valuable than those who have built partner programs that exist alongside the sales organisation rather than within it.
"The VP of Business Development who signs 15 partnerships in the first year and activates 3 has not succeeded — they have created a management overhead problem. The search has to identify candidates whose track record shows partnership activation, not just partnership initiation."
Majhi Group BD Search Process
Majhi Group closes VP of Business Development searches in 30–45 days. The intake process spends significant time on mandate definition — ensuring the BD role has a clear commercial model and measurable success criteria before sourcing begins.