Why business development is the most active area in real estate's supplier market

I'm Ryan Doyle, one of the Associate Directors here at deverellsmith. On our latest devcast podcast, I sat down with Suzanne Grundy, who looks after business support and suppliers to real estate, to talk about what's happening in a corner of the market that doesn't get anywhere near enough attention. 

Between the shift back to the office, the uncertainty around Renters' Rights and a generation of candidates pivoting from B2C into B2B, business development has become the busiest area on Suze's desk.  

What is the third-party supplier market in real estate? 

The supplier market encompasses businesses that supply to real estate rather than transact in it. That covers a broad range of organisations, including: 

It's a genuinely wide market, and one that a lot of property professionals don't realise is a career option until somebody points it out to them. 

Why is business development the most active area right now? 

Business development roles see more movement than almost anything else, and there are two reasons for that. 

The first is structural. If a business's numbers aren't strong, business development is often the first area to feel it. So, where there's been uncertainty, people who have sat in businesses that haven't performed particularly well start looking to secure something more stable. 

The second is a shift in where candidates are coming from. Two or three years ago we saw a wave of people leaving estate agency for PropTech roles, chasing the same three things: no Saturdays, flexible working, and a higher basic salary. As people have come back to the office, PropTech roles have become less attractive and estate agency roles more so. 

What hasn't slowed is the flow out of lettings. With the uncertainty around Renters' Rights, a lot of the current movement into Business Development is coming from the letting's talent market. 

Where does the best business development talent come from? 

The one thing Suzanne looks for above everything else is B2B experience. 

That doesn't have to mean real estate. It can come from anywhere client-facing and sociable, and hospitality in particular produces excellent Business Development talent. Real estate itself is broad enough to cover a lot of ground too. 

The profile that works tends to be someone who wants to pivot in their career, genuinely enjoys building relationships and getting out to meet people, and wants to work with businesses and key decision makers rather than consumers. That move from B2C to B2B is the real change, and it's a bigger one than most candidates expect. 

Why do some business development hires not work out? 

The most common reason people leave a Business Development role is that they arrived thinking it would be easier than it is. As she put it, candidates often assume "I've done X, I can easily do business development", and that's not the case. It isn't as simple as it might seem, particularly if you've come from a B2C background. 

The kind of person who goes online looking for a role with the option to work from home and a higher basic salary often ends up applying to a startup or a smaller business. Those roles typically need somebody to get in the seat, hit the phones and work hard from day one, which goes against almost everything they searched for in the first place. That mismatch is a shock, and it's usually why the role doesn't last. 

Moving from a structured corporate environment into a smaller or startup business is a similar jolt. You have to be a real self-starter, without the senior people and the hierarchy above you that you were previously accountable to. 

What does a business development package look like in London? 

As a rough benchmark for London and the outskirts: 

On top of that you'd expect a tiered commission structure based on revenue brought into the business. 

The interesting part is what moves candidates, and it's the basic salary more than anything else which can often be a surprise to hiring managers given how much of the conversation in Business Development is about autonomy and flexibility. The reason is simple. In B2B, commission takes a long time to land in your pocket, so you need the stability of a regular income while the pipeline builds. With the cost of living where it is, security matters. 

Hybrid working barely features as a differentiator, because in business development it's essentially a given. The whole point of the role is that you shouldn't be chained to your desk. You should be out meeting people and running your own diary. 

Looking at the next 12 months, plenty of companies are fairly set on their salary bands. But these are reward-based roles, so the more revenue somebody brings in, the higher their earning potential. And if a candidate arrives with more experience and a black book, there's always movement. 

What should a business development interview process look like? 

When we asked Suzanne, the one thing she'd change about how companies hire, was the interview process. 

Processes need to be clear-cut from the outset. All parties need to know what the stages are and what they're assessing, rather than starting from "let's see who we've got, let's find a candidate" and working it out along the way. She had a live example from that same week where a different process would have produced a very different outcome. 

Business Development roles are usually more open to a Teams interview early on, which makes sense given how the role works. What's become standard, even at relatively junior levels, is a presentation stage at the end, and Suze is firmly in favour of it. It sets expectations from the outset, it shows an employer your confidence and your ability to present face to face, and more than anything it demonstrates willingness. Somebody who has done the legwork and the research has shown you they want the job. 

Where does a business development career go next? 

Progression in BD looks like more accounts, more revenue, more people to manage and more growth within the business, usually moving up into training and leading a team. 

Account management sits alongside it rather than after it. You can't really be a good account manager without the BD mindset first, which is why the two are so closely linked in this market.