Have been looking for BD roles at PE shops and it seems that many of the shops would prefer someone with 2+ years of sales experience to someone, like myself, with some time in IB. From the pov of a PE firm what would be the reason for this? Sales guys won’t know the deal process and won’t be able to talk in any meaningful capacity with bankers/companies, right?
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Think the idea behind that is finding someone with the right personality type. BD is not very technical, and there are a number of very successful BD professionals with those types of backgrounds. FWIW I’m in BD with a banking/execution background and think that’s the best way to go.
Thanks for the response - How many years of experience did you have and did you network your way in or go through recruiters?
Think I had roughly ~7yoe when I got my first role. On my second (and hopefully final) now, having moved up market to a growing firm. Both roles were via networking which I think is the best way in, given how important networking is when you’re in the seat.
I don’t like the headhunters in the space except for one - guy who runs Coastal Partners is a good dude.
Why is experience needed for any role? Is this a real question?
The question is why is 2 years of sales experience more valuable than 1 year of banking for these
Because banking has 0 transferrable skills to BD. BD is a sales role. You're not modeling or building powerpoints/decks so those skillsets don't matter, you are selling the fund as a potential investor to prospective companies. Talking to founders/CEOs about what they're doing, how they're thinking, what problems they're encountering, etc. then presenting your fund as the panacea to those problems, offering them a partner, inflow of capital/liquidity, and outside expertise that they otherwise didn't have. You're not doing anything close to that in IB until you're senior and responsible for actually getting companies in the door. In sales, particularly enterprise sales, that's basically what you're doing on a regular basis - talking to decision-makers, figuring out their goals, problems, wants, etc. and then presenting your product/service as the answer.
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