The international business developer creates revenue where there was none: new markets, new segments, new partners. Part strategist, part salesperson, part diplomat — it is the closest thing to entrepreneurship on a payroll, and a classic springboard to leadership roles.
The job, concretely
Market opening
Research, qualify and enter new countries or segments — with a plan, not a plane ticket.
Prospection & closing
Finding the first clients, building the pipeline, negotiating and signing — the sport itself.
Partnerships
Distributors, resellers, alliances: growth is often built through others.
Feedback to product
Reporting what each market really wants — the developer is the company's ears abroad.
The skills employers actually test
Resilience and structure in prospection, real negotiation (trained, not improvised), professional English as the deal language plus every additional language as a market key — and the intercultural judgment to read a "yes" that means "maybe" in one culture and a silence that means "yes" in another.
The study path
Business fundamentals + negotiation + intercultural training + languages, then internships with real prospection. That is the LIBS design: Bachelor in International Business (100% English, international cohort as daily negotiation practice), then the Mastère with entrepreneurship and global strategy. Many of our applicants aim exactly at this career — tell us your target markets and we'll answer, in writing, how the cycle serves them.
Salary: the honest answer
Salaries in this career vary enormously by country, sector, company size and — above all — languages. We refuse to print a made-up "average": for France, consult the official published data of Apec (the executive employment association) for current figures by role and region; for other countries, use your national statistics agency or major published salary studies. What we can say honestly: at equal experience, verified professional English plus a second and third language raises both employability and pay in every published study we know — which is precisely the profile the LIBS cycle builds.
Frequently asked questions
Is business development just sales with a nicer title?
Sales executes in an existing market; business development creates the market. The toolkits overlap; the horizon and autonomy differ — and so does the career ceiling.
Fixed salary or commission?
Usually both, with the variable part significant and structure varying by company and country — one more reason we point you to published sources rather than printing an average.
Which profile thrives?
Structured hunters: people energised by 'no', organised enough to build a pipeline, curious enough to learn a new market's rules. The cohort projects at LIBS reveal quickly whether the sport is yours.
Can this career start straight after the Mastère?
Yes — junior BD roles in exporting companies and startups are a classic first job, with languages deciding scope. Internships during the cycle are the real launching pad.
Build this career, in English, from Lyon
Bachelor then Mastère in international business — tell us your plan, get a written answer.