The $100k BDM ad is a habit, not a decision

When a founder decides it is time for pipeline, there is a reflex: post the business development ad at $100k, because that is what the role costs. Fair enough, it is what the role costs. The part that deserves more thought is what the role is actually being hired to produce.

Write the metrics down and they are usually fairly straightforward: conversations started with the right companies, meetings booked, a pipeline that moves every week. Those are measurable outcomes, and once something is a measurable outcome it is worth asking what else could hit the same numbers, because in some cases the answer costs a fraction of the salary, and it does not take six months to ramp, and it does not resign.

There is a second thing the job ad quietly assumes: that the hire arrives self-contained. The reality in this day and age is the opposite. A good BDM walks in expecting digital infrastructure, the data, the lists, the sequences, the signals, because that is what makes them effective anywhere. Which means you are buying the infrastructure either way. The only question is whether you buy it before the salary or after, and after is the expensive order, because it means your new hire spends their first months building plumbing instead of having conversations.

None of this says never hire. When deals need craft and relationships in the room, a good salesperson is irreplaceable. It says the ad should be a decision rather than a default, made after you know which problem you are actually solving.