Business Development Associate

Why this role exists

C-DISC needs a full-time business development operator who can create pipeline rather than wait for it. The role sits between market discovery, outbound sales, partnerships and field execution. It is for someone who can open doors, understand why different customer segments buy, move opportunities toward commercial closure and turn what works into a repeatable business development playbook.

Load-bearing contribution

You build the bridge between market opportunity and repeatable revenue. A strong Business Development Associate does more than follow up leads: they discover new routes, qualify where C-DISC should spend time, bring field intelligence back into the company and help turn one-off wins into a system that can scale.

What you will own

• Build and actively manage a pipeline across developers, prefab and modular companies, architects, contractors, eco-resort and farmstay operators, institutional buyers, EPCs and other relevant segments.

• Research priority accounts, identify decision makers and create thoughtful entry routes through direct outreach, referrals, events, partnerships, communities and other channels.

• Run outbound prospecting through calls, LinkedIn, email, field meetings and targeted market visits rather than depending only on inbound leads.

• Qualify opportunities against customer need, project fit, technical feasibility, commercial potential and execution capacity before advancing them.

• Own opportunities from first contact through qualification, meeting, site coordination, proposal follow-up and commercial progression, with support from Sales Head or founders where required.

• Work closely with Engineering, Site, Operations and Marketing so customer commitments reflect execution reality and sales material reflects actual objections from the market.

• Create and continuously improve playbooks for prospecting, qualification, follow-up, segment-specific pitches, referral loops and other repeatable business development motions.

• Explore non-obvious routes to market such as architect/specifier networks, prefab partnerships, reference-site clusters, sustainability ecosystems, channel partners and strategic collaborations.

• Maintain clean CRM records with next actions, decision makers, risks, expected value and realistic stages.

• Feed recurring objections, customer insights, competitor intelligence and market signals back into Sales, Marketing and product strategy.

• Represent C-DISC professionally at customer meetings, project sites, industry events and ecosystem conversations.

What we need

• 1 to 4 years of experience in business development, B2B sales, partnerships, market development or customer-facing startup work. Exceptional freshers with strong evidence of commercial initiative may be considered.

• Strong communication and relationship-building ability across phone, email and in-person conversations.

• A hunter mindset combined with judgment. You should enjoy opening doors but also know when an opportunity is not worth pursuing.

• First-principles thinking and curiosity about how a new construction category can reach customers through routes beyond standard building-material sales.

• High adaptability and willingness to move between research, field meetings, site visits, proposals, CRM work and cross-functional problem solving.

• Ability to turn successful approaches into documented playbooks rather than keeping them as personal tricks.

• Strong ownership of follow-through. Meetings, proposals and introductions should not go stale because someone forgot the next step.

• A long-term orientation: the best deal is one that can create a reference, repeatable segment, partnership route or stronger market position, not only immediate revenue.

Good to have

• Experience in construction, building materials, real estate, architecture, infrastructure, prefab, industrial products, sustainability or climate tech.

• Existing network among developers, architects, contractors, prefab companies, resort developers or institutional buyers in South India.

• Prior startup or founder-led organisation experience.

• Civil engineering, architecture, business, MBA, commerce or related background.

• Experience using Zoho CRM or another CRM, building account lists, running outbound sequences or creating sales reports.

• Evidence that you have built a new channel, opened a difficult account, run an unconventional sales experiment or created a repeatable GTM process.

What success looks like in the first 90 days

• A clean priority-account map and active pipeline are live, segmented and reviewed weekly.

• At least 30 priority accounts are researched with decision makers, relevance, entry route and next action identified.

• At least 10 meaningful buyer or partner conversations are created through direct business development effort.

• At least one qualified opportunity is moved to proposal, pilot or advanced commercial discussion.

• At least one non-obvious market-development experiment is run with a clear hypothesis and learning review.

• At least two recurring sales or BD motions are documented as usable playbooks.

• Customer objections and market insights are being fed back into Marketing, Sales and product conversations in a structured way.

Non-negotiables in this role

• No capacity-blind commitment on delivery or execution.

• No technical, sustainability, performance or cost claim beyond current approved facts and site-specific guidance.

• No active opportunity without a clear owner, stage and next action.

• No pursuit of a bad-fit opportunity only to inflate the pipeline.

• No hiding behind Sales, Marketing or Operations boundaries when a commercial bottleneck needs coordinated ownership.

• No successful approach left undocumented. If it works repeatedly, turn it into a playbook.

• No attachment to a segment or outreach strategy after evidence shows it is not working.

Culture signals we will look for

• You naturally ask, 'Who else should we speak to?' and 'What route have we not tried?'

• You can create momentum from a cold account without becoming careless or pushy.

• You treat field and customer evidence as data that can change the sales playbook.

• You can move across business development, sales, partnerships and market research without becoming territorial.

• You document learning so the next person can reproduce what worked.

• You can balance this month's pipeline with the longer-term category and partner network C-DISC is trying to build.

Growth path

Business Development Associate to Senior Business Development Associate / Business Development Manager, Strategic Partnerships Lead, Regional Sales Lead or another commercial leadership track depending on performance, strengths and company growth.