Business Development Director Real Estate

Job Description

The Business Development Director at Baker Tilly is a senior-level, strategic role focused on accelerating growth across the firm's Tax, Assurance, and Consulting practices. This leader is directly responsible for identifying and developing new business opportunities within the Real Estate sector in an assigned territory, while building, managing, and expanding strong client relationships.

The Director serves as a key member of the Real Estate Industry Practice leadership team, partnering with practice leaders to shape and execute go-to-market strategies and drive industry-focused growth initiatives. This includes collaborating across service lines to develop innovative, value-driven solutions that support clients engaged in the acquisition, development, financing, ownership, and management of real estate assets—developers, owners/operators, and real‑estate investment firms such as real‑estate private equity funds and REITs.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Generate and manage a client‑facing pipeline – lead, own, or participate in client pursuits (e.g., discovery, proposal strategy, proposal development).
• Represent the firm and its entire suite of services serving the Real Estate ecosystem.
• Co‑develop a sales plan for the assigned territory and report weekly on progress against that plan to senior management.
• Craft clear, concise, and compelling value propositions for services and solutions, tailored for internal alignment and external positioning.
• Deploy sales techniques and strategies to integrate services and resources across all lines of services and geographies.
• Maintain deep knowledge of core service offerings and effectively position their application within target markets to influence decision‑makers.
• Create, sustain, and grow relationships with new and existing clients through regular, open communication; ensure performance standards and client satisfaction are consistently met, and proactively communicate and troubleshoot issues as they arise.
• Owner and manage strategic accounts; drive account ownership and strategic account management.
• Support the deployment and drive use of industry‑specific systems and technology development, and lead overall sales strategy for the industry.
• Innovate and grow the real‑estate industry practice through collaboration, teaming, and differentiation.
• Leverage conversational knowledge of other major service offerings outside of your team with intersections into your target markets to provide or enhance value for an integrated marketplace.
• Maintain strict compliance with CRM (Salesforce) requirements by consistently documenting opportunity notes and all related activities, and keeping an accurate, up‑to‑date pipeline of qualified opportunities per firm protocols.
• Attain closed‑business deal ($) goals associated with new accounts and existing client accounts to ensure a profitable return to the firm each fiscal year.
• Perform regular, aggressive, and prompt follow‑up on all firm‑generated leads assigned from campaigns or ad hoc requests from practice leadership.
• Collaborate with other firm industry, service and geography BD leaders and practice leaders for an integrated go‑to‑market approach.
• Perform account planning and key account research to optimize BD efforts and account penetration.
• Make primary outreach efforts coordinated with marketing personnel on campaigns (including prospect calls, emails, etc.) to secure appointments with COI individuals.
• Coach, develop and lead sales professionals in industry(s) and support other sales professionals with service or geographic alignment.
• Demonstrate strong problem‑solving, critical thinking, and thought‑leadership skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required.
• 15+ years of experience in Real Estate‑focused industries or in professional services supporting these sectors (e.g., accounting, law, management consulting, real estate advisory).
• Minimum 10 years of experience selling or delivering tax, assurance, and/or consulting services within Real Estate environments (developers, owners/operators, investment firms, REITs).
• Excellent sales skills and a proven track record of achieving KPIs.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build rapport with internal partners, senior management and stakeholders at varying levels.
• Driven and ambitious individual with a strong desire to succeed.
• Eligibility to work in the U.S. without sponsorship required.
• Ability to travel up to 50% as needed.

The pay rate range for this position is $155,000 to $279,980. Actual compensation is influenced by a variety of relevant factors including but not limited to the applicant’s skills, prior experience, qualifications, degrees, professional certifications, work arrangements and geographic location. Other compensation for this role may include performance and sales‑based commissions.

Baker Tilly offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package to eligible employees.

Baker Tilly is an equal‑opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected basis in accordance with applicable federal, state or local law.