Business Development Associate (BDA) Los Angeles, CA

Blackleaf is seeking a remote Business Development Associate with cannabis industry experience to build relationships with dispensary operators and generate qualified opportunities for its customer engagement platform.

About Blackleaf

Blackleaf helps cannabis dispensaries connect with customers through text marketing and customer management tools. Its platform supports targeted SMS and MMS campaigns and customer conversations.

About the Role

As a Business Development Associate, you will use your cannabis industry experience to identify prospective dispensary customers, understand their engagement and retention needs, and develop qualified sales opportunities. This is a remote role associated with our Los Angeles hiring market.

Responsibilities

• Research dispensaries and identify owners, operators, and marketing decision-makers who could benefit from Blackleaf.
• Build and maintain prospect lists, prioritizing accounts based on business needs and product fit.
• Conduct personalized outreach by phone, email, and professional networking channels.
• Lead discovery conversations to understand current marketing tools, customer communication challenges, buying timelines, and decision-making processes.
• Explain Blackleaf's value in clear, practical terms connected to dispensary customer engagement and retention.
• Schedule product demonstrations and coordinate qualified opportunity handoffs with the sales team.
• Maintain accurate CRM records, follow-up tasks, and pipeline updates.
• Share prospect feedback and cannabis market insights to improve outreach and positioning.
• Track outreach activity, qualified meetings, and opportunity progression against agreed goals.

Required Qualifications

• Prior experience in the cannabis industry, with an understanding of dispensary operations and the needs of cannabis retail businesses.
• Experience in business development, sales, account management, or a comparable customer-facing role.
• Ability to initiate conversations with prospective customers, ask effective discovery questions, and follow through consistently.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to explain software value to nontechnical audiences.
• Comfort using a CRM and digital tools to organize prospecting, document activity, and manage follow-ups.
• Ability to work independently in a remote environment while collaborating effectively with teammates.
• Sound judgment when discussing cannabis marketing constraints, with a willingness to seek guidance rather than make unsupported compliance claims.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience selling SaaS, marketing technology, or services to dispensary operators.
• Familiarity with SMS marketing, customer retention programs, or dispensary POS systems.
• Existing relationships within the cannabis retail industry.