Business Development Manager

RESPONSIBILITIES

New Business Development

• Identify, pursue, and nurture new business opportunities, clients, and contracts to drive company revenue.

• Build and maintain a healthy sales pipeline through prospecting, cold outreach, networking, referrals, and follow-ups.

• Lead sales conversations, understand client needs, present solutions, and close new business.

• Prepare proposals, pitch decks, quotations, and pricing recommendations in collaboration with the leadership and marketing department.

• Own revenue targets and provide regular updates on pipeline activity, conversion rates, and closed deals.

Influencer Partnerships and Brand Deals

• Identify and secure paid partnerships, sponsorships, and brand deals for managed influencers and talent represented by the company.

• Build relationships with brand managers, marketing teams, PR agencies, and potential brand partners.

• Match influencers with suitable brands and campaigns based on audience demographics, engagement, performance, and campaign objectives.

• Negotiate rates, deliverables, usage rights, exclusivity, timelines, and contract terms to protect talent value and business profitability.

• Manage brand partnerships from initial outreach and pitching through negotiations, campaign delivery, and renewal opportunities.

Revenue Growth and Client Retention

• Develop strategies to convert one-off projects and brand deals into recurring contracts, retainers, and long-term partnerships.

• Identify upselling, cross-selling, and expansion opportunities within existing client and brand relationships.

• Monitor market trends, competitor activity, industry pricing, and emerging brand categories to identify new revenue opportunities.

• Evaluate potential deals based on revenue potential, profitability, resource requirements, and strategic fit.

• Ensure all proposals pitched to clients are with healthy gross margins.

• Deliver sales KPIs and contribute to the company's goals of achieving sustainable and predictable revenue growth.

Sales Strategy and Pipeline Management

• Establish and maintain a structured sales pipeline and CRM system to track leads, opportunities, proposals, negotiations, and closed deals.

• Develop repeatable sales processes, outreach templates, pitch materials, and reporting systems.

• Monitor key sales metrics, including outreach activity, response rates, conversion rates, deal values, and revenue forecasts.

• Maintain consistent weekly prospecting, follow-up, and reporting routines.

• Identify sales process bottlenecks and recommend improvements to increase efficiency and conversion.

Leadership and Cross-Team Collaboration

• Work closely with the CEO and relevant team members to align business development strategies with company goals and service capabilities.

• Act as a solutions consultant when appropriate.

• Provide management with customer feedback and market intelligence.

• Collaborate with the Social Media Growth Specialist and Community Engagement Specialist to develop commercially viable offerings and partnership opportunities.

• Monitors and assists the production team during the engagement period.

• Clearly communicate client expectations, campaign requirements, and agreed deliverables to the relevant teams.

• Ensure proposed deals are realistic, commercially sound, and achievable within the team's capacity.

• Provide leadership with insights on market demand, client feedback, partnership opportunities, and revenue performance.

Leadership readiness

• Interest in growing into a leadership position as the sales function expands

• Comfortable setting standards and holding others to them

• Sound judgement on what to decide and what to escape??

• Willingness to give an opinion, including when it differs from the direction being taken

• Openness to direct feedback and a rising performance standard

REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Sales, or a related field.

• Relevant professional certifications in business development, sales, marketing, or management are a plus.

Experience

• At least 5 years in business development, agency sales, or partnerships

• At least 2