Business Development Manager

We connect consumer brands with customers through exhibitions, brand activations and digital platforms across parenting, family and home living. Our business development team helps brands reach new customers and grow through relevant commercial partnerships.

The role

Lead a sales team to deliver project revenue and exhibitor acquisition targets while personally winning strategic accounts. Translate commercial goals into clear account ownership, weekly sales actions and reliable forecasts, and develop a team that can close business independently.

Key responsibilities

·    Build the sales plan by category, account and salesperson. Set priorities, allocate account ownership and translate project targets into individual goals and deadlines.

·    Maintain a personal pipeline of strategic accounts. Lead senior client meetings, shape partnership proposals and close complex or high-value agreements.

·    Drive consistent prospecting and sufficient qualified pipeline across the team. Identify category gaps, improve targeting and address over-reliance on a few deals.

·    Run weekly pipeline reviews. Test each deal against decision-maker access, budget, buying timeline and client evidence; challenge unsupported forecasts and resolve stalled opportunities.

·    Coach salespeople through joint calls, pitch reviews, proposal feedback and objection handling. Set clear performance expectations and follow through on improvement actions.

·    Recruit and onboard team members with HR. Build practical sales playbooks and develop colleagues to manage accounts and decisions with greater independence.

·    Review proposals, pricing and commitments within delegated authority. Protect commercial value and escalate exceptions before agreements are made.

·    Coordinate marketing, operations and finance to deliver agreed commitments, resolve escalations, follow up receivables and secure repeat business.

·    Report revenue, conversions, forecast changes and risks to leadership. Recommend corrective actions with clear owners and deadlines, using market and client feedback.

What you bring

·    Typically 5 or more years of B2B sales or business development experience, including at least 2 years leading or coaching a revenue-generating team.

·    Proven results against both personal and team targets, with examples of winning strategic accounts and improving sales performance.

·    Strong consultative selling, commercial negotiation and senior stakeholder management skills; willing to prospect and close personally.

·    Able to diagnose pipeline gaps, assess deal quality and produce evidence-based forecasts using CRM and sales reporting tools.

·    Practical people management skills, including recruitment, onboarding, coaching and constructive performance conversations.

·    Experience in exhibitions, sponsorship, media, retail partnerships or consumer sectors is preferred. Able to lead client and team activity during scheduled weekend events.

How success is measured

Team and personal revenue; exhibitor and strategic-account wins; pipeline coverage and conversion; forecast accuracy; renewal, payment and commercial performance; measurable improvement in team capability. Targets will be agreed with leadership.