Business Development Director

The role

We Are Social is a global agency, with more than 1000 people across 11 offices around the world, and with over 180 here in our London HQ. We deliver world-class creative campaigns and strategies based on social insights, for forward-thinking brands like adidas, Audi, LIDL & Kellogg’s. And we’ve been recognised as one of the UK’s best places to work for several years in a row.

Requirements

The role of Business Development Director is to lead sales for We Are Social London and offer support for the agency by:

• Guiding long-term growth objectives to meet business needs, requirements and positioning
• Meeting new business target set at the start of each year and manage the cost of sale in doing so
• Proactively tracking new opportunities and emerging trends
• Understanding how to adapt and position our services to brands
• Understanding how to fold new We Are Social offerings into brands
• Proposing and developing new ways of connecting with key brands
• Following up on incoming leads in a timely manner
• Swiftly editing out opportunities that do not align with new business filters.

Day-to-day/week-to-week/month to month

• Managing the sales funnel and forecast
• Presenting new business updates in the monthly company meeting
• Contributing to the weekly new business meeting in order to help keep the heads of departments informed and motivated
• Manipulating the timing of pitches where necessary to align with resourcing
• Tailoring We Are Social credentials
• Together with the marketing team, ensuring there is a steady flow of case studies
• Staying ahead of movements in the industry through independent research and learning from internal resources
• Systematically managing outreach and contacts in CRM.

Front of house

As the first point of contact for brands that have never worked with We Are Social, the attributes of the Business Development Director should include:

• A clear understanding of what We Are Social does and doesn’t do
• Demonstrate a high social literacy where a number of meetings with junior to senior clients can be assured of the skill set of We Are Social and be able to immediately set the bar in terms of industry knowledge within the broader marketing discipline
• An exhaustive understanding of the outputs of each of the We Are Social departments whereby you can communicate with consummate ease what We Are Social can do for the brand and how we will do it.
• A highly attuned commercial mind whereby all opportunities are qualified profitable opportunities
• Gain the trust of the client in order to collaborate with them in moving their ambition for social into a requirement for social.
• Be able to quickly ascertain and gauge a client’s problem and offer advice on the best way to proceed
• Be as comfortable with talking with clients on everything from the detail of the functionality of Research tools we use through to strategic approach to creative scope of offering to the importance of editorial publishing methodology to social production to media distribution to being able to discuss in depth how we measure success

Team collaboration

• The role must take a proactive position on all marketing efforts, including:
• Working with the UK marketing manager and ensuring leads generated from the extensive events and marketing programme are connected with in a timely and effective manner
• Working with the teams contributing and/or leading the events to ensure that the funnel leads to sales opportunities
• When the opportunity requires additional team members, the role requires those resources to be booked and briefed. Timely management of the former is required while clarity is needed on the later. When handing over an opportunity to CS, a full and clear briefing is needed from the requirement though to the personalities the team will be pitching to, to the timings, to the dependencies, to the key points of success in terms of client’s requirements
• Develop relationships with board and executive members, the wider network (eg new biz counterparts in the other offices)
• Work closely with finance and legal to ensure the commercials are sound and the contracts are watertight
• Be able to calmly organise a first class response and ensure that (occasionally) pressurised teams are focused with the task in hand while working constructively with those responsible in CS for existing client requirements.

The Person

• You will have a strong track record in business development, have a background in digital content, preferably social, and have experience of winning and working with a number of household brands
• You will have experience in dealing c-suite clients but be as comfortable and motivated when working with middle management
• You will be able to demonstrate how your work has directly contributed to the growth of the company you are currently working for
• You will be a naturally charismatic individual who builds relationships quickly and easily and excels and enjoys in prospecting and winning new business
• You will be commercially and industry literate
• You will have experience of CRM systems, ideally Salesforce
• You will be tenacious, relentless, clear minded and highly skilled at creating a viable commercial opportunity from multiple different sources
• You will be highly aware of our competitor set and be able to have a POV on industry movement and trends
• You will be a marketing polymath and be able to demonstrate this to brands as and agency peers
• You will be able to take control of the unexpected and course correct accordingly in order to keep the opportunity on track and guide the department leads
• You will be among the best in your profession but wear that accolade with modesty and be comfortable using the attribution of success as a tool for motivation to both mid and senior tier within the agency
• You will be driven by the agency’s growth goals and your fundamental role in doing so, not personal praise
• You are someone who revels in the occasional adversity agency life brings and knows how to be part of the solution
• Proven track record in supporting client engagements both strategically and operationally
• Highly autonomous and proactive, able to manage effectively different organisation priorities
• Credible communicator with experience of consultative selling and strategic business development
• You will be proficient and have working experience of CRM systems
• You will be highly comfortable in wording and designing your own decks.

Benefits

Why should you join our team?

• 25 days holiday, increasing by one day for each year of service
• Private Medical Insurance
• Company pension scheme
• Group Income Protection
• Optional Dental Insurance
• Corporate Social Responsibility – time given to volunteer for a charity of your choice
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Season ticket loan scheme
• Long Service Awards at 5 & 10 years
• Optional sabbaticals after 5 years
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Summer hours