Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager 

The most important part of any business. This is not a customer success, account manager or growth hacking title. It’s BD. Sales. We will shout that from the roof top. Sales is to be celebrated not camouflaged. The most important part? It’s not accounts, HR or community managers. It’s rarely the health and safety officers that go on to be CEO’s. Be appreciated. Dark Horse tells the truth. Sometimes it’s not comfortable. 

We are based in Altrincham so you can hob nob at the trendy market and be all Cheshire set. It is pretence of course; we are still on the tram map. It’s Manchester, however you cut it. You are never too far from rats and spice whatever quarter you are in. 

We are recruiting for a BDM to expand the Sales and Marketing team. Dark Horse is becoming renowned for client services and ambitious growth plans. We are looking for someone with a hungry mindset, keen to deliver, keen to raise awareness of the what the team can achieve. We have everything in place to succeed. 

Is this you? 

The successful candidate will join our expanding sales team, reporting directly to the Sales Director or MD. They will be responsible for the identification of new business and development opportunities. This would be through LinkedIn, Email, Phone and face-to-face. We need someone who can live and breathe the values of our company and is ultimately driven to make an impact. This is about being a voice and vital central cog in the business. Learning from incredible colleagues and being part of the journey to create the best search marketing agency in the country. That’s the aim. 

You’ll be the main point of contact with Senior Marketing Managers, Business Owners and Directors across many areas and sectors of business. You will have a high level of autonomy on how best to build new and lasting relationships. 

You’ll identify opportunities and win new business from a mix of selfgenerated pipeline and marketing supported activities. 

You love delving into client problems and understanding what the issues are. You understand the digital landscape, what the consumer thinks, what the brand does and how challenging the competitor environment is. Your execution plans span multiple industries with a focus on our SEO, PPC and Paid Social offering. You know what levers our team can pull to generate results for different objectives. You are excited by seeing how your work relates to results and come up with new routes and ideas on a consistent basis. 

This is not a role where you “close” business by saying something clever. This is not like selling mobiles or utilities. This is about building relationships and professional sales. Be active in the market. Be smart in the market and be trustworthy. The combination of integrity, puzzle solving and representation of a winning team will bring success. 

You will never have to “sell me this pen” or any other such w***.

Key skills and attributes

• Inquisitive puzzle solver

• Strong relationship builder

• Solid written and verbal communications skills

• An understanding of different digital channels and how they play together

• Strong and efficient organisational skills • Great manager of time and resources

• Basic knowledge and understanding of Google and Facebook advertising

• The confidence and passion to work with internal and external teams

• Commercially aware with an understanding of client business metrics (both B2B and B2C)

• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines

• Be motivated by targets and to earn commission

• Appreciation of activity and proactive role, the more active you are, the more you will sell, the more you will earn

• Good sense of humour Responsibilities

• Build a pipeline of new business opportunities across our digital service offering

• Outline the Dark Horse difference with every touch point in the sales cycle

• Help clients grow and work towards clear and attainable targets

• Oversee direct communication, account management and reporting with senior managers across a diverse range of clients

• Identify opportunities for client growth

• Pitch, win and renew business for Dark Horse

TLDR – Sales.

What’s on offer?

• We think we’ve built a great place to work, where every individual feels rewarded for the effort, they put in. Enjoy this along with:

• Money. c45k Basic DOE.

• More Money. Commission – lots of it, uncapped

• Leafy Altrincham location

• Hybrid working – 2 days a week in office

• Flexitime

• Birthday off

• Mental Wellbeing Bupa programme

• Dark Horse will carbon offset your role with The Dark Forest (greed and green is good)

• Working in an amazing team – Learning from some fantastic people

• Other stuff too – This is mostly the small stuff we use to make us look good on LinkedIn. largely irrelevant. Don’t fall for the “Beer Tap in office” and other race to bottom stuff.

This is about making a difference. To clients. To us and to YOU.