Job Overview

Our client is a specialist executive search firm that partners with senior leadership teams across the UK and European manufacturing sectors.

Following a strategic move towards sector-focused retained executive search, the business is looking to appoint an experienced Business Development Executive to support its continued growth. This is a newly created position focused entirely on developing high-quality relationships with senior decision-makers and generating qualified discovery meetings for the executive search team.

This is not a recruitment delivery or candidate management role. The successful person will focus on opening conversations with CEOs, Managing Directors, CFOs and other senior executives. Once a qualified opportunity has been established, the wider team will take responsibility for progressing the relationship.

The role is ideal for a polished and commercially confident business development professional who understands how to build credibility with senior stakeholders. The emphasis is on thoughtful, consultative engagement rather than high-pressure or transactional selling.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and engage senior decision-makers within target organisations across the UK and Europe.
• Build relationships with CEOs, Managing Directors, CFOs and other C-suite or senior management professionals.
• Generate qualified discovery meetings for the executive search team.
• Conduct targeted outbound outreach through telephone, LinkedIn, email and personalised messaging.
• Research prospective organisations and identify the most relevant senior stakeholders.
• Develop tailored outreach strategies based on each organisation’s commercial situation and leadership requirements.
• Communicate the company’s retained executive search offering with confidence, credibility and professionalism.
• Build trust with prospects through relevant, commercially focused conversations.
• Maintain consistent and structured follow-up with senior contacts over longer sales cycles.
• Accurately record outreach activity, conversations, follow-up actions and opportunities within the CRM.
• Work closely with the senior team to refine target markets, messaging and business development strategies.
• Provide feedback on market trends, client requirements and emerging opportunities.
• Represent the business professionally when engaging with senior executives and leadership teams.

Role Focus

This position is focused solely on pipeline and relationship development.

The successful person will not be responsible for:

• Sourcing or managing candidates.
• Delivering recruitment assignments.
• Filling multiple vacancies within an account.
• Managing the recruitment process after a qualified opportunity has been handed over.

Success will be measured by the quality of senior-level conversations generated and the number of relevant discovery meetings booked, rather than by short-term transactional sales.

Essential Requirements

• Proven experience in B2B business development, sales or new client acquisition.
• Experience selling high-value services with longer and more complex buying cycles.
• Confidence engaging with C-suite and senior management stakeholders.
• Strong telephone communication and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to hold credible, commercially focused conversations with senior executives.
• A consultative, patient and relationship-led sales approach.
• Experience using multiple outreach channels, including telephone, LinkedIn and email.
• Strong research and account-mapping skills.
• Ability to understand complex client needs and communicate an appropriate value proposition.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Highly organised, self-motivated and comfortable working independently in a remote environment.
• Disciplined approach to CRM management, follow-up and pipeline development.

Preferred Experience

• Experience within professional services, consulting, recruitment, executive search or another service-led industry.
• Previous experience selling to UK or European clients.
• Knowledge of the manufacturing, industrial or engineering sectors.
• Experience selling retained, advisory or senior-level services.
• Existing recruitment or executive search sector experience would be advantageous but is not essential.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be a polished and commercially mature business development professional who is comfortable communicating with senior executives.

They will be:

• Credible and confident without being overly sales-focused.
• Relationship-driven rather than transactional.
• Patient and comfortable developing opportunities over longer sales cycles.
• Able to communicate with senior leaders as a trusted commercial peer.
• Curious about each prospect’s business, challenges and leadership needs.
• Skilled at opening doors and creating meaningful conversations.
• Resilient, consistent and disciplined in their follow-up.
• Comfortable balancing commercial targets with a high-quality, professional approach.

Benefits

Basic + Commission