Business Development Manager – Pre-Sales

Location: Cranleigh, Surrey
Salary: £55,000–£65,000 per annum + company car + bonus
Working pattern: Hybrid and field-based, with nationwide travel and London as the primary focus

Build relationships. Create opportunities. Make an impact.

This is your opportunity to shape a newly created role and make a real difference to the growth of a specialist business within the fire and smoke ventilation industry.

Our client designs and manufactures smoke ventilation products that help protect lives and property. As the business continues to grow, they are looking for a proactive, commercially driven Business Development Manager to strengthen relationships across the construction industry and get involved in projects earlier.

Working within the Pre-Sales team, you’ll build relationships with M&E contractors, main contractors, architects and key project stakeholders, identifying opportunities, generating demand and ensuring the business is considered from the earliest stages of a project.

This is a role for someone who enjoys opening doors, building trust and turning conversations into tangible commercial opportunities. You’ll take ownership of the early-stage pipeline, developing relationships and following opportunities through until they’re ready for the Sales team to convert.

What you’ll be doing

• Building strong relationships across contractor, design, technical, pre-construction and commercial teams.
• Proactively identifying new projects, generating leads and developing opportunities.
• Growing sales by turning contractor conversations into named project opportunities.
• Working towards approved supplier status and framework agreements with key contractors.
• Identifying project stakeholders and ensuring opportunities are effectively handed over to Sales.
• Representing the business at customer meetings, presentations and industry events.
• Working closely with Specification, Sales and Marketing to maximise commercial opportunities.

Requirements

You’re a confident relationship builder with a commercial mindset, excellent communication skills and the persistence to see opportunities through.

You’ll bring:

• At least three years’ business development experience working with main contractors, selling construction products, or within M&E or building services contracting.
• A proven ability to generate leads and develop opportunities that convert into orders.
• Strong relationship-building, presentation and negotiation skills.
• A proactive, tenacious approach to prospecting and follow-up.
• Working knowledge of the Building Safety Act and Gateway 2.
• A full UK driving licence and willingness to travel nationwide.

Desirable experience: Experience within the fire safety or smoke ventilation industry would be a distinct advantage, alongside an understanding of relevant building safety regulations. Experience securing approved supplier status or framework agreements, using CRM systems such as HubSpot, or holding a construction, building services or engineering qualification would also be beneficial.

Benefits

This is more than a traditional BDM role. As a newly created position, it offers the opportunity to help shape the business development approach, build influential industry relationships and contribute directly to future growth.

You’ll join a collaborative team, represent a specialist business focused on building safety, and have the freedom to develop opportunities across a varied, nationwide territory.

The Package

• Basic salary: £55,000–£65,000 per annum
• Company car
• Performance-related bonus opportunities
• Hybrid working: Cranleigh office and field-based, with London as the primary focus

Ready to make your mark?

If you’re commercially ambitious, naturally good with people and driven to turn opportunities into results, we’d love to hear from you.