PR Business Development Manager

The Business development manager possesses a deep understanding of the agency’s strategic and business development goals as well as its brand to secure an ongoing stream of relevant new business leads for the agency. The person in this role aligns Stern’s Marketing Communications and Public Relations Agency’s strategic goals with business development activities that lead to account acquisition. This person is responsible for accurately and enthusiastically representing the agency’s brand and for leading prospecting among potential clients for public relations services. The manager must build and maintain a strong prospect pipeline and be able to accurately forecast opportunities and provide accurate essential information to the PR team leading to presentation and proposal success. This person will lead growth efforts by seeking out business leaders responsible for engaging PR professionals through direct prospecting, networking, attendance and participation in professional groups and networking associations, in addition to effective use of the agency’s CRM for new business outreach and lead tracking.

Key Responsibilities

• Work closely with the Public Relations Senior Vice President to devise and execute a business development plan and process which successfully secures new business; work to reach specific business revenue goals
• Accurately identify and spearhead business development initiatives that are consistent with the agency’s strategic goals in its key markets; demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of the PR agency’s ideal customers and services offerings to accurately speak to their value to prospective clients
• Source and qualify public relations opportunities with key companies not currently served by Stern
• Develop and manage a robust network/pipeline of current and potential clients to maximize business opportunities. Proactively identify potential clients; target them with concise and effective pitches
• Effectively manage multiple business development initiatives with focused attention
• Effectively direct market research and competitor analyses to assist in the creation of winning business development strategies for the agency
• Provide ongoing, current, and relevant information about the market landscape
• Seek to build and maintain high-level, strategic relationships with key company leaders responsible for the PR function within their organizations
• Cold call prospective leads; follow up on warm leads; convert hot leads into sales opportunities
• Leverage HubSpot CRM to track and report business development activities, and leveraging the CRM as an outreach tool

Compensation: A combination of a base salary plus commissions based on a number of factors such as experience, knowledge and demonstrable skill in the role.

Qualifications we are seeking in a candidate

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Other Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of previous business development activities related to selling services with proven success, preferably in business-to-business (B2B) markets
• Demonstrated experience working and selling across different industries
• Experience working in a growing environment within professional services/consulting with proven results
• Demonstrated expertise driving a complex, sometimes long, sales cycle from identification through proposal to the close of the deal
• Ability to provide accurate, necessary, and pertinent information to teams tasked with the proposal creation process
• Experience leveraging a CRM tool for business development activities and reporting them, preferably HubSpot or Salesforce
• Excellent influence and negotiation skills; comfortable with business senior leadership decision-makers
• Exceptionally strong communication, presentation, analytical and organizational skills

Travel is required for this role – candidate must have access to reliable transportation to attend meetings with prospective clients

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the above position and it is not intended to be an exhaustive list of skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.  This description is an outline of the major recurring responsibilities of the job.  Other related job objectives, special assignments, and less significant responsibilities typically performed by the incumbent are not included.

To apply: Complete all form fields and upload a single document resume and cover letter in either PDF or Word format.