Business Development Manager

Business Development Manager
Madrid

Times Higher Education is the data provider underpinning university excellence in every continent across the world. As the company behind the world’s most influential university ranking, and with almost five decades of experience as a source of analysis and insight on higher education, we have unparalleled expertise on the trends underpinning university performance globally. Our data and benchmarking tools are used by many of the world’s most prestigious universities to help them achieve their strategic goals and our events series act as the home of higher education thought leadership around the world.

About the role

The Business Development Manager is responsible for generating and converting new business opportunities within defined territories and target institutions. The role is focused on proactive prospecting, opportunity creation, stakeholder engagement and revenue generation from new customers and previously untapped relationships. The successful candidate will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, developing a strong understanding of their market and identifying opportunities across THE's portfolio of products, data, insights, consultancy and services.

Key Responsibilities

Business Development & Prospecting

• Execute structured outbound sales activity across target institutions and defined territories.

• Proactively generate new business opportunities through phone, email, LinkedIn, events, referrals and other channels.

• Identify and engage decision-makers, influencers, and users within target institutions.

• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified new business opportunities, taking responsibility for its development, progression and conversion.

• Act on Marketing sourced leads quickly and effectively.

• Manage an assigned geographic territory, developing a strong understanding of the higher education landscape, priority institutions, market dynamics, competitive activity and key decision-makers.

• Prioritise institutions and opportunities based on commercial potential and strategic relevance.

• Take responsibility for achieving agreed revenue and new business targets within the assigned territory.

Opportunity Development & Sales

• Conduct discovery meetings and qualification calls to understand customer needs, priorities and buying processes.

• Map key stakeholders, buying committees and procurement processes within target institutions.

• Present THE's solutions in a way that is aligned to customer needs, strategic priorities and business objectives.

• Develop proposals, commercial recommendations and solutions that address identified customer requirements.

• Progress opportunities through the sales cycle, from initial prospecting and qualification through to conversion and close.

• Maintain consistent follow-up and momentum across active opportunities.

Market & Customer Engagement

• Develop a strong understanding of target institutions, their priorities and relevant market developments.

• Build long-term relationships with senior stakeholders across universities and other higher education organisations.

• Develop relationships across multiple functions and levels within priority institutions to create broader and more sustainable commercial opportunities.

• Act as a trusted commercial partner to prospective and existing customers, understanding institutional priorities and identifying relevant THE solutions.

• Represent THE at meetings, conferences, events and other external engagements.

• Work closely with Marketing on campaign follow-up, lead generation and conversion activities.

CRM & Sales Operations

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date stakeholder, account and opportunity information within CRM.

• Ensure sales activity, pipeline progression and forecasting information are recorded accurately and consistently.

• Monitor pipeline performance and proactively identify gaps against new business targets.

Success Measures

Performance will be measured against:

• New business revenue

• New opportunities created

• Pipeline coverage and quality

• Opportunity-to-customer conversion rate

• Prospecting activity and engagement

• Number and quality of new stakeholder relationships established

• New customer acquisition

• Sales cycle progression and conversion

Attributes

• Proven experience in business development, new business sales or B2B sales.

• Experience in Data or SaaS sales is desirable.

• Strong proactive prospecting and lead-generation capability.

• Demonstrated ability to create opportunities rather than relying primarily on inbound leads or existing relationships.

• Strong discovery, qualification and consultative selling skills.

• Ability to engage confidently with multiple and senior stakeholders within complex organisations.

• Proactive and self-motivated, with the ability to take initiative, manage competing priorities and work effectively across an assigned territory.

• Strong communication, presentation and influencing skills.

• Good understanding of CRM, pipeline management and sales forecasting.

• Commercial curiosity and the ability to understand customer needs and translate them into relevant solutions. Knowledge and understanding of the global higher education sector including government policies is desirable

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Spanish

• Language skills in another European language (e.g. Romanian) are highly desirable.

• Experience working in a cross-cultural setting or working with international clients is desirable.

• The right to work in Spain
  

You do You
You do You. With colleagues located around the world, we know that our individuality and diversity of experiences are our greatest strengths. That’s why we want THE to be a place where you are welcome to be who you want to be at work; where you can share whatever part of your life or self-identity you want, without obligation or facing discrimination; and where all abilities and perspectives are recognised and accommodated.