Business Development Manager

Client: COUCH Health

Position Overview:

Our Business Development Manager works closely with our CEO on building and nurturing relationships with potential clients, primarily pharmaceutical companies, to understand their marketing needs and propose tailored solutions. Responsibilities include researching industry trends, creating strategic partnerships, managing sales pipelines, and negotiating contracts. The position requires a deep understanding of the pharmaceutical industry's regulations and marketing challenges, strong communication skills, and the ability to develop and execute effective sales strategies. The goal is to increase revenue and ensure long-term client satisfaction by delivering value through specialized marketing services.

Key Responsibilities:

1.Develop and execute strategies to attract and acquire new clients, and to achieve organic growth with existing clients

• Establish and maintain open communication channels with (prospective) clients with regular contact through which you seek to maintain an understanding of client's ongoing business situation, ensure that you are available for and prioritise these conversations where they can be fruitful.
• Utilise broad industry knowledge to establish a keen sense of (prospective) client pressure points, and how COUCH might be a suitable partner as they seek to overcome these challenges.
• Determine data that could be useful for future analysis and ensure that this is captured in a sensible way that complies with any relevant GDPR legislation.
• Analyse (prospective) client data to identify trends or patterns that may indicate challenges or opportunities. Use this information to identify patterns and profiles relating to COUCH's most successful clients and seek to pursue clients where similar success is likely.
• Determine and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) that are relevant to client's goals.
• Leverage online resources:
• Collating information in a centralised way to avoid duplication and ensure ease of access:
• Use LinkedIn and other professional networks to identify companies and decision-makers in your target market.
• Access business databases like GlobalData to find detailed information about potential clients.
• Read industry reports, whitepapers, and case studies to identify potential clients and understand their needs.
• Conduct social listening: Engage with content from industry influencers to stay informed about potential clients and market trends.
• Collaborate with internal marketing team to develop sales materials and content marketing:
• Liaise on a regular basis with Departmental leads to establish compelling sales materials that demonstrate and respond to an understanding of client needs as gained through your research activity.
• Work with the internal Marketing and Studio teams through the process of any asset development, using a multi-channel approach – paid ads, email marketing, social media, events, webinars, video, blog, live events etc., ensuring that you are able to provide your input as necessary (including in the development of written briefs, engagement of a project manager) throughout the process and that the work is suitably project managed so that it is completed in a timely and efficient manner.

2.Generate leads through various channels, including networking, cold calling, attendance at events

• Join industry-specific professional associations to connect with potential clients and gather market intelligence.
• Participate in webinars and workshops to showcase your expertise and attract potential clients.
• Cold calling:
• Systematically develop, maintain and work through a database of contacts via phone and email, seeking to build new relationships and grow awareness of COUCH and the services that we offer.
• Use Apollo for this activity.

3.Sales and revenue growth

• Independently establish and pursue activity targets required to generate your personal target value of new business for COUCH.
• Ensure that you are constantly cultivating a sales pipeline that demonstrates diversity in target client (and potential project) size, so that the sales pipeline is consistently populated with a combination of 'slow-burn' and 'quick-win' opportunities, that supports consistent revenue flow for COUCH and is appreciative of agency capacity.
• Maintain an up to date record of signed deals within your personal Commission Tracker, and communicate proactively to ensure that HR can reflect commission in payroll.
• Work with customer procurement: Demonstrate understanding of the procurement process: familiarising yourself with procurement policies and procedures of the (prospective) client organisation; understanding approval workflow, including who the decision-makers are and the steps involved in the process; and, understanding the criteria used by procurement for evaluating suppliers, such as cost, quality, delivery time and service levels.
• Understand key terminology used within the procurement, sales cycle and billing process, e.g. Invoicing, Contract Execution, PO. payment terms, and the implications of these stages on COUCH.

4.Development and delivery of proposals and presentations

• Demonstrate an exceptional knowledge of COUCH and its various services and processes and be able to represent this articulately in all conversations.
• Qualify RFI, RFQ, RFPs opportunities and properly brief CEO and team to ensure that this aligns to COUCH's overall business strategy.
• Review proposals for suitability and completeness in terms of response to the client need, drawing on your historical knowledge of the client and the industry and the capabilities of the team.

5.Client relationship management

• Conduct detailed onboarding sessions with new clients to introduce internal teams and ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
• Maintain relationships with newly onboarded clients until it is established that the internal client facing team have cemented secure relationships and have a full understanding of the client's business, goals and challenges.
• Maintain long lasting client relationships through which you seek to maintain an understanding of their internal challenges and the opportunities that they might present for COUCH.
• Proactively identify any risks to the successful completion of a project: escalate internally in the first instance and discuss challenges along with suggestions as to how they could be overcome.

6.Research and identify potential clients and market segments

• Develop and maintain a deep and up to date understanding of the industry in which COUCH operates on a global basis, incorporating working practices, regulations, legislative changes, challenges and opportunities.
• Build strong relationships with internal departmental leads and maintain a strong understanding of the current and developing capabilities within their teams.
• Maintain an up to date knowledge and record of identified key direct, indirect and emerging competitors and the potential opportunities and challenges that they might present for COUCH.
• Understand competitor product and service offerings including their features, pricing and USPs and how this varies to that offered by COUCH.
• Regularly review how competitors position themselves in the market, their brand messaging and target audience and work with the Marketing team to ensure that this knowledge is reflected in the Marketing materials and Sales collateral produced by COUCH.
• Working with CEO, and with recommendations based on your knowledge of the industry, determine a target list of potential clients.
• Maintain a clearly defined target client list with balance across large and SME target accounts. Ensure that you are aware of any relationships that other members of the team have with businesses on the target client list and work collaboratively to pursue opportunities.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Experience: Minimum of 4 years of progressive experience in business development management or sales to the pharmaceutical market place
• Industry Knowledge: Proven experience in the pharmaceutical sector
• Technical Expertise: Proven sales record
• Analytical Ability: Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills with a strategic mindset.
• Communication Skills: Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills; able to convey complex information in an engaging way