Aira is a fast-growing digital agency based in the centre of Milton Keynes but with a global footprint. We’re looking for a business development manager with a demonstrable track record of finding new business opportunities, qualifying, nurturing and pitching business case driven reasons to contract with Aira.

You will be joining an organisation at an exciting stage of growth with ambitious plans for scaling the business and developing a stronger commercial led approach to the market. This role is pivotal to the realisation of our plans and represents a fantastic opportunity for the right candidate to develop themselves and the role of taking a proactive approach to business development through live projects from the outset.

We recognize that the ideal candidate may not currently be working in our market, however, will have developed sales skills gained through direct selling to mid market and enterprise level clients in a complex sales environment such as technology, software or consulting.

The right candidate will recognise an opportunity here to bring their attributes and skills to a business ideally placed to succeed in what is an exploding market opportunity in performance marketing services.

We passionately believe in building the greatest place to work and we have created an environment where we do our best work for clients whilst supporting our staff to prosper from their efforts whilst ensuring a healthy work/life balance.

About the role

As the senior member of the Aira sales team, you will target strategic/mid-market and corporate level prospects, identifying and quantifying their business problems and pain related to our core offering and then working with the Aira teams to create valuable solutions that address the underlying issues creating demonstrable financial business cases sufficiently powerful to justify the move from their current way of working to contracting at scale with Aira.

You will:

• Lead targeted campaigns, whilst working with the marketing function, into both mid-market and corporate clients for large, multiyear opportunities that deliver on the growth aspirations of the business
• Execute a value-based sales process focussing on identifying client business pain, the development of need, and the subsequent qualification and formulation of value justified business cases for the Aira core propositions
• Analyse and proactively target the influencers within a prospect, navigating the internal hierarchy to influence the powerbase in order to maximise the opportunity for Aira
• Qualify, manage and progress leads from both outbound and inbound sources
  Drive and manage the sales process from initial prospects to closed and onboarded clients
• Effectively manage and accurately forecast sales opportunities, using critical metrics that predict sales success
• Work closely with the in-house leadership, marketing and solutions teams in the identification of the correct prospects, through careful segmentation combined with considered outreach campaigns
• Active engagement and participation in events as well as active productive client and industry networking
• Track all relevant sales activity using the company's CRM platform
• Achieve weekly and monthly KPIs as defined by the business
• Work proactively with senior management to develop the business development function within the business planning 12, 18 and 24 months ahead

  
  

About you

You’ll have at least 5 successful years experience behind you in business development and will have worked directly on a range of sales activities where you’ve owned new business generation from initial outreach and nurturing through to pitch and close.

We’re looking for someone with the following:

• Minimum of 5 years experience successfully selling mid-market and large corporate level value based solutions
• Demonstrable evidence of track record of sales success in a tech or marketing related industry sector
• Understanding and ability to evidence the use of data and insight as a lever and differentiator in sales opportunities
• Track record of building relationships and influencing large corporate senior line-of-business personnel
• Proven 'hunter' (new business) selling skills utilising an industry accepted sales methodology
• Experience in working with technology-led solutions and a desire to deeply understand and demonstrate Aira’s skills and functionality, use cases, as well as business and technical elements to address clients business need
• Excellent communication (written and verbal), interpersonal and presentation skills
• Experience with, and effective execution of, a complex, value-based sales process
• Experience working in a fast-paced, high growth company where change is a constant
• Highly driven individual with an exemplary work ethic
• Able to function independently, as well as collaboratively with wider team members
• Passionate about developing and delivering exceptional outcomes and results for clients.
• Experience in using core sales tools (e.g. HubSpot CRM or similar)

It would be a bonus if:

• You are familiar with Salesforce, SugarCRM, Pipedrive or other CRM
• You have worked at a digital agency or at least know a bit about digital and inbound marketing
• You are a proficient user of key office software solutions e.g. Excel or Google Sheets, PowerPoint or Google Slides

What you’ll get – our culture

Culture is very, very important to us. So much so that we have published our culture code online so that you can see exactly what it means to us. We’d highly recommend that you take a look so that you can see what we offer and how we’re different from other agencies.

We also do a lot for your development, here are just a few of them:

• Regular personal development and concrete plans on how you can progress and grow within the company
• An annual training and technology budget to use as you see fit
• Unlimited, free books and audiobooks to help you learn and develop
• Opportunities to speak at industry events and our own MKGO event
• Mental health coaching and support thanks to our partnership with Sanctus
• Up to two days a year to use for volunteering days with charities

As you’ll see below, we offer some great perks and benefits, but it’s our culture which we believe truly makes us stand out. Any old agency can offer great perks, but they become normal very quickly. A great culture will push you and improve you for years to come. Take out the perks, and a great culture will still remain.

We offer a bunch of great perks too.

We love to look after our team and invest as much as we can in giving them everything they need to do a great job. Whilst perks aren’t everything, we do offer a lot to our team including:

• A new shiny MacBook
• A big second screen
• Team lunch at Nandos on your first day (and random days after that!)
• Unlimited (yes, unlimited) paid annual leave once you pass probation
• Your birthday off
• Endless supply of tea, coffee and biscuits
• An £800 annual training and technology budget you can spend how you please, including improving your working from home setup
• Regular personal development and concrete plans on how you can progress and grow within the company
• Free eye care exams once a year
• Free parking permit in central Milton Keynes
• Private Medical Insurance
• Generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay
• Free books related to your development
• Opportunities to speak at industry events and our own MKGO event
• Mental health in the workplace support thanks to our partnership with Sanctus

Salary range: £40,000 – £50,000, with a similar OTE, dependent on experience.