Business Development Officer in Milton Keynes

Thank you for your interest in this role; it is an exciting one. You would be joining us at an exciting point in our journey as we reach the midpoint of our ambitious five-year Evolve strategy, following the launch of our new identity as the Leadership Skills Foundation. Over the next two and a half years, we will continue working towards our goal of reaching 200,000 young people annually through education and community leadership programmes, while cementing our position as the trusted voice for leadership skills development.

This role will play a significant part in making that happen via:

• Identifying and securing new customers.
• Retaining and growing income from our current customers.
• Building relationships that drive programme registrations.
• Using data and insights to adapt approaches and drive efficiency.

Looking ahead, with a new identity for the organisation and new programmes and partnerships emerging, this role requires a dynamic storyteller who can confidently identify the needs of our customers and clearly demonstrate the value our programmes can offer.

You'll be a proactive and confident development professional, skilled at spotting opportunities and transforming these into tangible outcomes. You'll thrive on creating and delivering development and engagement plans that directly support our departmental income goals and customer service objectives. With a passion for building strong relationships, you'll bring excellent communication and presentation skills to every interaction.

Previous experience in a business development or sales role is essential, as well as good knowledge of the education systems in the UK. Ideally, you will be based within or near the West Midlands, South West or Wales due to potential travel requirements in these regions.

Please note: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. The Leadership Skills Foundation cannot offer visa sponsorship.

Role summary:

Role purpose:

• Retain and grow relationships with existing centres through tailored engagement strategies that drive programme registrations and increase impact.
• Identify and convert new opportunities through proactive outreach, lead generation, and effective nurture tactics to deliver new business income.
• Deliver excellent customer service, ensuring a high-quality centre experience that builds trust and long-term loyalty.

Key responsibilities:

• Retain and grow existing centre relationships.
• Manage a portfolio of existing centres, ensuring regular and meaningful engagement aligned to their needs, delivery patterns, and growth potential.
• Deliver against annual centre income targets by supporting centres to continue and expand programme delivery.
• Develop and implement tailored engagement plans that reflect sector priorities, sector and programme maturity, and centre feedback.
• Analyse Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards to identify retention risks, spot growth opportunities, and respond to trends with proactive support.
• Coordinate requalification conversations and re-engagement activity to sustain long-term partnerships.
• Identify and research high-potential leads across your allocated sectors using BI and CRM insights, sector intelligence, and marketing-generated activity.
• Plan and deliver proactive outreach activity via Sector, Segment and Region Development Plans.
• Build and maintain a personal pipeline of prospects and log progress regularly updating conversion insight and forecasts.
• Support new centre onboarding, from initial conversations through to registration and early delivery support.
• Collaborate with Marketing on lead nurture campaigns, sales funnel activities, and content that targets sector-specific priorities.
• Proactively communicate and engage with customers to support their delivery of Leadership Skills Foundation programmes.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for your centres, responding promptly and professionally to queries, issues, and feedback.
• Ensure every interaction reflects the Leadership Skills Foundations values.
• Proactively use our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to maintain consistent and accurate records of communications, registrations, and engagement history.
• Support customer feedback collection and contribute to the analysis of satisfaction and improvement opportunities.
• Champion a customer-first mindset and share insight to improve performance against our customer experience objectives.
• Regularly review and report on programme performance, income data, and registration trends for your assigned centres and sectors.
• Report on your own progress against KPIs and contribute to departmental performance reviews and forecasting activities.
• Collaborate across teams to plan and coordinate campaigns, messaging, and respond to customer feedback.
• Feedback insight from centres to inform programme development and sector-specific improvements.
• Contribute to team planning meetings, training sessions, and department-wide initiatives.
• Support the induction of new team members and contribute to a collaborative, learning-focused team culture.

Skills, experience, and knowledge

Essential:

• Previous experience in a customer supporting role, with an emphasis on relationship management and customer experience.
• An understanding of education systems in the UK.
• An understanding of initiating prospect engagement, business development strategies and meeting sales targets.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience of working on own initiative and being a self-starter.
• Confidence in presenting externally to customers and partners.
• Experience of working with CRM systems, sales forecasting tools, and Management Information systems.
• Analytical thinking and evaluation skills, with the ability to interpret data and performance metrics to support decision making.
• An ability to present information concisely using Microsoft Office programmes.
• An ability to network, influence and build relationships with key stakeholders and customers.
• An ability to convert external relationships into long-standing customer results.

Desired:

• Previous experience in a sales environment.
• An understanding and passion for leadership skills development and the value it provides for young people and centres.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• An understanding of awarding bodies and their operating landscape.