New Business Manager

Department: Growth

About Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a creative agency shaping the future of the creator economy. We deliver work that’s as culturally sharp as it is commercially impactful, partnering with the world’s most recognisable brands to drive real results and real connection. We celebrate individuality, move with intent, and support ambitious growth without compromising wellbeing.

Our Values

• Celebrate what makes us weird, with care for others
• Build on intent, not impulse
• Fail fast, learn faster
• Be supported by systems, not limited by them
• Be ambitious, pursue it healthily

Role Overview

The New Business Manager supports and executes Buttermilk’s day-to-day new business engine. Sitting under the Head of Growth, this role is responsible for lead qualification, opportunity progression, commercial scoping, and Revenue Operations to ensure a healthy, high-quality pipeline aligned to Buttermilk’s growth targets, ambitions, and industry positioning. The role operates with a primary focus on the US market, while maintaining global awareness across brands, markets, procurement models, and growth opportunities. This position requires strong commercial judgement, exceptional organisation, and the ability to operate autonomously across brand conversations, internal teams, and external partners.

Key Responsibilities

New Business Development

• Own the qualification of inbound and outbound new business opportunities against Buttermilk’s ICP, sector priorities, and commercial thresholds.
• Conduct active outbound outreach to Buttermilk’s target brands across priority markets, including the US, Brazil, Mexico, and the UAE, supporting delivery against quarterly commercial targets.
• Manage early-stage brand conversations to assess brand–agency fit, readiness, scope, and long-term growth potential.
• Organise and attend new business meetings, engaging prospective clients to understand their challenges, ambitions, and strategic needs.
• Lead and support first-stage proposal development, follow-ups, and feedback loops to progress opportunities through the pipeline.
• Own opportunity progression from initial qualification through to close, partnering with the Head of Growth where required on complex or high-value opportunities.
• Map and manage key brand-side stakeholders, including senior decision-makers and procurement contacts, to support effective opportunity progression.
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records of all leads, conversations, and activity within HubSpot.

CRM, Revenue Operations & Forecasting (HubSpot)

• Own day-to-day HubSpot usage across the Growth (New Business) function, including:

• Accurate, up-to-date records of all leads and opportunities
• Consistent qualification, staging, valuation, and forecasting of all deals
• Maintain clear visibility of pipeline health, conversion stages, and revenue projections.
• Produce accurate pipeline and forecasting reports for the Head of Growth and leadership team.
• Enforce CRM data hygiene, qualification discipline, and deal progression standards.
• Act as a key operational partner in maintaining a future-proofed sales pipeline.
• Identify and implement improvements across HubSpot workflows, reporting, pipeline structure, and new business processes to improve efficiency and conversion.

Commercial Scoping

• Support commercial scoping of opportunities, ensuring proposals are competitively positioned and financially grounded.
• Partner with the Head of Growth on bespoke or complex commercial strategies where required.
• Work closely with Finance teams to ensure pricing, indexing, and scope assumptions are clearly documented and aligned to agency margin expectations.

Pitch Coordination & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Support the development of internal opportunity briefings, clearly outlining brand context, qualification rationale, scope, and win strategy.
• Coordinate activity across Client Services, Creator Services, and specialist departments to maintain pitch momentum.
• Own timelines across opportunities, ensuring deadlines and quality standards are consistently met.
• Maintain awareness of competitive agency landscapes and incumbents to inform pitch positioning and commercial approach.
• Ensure seamless handover of won opportunities into Client Services through clean data and documentation.

Marketing Collaboration

• Work closely with the Head of Growth and Brand Marketing teams to align CRM structures, prospecting activity, and lead generation efforts linked to marketing outputs.
• Support prospecting initiatives through shared targeting, list development, and opportunity tracking.
• Support prospecting and lead management for Buttermilk-owned event series, including MILKDROP and Hotel Buttermilk, ensuring event-led opportunities are qualified, followed up, and progressed through the pipeline.

AOB

• Actively monitor and interpret trade press, acquisitions, NPD launches, and cultural signals to proactively identify emerging brands, category momentum, and new business opportunities.
• Evaluate and attend relevant industry events, panels, and seminars with a commercial lens, identifying emerging brands, category trends, and sector investment signals.
• Think tactically and creatively about new routes to amplify Buttermilk’s presence and service offerings with high-impact global brands.

Core Competencies

• Commercial Acumen: Demonstrates strong understanding of commercial value, pricing, margin, and revenue impact when qualifying, scoping, and progressing opportunities against agency thresholds and growth targets.
• New Business Qualification: Applies disciplined qualification and ownership across the full opportunity lifecycle.
• Operational Efficiency (Revenue Operations): Brings structure, accuracy, and consistency to new business operations and systems, ensuring HubSpot data enables reliable forecasting and decision-making.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Works effectively across teams to deliver cohesive, timely, and high-quality opportunities, with clearly framed briefs, qualification rationale, and commercial expectations.
• Client & Stakeholder Engagement: Builds confidence, credibility, and trust with prospective brands and key decision-makers.
• Strategic Awareness & Market Insight: Demonstrates awareness of market dynamics and applies insight to identify, prioritise, and position high-potential opportunities aligned to Buttermilk’s growth focus areas.

Success Metrics

• HubSpot accuracy: all active opportunities have complete, up-to-date qualification, stage, value, and close-date data, with reduced variance between forecast and actuals.
• A future-proofed sales pipeline with clear reasoning and progression across all deals.
• Strong internal trust, with stakeholders relying on your judgement as a central new business partner.
• Increased new revenue directly attributable to outbound activity.
• Reduced sales cycle length from first meeting to brief.

Required Experience & Skills

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in sales, new business, or business development environments.
• Strong understanding of the agency landscape and sales and marketing ecosystem.
• Highly competent in HubSpot, including CRM management, pipeline structure, reporting, and forecasting (non-negotiable).
• Hands-on experience owning Revenue Operations functionality within a CRM environment.
• Strong experience in opportunity qualification and commercial assessment.
• Highly organised, detail-oriented, and process-driven.
• Comfortable operating independently with clear ownership and accountability.
• Strong verbal communication skills, including confidence engaging senior brand stakeholders.

What We Offer

• Private Medical Insurance
• Juno Wellbeing Credits
• Hybrid Working (London)
• £200 Home Office Setup Budget
• Night Key Membership
• Birthday Leave
• Learning & Development Budget
• Friday 2PM Finish