Business Development Manager - Digital Agency

We're growing the UK arm of our digital marketing agency and looking for a driven, consultative salesperson to own new business from first contact through to signed contract. This is a hunting role: you'll build your own pipeline, run the full sales cycle, and close. You'll report directly to the Managing Director and have real input into how the UK sales function is built.

Our core service is SEO. Increasingly, that includes helping clients understand and improve how they're found and recommended by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity - what's commonly called Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) or AI/answer engine optimisation. We position GEO as part of a joined-up organic search strategy, not as a service we sell on its own, so you'll need to be comfortable framing it that way in every conversation.

About the role

We're growing the UK arm of our digital marketing agency and looking for a driven, consultative salesperson to own new business from first contact through to signed contract. This is a hunting role: you'll build your own pipeline, run the full sales cycle, and close. You'll report directly to the Managing Director and have real input into how the UK sales function is built.

Our core service is SEO. Increasingly, that includes helping clients understand and improve how they're found and recommended by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity - what's commonly called Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) or AI/answer engine optimisation. We position GEO as part of a joined-up organic search strategy, not as a service we sell on its own, so you'll need to be comfortable framing it that way in every conversation.

What you'll be doing

• Prospecting and pipeline generation: identifying and approaching target businesses through outbound outreach (LinkedIn, email, phone), your own network, and referrals - you own your pipeline end to end.
• Consultative selling: understanding a prospect's current digital marketing mix - SEO, Paid Search, Paid Social - and diagnosing where organic search and AI visibility fit into their growth plan.
• Closing: running discovery calls, proposals, pricing and negotiation through to signature, without heavy hand-holding.
• Positioning SEO as the core offer, with GEO/AI visibility woven in as part of the package rather than sold as a stand-alone product.
• Working with our strategy/delivery team to make sure proposals are accurate, deliverable and priced correctly.
• Owning and hitting monthly/quarterly new business revenue targets.
• Keeping the CRM and pipeline forecast accurate, and reporting regularly to the Managing Director.

What we're looking for

• A genuine track record of prospecting and closing new business in a B2B sales role - this is not an account management or order-taking role.
• Solid working knowledge of the digital marketing landscape: SEO fundamentals, Paid Search (Google Ads), Paid Social, and an informed view of how LLMs and AI search are changing discovery (GEO/AEO).
• Experience selling SEO or organic search services is a strong advantage; agency-side sales experience is a plus.
• Confidence selling a technical, intangible service to business owners, marketing leads or CMOs.
• Self-motivated and comfortable working autonomously in a fully remote role, while staying accountable to targets and regular reporting.
• Strong communication, objection-handling and negotiation skills.
• Comfortable working with a CRM and running a structured, disciplined pipeline.

What's on offer

• Competitive base salary plus uncapped commission
• 100% remote working, with autonomy over how you manage your day and pipeline.
• Direct line to the Managing Director and genuine influence over how the UK sales operation is shaped.
• The chance to sell a service - SEO plus AI visibility - that's only becoming more relevant as search behaviour shifts.

Why Digital Hothouse

• Flexible, genuinely remote working. This is a 100% remote role with autonomy over how you structure your day and manage your pipeline, not just "remote" in name with fixed hours expected.
• An agency with real staying power. We were founded in 2010 in New Zealand and have been trading and growing for over 15 years - you're joining an established business, not a start-up still finding its footing.
• A track record clients stick with. We have a history of very low client churn. For a salesperson, that matters: it means the business you close tends to stay closed, our reputation does some of the selling for you, and referrals and renewals are a real part of the pipeline, not a hope and commission runs into the years, not months.
• Ground floor of the UK arm. You won't be inheriting someone else's territory or process - you'll have real input into how the UK sales function is built and run, with a direct line to the Managing Director.
• A service that's easy to believe in. You're selling something that works and that clients keep paying for, in a space (SEO plus AI/GEO visibility) that's becoming more relevant, not less - that makes for a more sustainable, consultative sales conversation than most.