Sales and Relationship Manager in Wakefield

John Stapleton is a serial founder who has built and exited multiple businesses. He is now building a media and education platform to share hard-won founder insights and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. This role is the first commercial hire, responsible for turning the media platform into a sustainable revenue engine through brand partnerships, sponsorships, and original commercial formats. You’ll bring creative ideation, strong commercial judgement, and a clear point of view on sales.

You must have proven experience in commercial creative branding and sponsorship or media deal-making, with a strong track record of closing partnerships across content, brand campaigns, and creator or platform ecosystems.

Build and manage a high-quality pipeline of commercial opportunities across branded content, sponsorships for John’s channels, and partnerships for his entrepreneurship courses, with a strong focus on pitching, relationship building, and revenue growth.

• Identify, research, and qualify prospective brand partners across startups, corporates, agencies, and consumer brands, including those active on TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other social platforms.
• Build and maintain a structured sales pipeline across branded content, sponsorships, and education partnerships, with clear ownership of outreach, follow-ups, and conversion.
• Lead outbound pitching, proposal development, and relationship building with senior decision makers including CMOs, brand leads, founders, and partnership heads.
• Develop branded content opportunities including original social-first series, documentaries, interviews, and thought-leadership content across TikTok and other channels.
• Work with creative and production collaborators to shape commercial proposals, pricing packages, and partnership structures aligned to brand objectives.
• Secure sponsorship and advertising deals across John’s owned channels including TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts, newsletters, and live or virtual events.
• Create tiered sponsorship offerings, media value propositions, and campaign bundles for brand partners.
• Lead negotiation and contracting processes and coordinate smooth delivery with internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop partnerships for John’s entrepreneurship and founder education programmes including accelerators, universities, incubators, startup communities, and corporate innovation teams.
• Grow paid cohorts, licensing opportunities, and collaboration models with ecosystem partners.
• Manage ongoing partner relationships, focusing on renewals, upsell opportunities, and long-term value creation.
• Maintain CRM discipline with accurate reporting of pipeline stages, revenue forecasts, meeting activity, and conversion metrics.
• Represent John and the brand at events, conferences, meetings, and partner offices, with frequent pitching and in-person networking.

• Significant experience in commercial partnerships, brand sales, sponsorships, or media and creator economy deal-making.
• Strong track record in B2B relationship management and pipeline ownership, including outbound sales.
• Experience working with brands, agencies, media platforms, or creator-led content environments including TikTok-led or social-first ecosystems.
• Excellent communication and pitching skills, confident presenting to senior stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in an entrepreneurial, fast-moving environment with high autonomy.
• Genuine interest in entrepreneurship, founders, content, and storytelling.

• Growth and quality of active pipeline.
• Sponsorship and branded content revenue secured.
• Volume and impact of strategic partnerships.
• Renewal and upsell opportunities generated.
• Contribution to channel growth, reach, and ecosystem value.

Remote role with regular travel for meetings, events, conferences, and partner office visits.