Business Development Manager

Location: Home-based, anywhere in the UK, with regular travel to customer sites and periodic visits to our Essex head office.

About Hellenic Systems:

Founded in 1988, Hellenic Systems Ltd builds the systems that run the factory floor. Our software tells operators what to make and in what order, records what actually happened, and proves it to an auditor afterwards. The industry name for this is Manufacturing Execution Systems, or MES: the layer that sits between a company’s business systems and the machinery and people producing the goods. We design and manufacture the hardware that goes with it as well. We are UK-based and serve over 130 sites across the UK and Europe. Our roots are in food manufacturing, particularly meat and poultry, and we are now extending into any manufacturer with the same problem to solve.

The Opportunity:

FORMIX, our recipe and formulation management system, has been rebuilt as a new product and is our main new business push. It guides operators through ingredient weigh-up, enforces tolerances, captures batch and operator evidence, and connects to shop floor weighing and labelling hardware. The buyers are food and drink manufacturers who still run weigh-up on paper, spreadsheets or an awkward ERP screen, and who are under real pressure on allergen control, traceability and waste. This is a new role. It exists to build and convert a new business pipeline that does not depend on our existing account base.

Job Summary:

The Business Development Manager owns new business at Hellenic. The role is targeted on winning new named clients and new sites, starting with FORMIX and broadening into our wider software and hardware portfolio as the pipeline develops. It is a hunting role: self-generated prospecting, campaigns and networking, then running the opportunity through demonstration, proposal, negotiation and close, with support from our technical and commercial teams. The BDM reports to the Head of Commercial and works alongside our Account Managers, who own existing customer relationships. Growth inside existing accounts stays with them. Anything genuinely new belongs to the BDM.

Key Responsibilities:

• New Business Generation: Win new named clients and new sites, principally for FORMIX in year one, broadening into CARCASE, FOPS, hardware and bespoke development as the pipeline matures. Generate the majority of your own pipeline through outbound prospecting, cold calling, email and LinkedIn campaigns, trade events and industry networking. Marketing and referral leads will supplement this, not replace it.
• Selling and Closing: Run the full sales cycle: discovery, on-site assessment, demonstration (in person and remote), proposal, commercial negotiation and close. Build the business case in the customer’s language: reduced giveaway and waste, right first time batches, allergen control, audit-ready evidence and labour saved on the weigh-up line.
• Market, Product and Competitor Knowledge: Build and hold working knowledge of the FORMIX proposition and enough of the wider portfolio to spot an opportunity when a customer describes a problem. Know the competition. Be able to explain where we win and where we do not.
• Pipeline, CRM and Reporting: Build and maintain a qualified pipeline of sufficient size and quality to deliver the agreed targets, with realistic close dates and values. Keep CRM current and accurate. Every opportunity, activity, contact and next step is logged.
• Working With the Team: Work with the Account Managers so that new business and account growth do not collide, and pass leads to them where an opportunity sits inside an existing relationship. Contribute to campaigns, marketing content, case studies and event planning.

Targets and Measures of Success:

You will carry a personal new business target, set annually with the Head of Commercial and reviewed each quarter. It covers new order value, new recurring revenue and a minimum number of genuinely new clients, and it is supported by activity and pipeline coverage measures and by the quality of what you put into the CRM.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Essential: Proven track record of winning new business in a B2B environment, carrying and hitting a personal new business target. Experience selling a considered purchase with a multi-month sales cycle and more than one decision maker.
• Desirable: Experience selling into food and drink manufacturing, or into another regulated manufacturing sector. Familiarity with MES, ERP, traceability, weighing or labelling systems.