Business Development Manager in Heywood

Location/Territory: Local Lancashire & North Manchester Region

Salary: Up to £50,000 (dependent on experience) + bonus (OTE up to 100% of salary)

Package: Company car or allowance, flexible benefits, up to 27 days holiday (plus bank holidays & holiday purchase scheme)

Hours: 37.5 hours per week, Monday-Friday

Sector: Packaging Distribution & Solutions

We’re dedicated to protecting what matters most - our people, our customers, our communities and the environment. At Macfarlane Packaging, our commitment to customer satisfaction, sustainability and continual improvement creates a highly collaborative, supportive and friendly workplace where you can build a sales career that grows. With over 75 years of industry expertise, we offer stability alongside a forward-thinking, growth-focused culture. Our fast-paced, results-driven environment will challenge and stretch you, but it also provides genuine opportunities for progression and long-term success. We reward performance, support development, and empower our people to take ownership of their careers. If you’re motivated by winning new business and building something meaningful, you’ll thrive here.

The Business Development Manager Role

This is a new business, field-based sales role focused on driving profitable growth across your assigned local territory. You will take ownership of developing a robust sales pipeline, targeting and converting new customers through a consultative, solution-led approach. Working closely with internal teams and regional leadership, you will identify opportunities, conduct packaging audits, present tailored solutions, and secure profitable new business opportunities across a broad range of sectors. Alongside self-generated opportunities, you will also benefit from access to quality sales lead data and existing prospect information to support your activity. Initially, there will additionally be a focus on re-engaging selected lapsed and dormant customer accounts, identifying opportunities to win back and develop profitable trading relationships. The role will primarily focus on developing small-to-medium sized customer accounts, typically securing new business opportunities in the region of £25,000-£40,000 annual spend, contributing towards an annual new business target of approximately £400,000. Supported by an Internal Sales Coordinator, you’ll spend much of your time out in the field - attending customer meetings, engaging prospects, building relationships, and closing deals - whilst maintaining strong pipeline discipline through effective CRM utilisation, structured sales planning, and proactive territory management.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a structured territory sales plan focused on new business acquisition
• Identify, target, and win new customers through cold calling, networking, referrals, and marketing leads
• Build and maintain a strong, active pipeline to consistently achieve and exceed new business targets
• Conduct customer site visits and packaging audits to identify improvement opportunities
• Present tailored, solution-led proposals aligned to customer needs and commercial objectives
• Negotiate pricing and commercial terms to maximise margin and long-term value
• Work closely with internal teams (sales support, procurement, logistics) to ensure smooth onboarding and delivery
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of all activity, opportunities, and pipeline via CRM (MS Dynamics)
• Collaborate with wider regional and national teams to maximise cross-selling opportunities

What You Will Bring

Essential:

• Minimum of two years’ experience in a B2B field sales role focused on targeted new business acquisition
• To effectively manage this local territory, you should ideally live within approximately 30 minutes’ drive of our Heywood site and be familiar with selling into the proposed Lancashire/Northern Manchester area.
• Proven track record of winning new business and achieving sales targets
• The ability to work in a targeted fashion, utilising leads & data to proactively attack & win back lapsed client accounts
• Strong consultative selling approach with the ability to identify needs and deliver tailored products & solutions.
• Proven experience of developing existing customer accounts whilst effectively managing margins, profitability and commercial growth opportunities.
• Experience generating own leads through cold calling, networking, and proactive prospecting
• Experience of selling high volume consumable products with multi-product catalogue/SKUs (if not packaging, stationary/office products, PPE/workwear/safety products, hygiene/janitorial or industrial consumables could all be a potential fit).
• Commercial awareness with the ability to negotiate effectively and protect margin
• Self-motivated, resilient, and comfortable working autonomously in a field-based role
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Valid UK driving licence
• Strong IT skills including Microsoft Office and CRM systems

Desirable:

• Experience within packaging, manufacturing, distribution, or a related technical product environment
• Familiarity with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

What You Will Get

We provide a competitive basic salary alongside a lucrative bonus structure designed to recognise and incentivise success. Our flexible benefits package can include:

• 25 days annual leave (rising to 27 with service) plus all public/bank holidays
• Additional holiday purchase scheme
• Contributory pension scheme
• Company car or cash allowance (including electric options)
• Employee assistance programme to support wellbeing
• Extensive training and development opportunities
• Employee discount scheme (retail and leisure)
• Annual paid volunteering day
• Simply Health/Dental or BUPA options (role dependent)