Business Development Manager (Maternity cover) in Milton Keynes

Working Hours: Normal office hours are 08:30 to 16:30, Monday – Friday (Office Mon/Tues/Thurs)

Place of Work: UK HQ, Mill Court, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK12 5EU

Other: Maternity Cover

Job Summary: Located at our office in Milton Keynes, the Business Development Manager will be responsible for managing and growing existing client accounts within the Retail Department. This role serves as a primary point of contact between RWS Global and its clients, ensuring strong partnerships, effective communication and high levels of customer satisfaction. The Manager, Client Services will work closely with the internal Retail team and clients to present product collections annually/seasonally, negotiate orders, and identify opportunities to increase sales and expand distribution.

In this role, the Business Development Manager oversees the full retail process, including account planning, order management, inventory monitoring, and performance analysis. They collaborate with internal teams such as New Product Development, Design, Finance and Logistics teams to ensure a smooth production and timely delivery of goods.

The ideal candidate combines strong relationship management, sales, and analytical skills with a deep understanding of the retail and wholesale business. They must be highly organised, commercially focused and capable of managing multiple accounts while delivering strategic growth for RWS Global.

Role & Responsibilities

• Client Services – Manage, build and maintain relationships with clients. Act as main point of contact between RWS Global and their clients. Conduct weekly meetings, calls, in person visits with existing clients. Producing client specific critical paths to ensure timelines throughout the year are maintained via RWS Global and the client. Review previous merchandise sales/performance and brief in to the New Product Development & Design team product briefs for growth and innovation. Present new retail proposals to clients in person/online. Drive reorders and new orders. Produce in-depth handovers for the New Product Development and Design team to ensure a smooth production and delivery of goods. Ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and long-term partnerships.
• Financials – Be responsible for managing client product costs via internal client cost sheets. Negotiate pricing, contracts and terms per client to achieve or exceed monthly sales targets. Identify multi-year deals and negotiate with client. Benchmark competitors and identify market opportunities.
• Commercial Analysis – produce ad-hoc sales reports as required, reconcile projected product margins with our actual spend to give the department full visibility of the actualised margins. Using commercial data to identify opportunities, risks, summarise commercial performance, and make recommendations accordingly for our clients.
• Financial Reconciliation – stock reconciliation via packing lists and POD’s are checked against confirmed order before goods leave factories, ensure final client invoices match the packing list quantities delivered. Tracking client deposits and invoices to ensure money is received within a timely manner for the department.
• Operational Processes – raise factory orders, process client sales orders/invoices, input product information within RWS Global’s internal project management system, SDN deliveries, complete stock/financial reconciliations.

Qualifications & Skills

• Must have excellent Excel skills – as a minimum, must be very comfortable with advanced formulae
• Outstanding numerical skills
• Strong communication skills – this role will need to work closely with the Finance team and wider Retail team, so it’s important the successful candidate is able to communicate effectively across the team and articulates themselves well
• Commercial awareness
• Excellent attention to detail

Experience

• Must have Retail Head Office experience
• Experience of Client Services / Account Management is essential
• Finance-related experience would be advantageous

Company Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Company Pension
• 25 days paid holiday excluding Bank Holidays
• Paid parental leave & childcare support policy
• Computer (Mac/Windows)
• Mobile phone allowance
• Flexible working (office/remote)
• Employee Assistance and Wellbeing Program
• Employer Sponsored Vision Program

Please Note: While this is intended to be an accurate description of the job, this is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions associated with the position, and may require that other or different tasks be performed as necessary and assigned.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

Way more than a box to check, diversity is core to RWS Global culture. We value it, promote it, protect it and hire it. All differences are welcome here. We know for a fact that each employee’s individual background, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression, and capabilities are a contribution to our culture, as well as our reputation and achievements. So, bring all of who you are, no questions asked.