Senior Business Development Manager in Bolton

New Business & Client Growth Unite: The Agency Alternative

If you've spent years inside an agency - ideally an events agency and you're done with the bloat, the layers, the pitch theatre and the retainer padding, keep reading. If you haven't lived it, this one isn't for you. That's fine.

We're six years old. No offices. No permanent creative headcount. None of the overhead traditional agencies pass on to clients. We build bespoke teams from a vetted network of 500-plus specialists, matched brief by brief through Drafted, our own talent system. Different way of working, better value. The client roster shows it.

We need someone to own commercial growth. Half the job is growing the clients we have. Half is winning the ones we don't. You'll report to Chris and Dan, the founders, and you'll be the commercial lead for the business - treated as one.

A strong client base across consumer, B2B, financial services, construction, hospitality, food and more. Real accounts, with real headroom in every one. You'll own the strategy for unlocking it: where we're underrepresented, where the next brief comes from, where a relationship deserves more than it's currently getting. You'll work alongside our client partners and turn what you learn into growth.

The right clients, not the most clients. You'll find the prospects, build the relationships, get us in the room and close. You'll work with operations to shape proposals that are sharp, tailored and impossible to ignore. Brief to win, it's yours.

You’ll own:

• The growth strategy for existing clients - where the headroom is, how we get there, how we measure it.
• The new business strategy - target sectors, target names, a pipeline and a plan to convert it.
• The proposal process. Operations handle the detail; you shape the narrative and you're accountable for everything that goes out under our name.
• The quality of the relationships, not just the commercial ones. You're the kind of person clients want to hear from and want to meet. That matters as much as any number.

You’ve lived agency life and you know exactly what's broken about it. You can talk about the alternative with conviction because you've wanted it yourself. You walk into a room and people want to talk to you - that isn't trainable, you've either got it or you don't. You sell by solving: no hard sell, no pushing product, just understanding what a client actually needs and bringing your experience to bear. That's what keeps clients for years, not months.

You’ve grown accounts, not just managed them. You've won new business and you know what it takes to get in the room, and to win once you're there. You can build a strategy and execute it; both count equally here. You're comfortable without the usual agency scaffolding: no big support team, no layers of approval. You respect the craft and know how to sell it, even if you're not a creative yourself.

Account management. This is growth, not servicing. A role where the strategy lands on your desk. You'll build it. A slow start. We're lean and we move fast. So do you.

Full-time, remote-first, with regular travel for client and prospect meetings. Reports to co-founders Chris Hobson and Dan Laurence. Covers the full Unite offering: events, marketing and creative communications.

Tell us about a client you grew and how you did it. Tell us about a piece of new business you won and what made the difference. Honest and direct, that's how we work and it's what we're looking for. Strictly no recruitment agencies.