Business Development Team Manager – Distribution (South UK) - £70-70K basic + 25% Bonus + Car
About the Role
We are seeking an experienced Business Development Team Manager to lead and develop a distribution-focused sales team and drive sustainable commercial growth across a portfolio of distributor accounts.
This is a hands-on leadership role combining team management, business development, strategic account planning and commercial performance management. You will be responsible for expanding the distributor network, increasing distributor capability and effectiveness, and growing share of customer business.
The successful candidate will be commercially driven, confident managing sales professionals, comfortable holding people accountable for performance, and able to build strong relationships with distributors and key customer stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor and motivate the distribution sales team to achieve individual and team objectives.
- Coach team members across job-related knowledge, skills and behaviours.
- Monitor sales activity, quality and productivity, providing regular feedback and coaching.
- Set clear expectations and hold team members accountable for performance.
- Support recruitment and selection of new team members where required.
- Lead regular team meetings and establish clear agendas and actions.
- Prepare meaningful sales data, statistics and performance reports for senior leadership.
Business Development & Account Growth
- Develop and execute annual sales plans across the assigned distributor and customer portfolio.
- Identify new customer and business opportunities to expand the customer base.
- Develop account strategies to maximise share of customer spend and capture achievable opportunities.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key customer and distributor stakeholders.
- Own the commercial proposal process and coordinate internal resources to support new business opportunities.
- Use sales data and market trends to assess performance and adapt commercial plans accordingly.
- Monitor distributor performance against agreed supplier and commercial objectives.
- Maintain distributor performance scorecards and communicate insights to relevant internal teams.
- Develop distributor engagement through product promotions and commercial initiatives in collaboration with Marketing.
- Ensure appropriate commercial agreements and contracts are in place.
- Facilitate regular strategic business reviews with key distributors.
- Identify opportunities to improve distributor knowledge, efficiency and customer reach.
Product & Market Development
- Develop strong product knowledge and identify opportunities to match products and solutions to customer requirements.
- Identify product or capability gaps and communicate opportunities for new product development.
- Work collaboratively with specialist internal teams to secure new business.
- Support product campaigns, market initiatives and customer surveys.
- Promote new products and commercial opportunities to distributors and customers.
Supply Chain & Customer Service
- Work with relevant teams to ensure regular-demand products are appropriately forecast and planned.
- Manage expectations around availability and lead times for non-stocked or irregular-demand products.
- Ensure service expectations for existing customers are effectively managed, allowing maximum focus on new business development.
Customer Training & CRM
- Develop customer and distributor capability through appropriate product, pricing and ordering training.
- Maintain accurate CRM records covering account strategy, sales activity, opportunities and key contacts.
- Maintain accurate customer sales potential and commercial data.
- Ensure customer information is recorded in accordance with corporate requirements.
What We're Looking For
- Proven experience in business development, sales or commercial account management, ideally within a distribution-led B2B environment.
- Previous experience managing, coaching or developing a sales team.
- Strong commercial and strategic account-management skills.
- Demonstrable experience developing existing accounts and identifying new business opportunities.
- Experience working with distributors, wholesalers, resellers or channel partners.
- Confident using sales data, KPIs and CRM information to manage performance and make commercial decisions.
- Strong negotiation, relationship-building and communication skills.
- Comfortable setting expectations and holding people accountable.
- Able to work collaboratively with Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain and specialist teams.
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple customer and distributor priorities.
- Willingness to travel regularly within the UK and internationally when required.
- Current UK driving licence.
- Valid passport and ability to travel internationally.
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