Head of Business Development in London - Ashdown Group

A market-leading provider of executive education and management training delivering open-enrolment and bespoke in-house programmes to organisations across the UK and internationally is seeking an experienced business development professional with a strong track record of selling management training, leadership development or professional training solutions.

This Head of Business Development role offers the opportunity to establish and lead the company’s Business Development function. Whilst you will initially operate as an individual contributor, your remit extends beyond winning business. You will be responsible for introducing the structure, processes, reporting and sales disciplines required to build a scalable commercial function.

The role is paying up to £70,000 DOE plus uncapped performance-based commission (8%-10% of new business revenue), and very good benefits including 29 days holiday (plus bank holidays), plus discretionary flexible and hybrid working.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Significant experience in business development or sales within executive education, professional training, learning & development or a similar B2B service industry such as tech solutuions.
• Proven experience of consistently achieving demanding revenue targets.
• Demonstrable experience of building or significantly improving a business development function.
• Strong understanding of consultative B2B sales and longer sales cycles.
• Experience selling both open-enrolment and bespoke training solutions.
• Experience using CRM systems such as HubSpot, Salesforce or Zoho.
• Comfortable operating in a hands-on role where personal sales performance is as important as developing the wider function.

Desirable

• Experience selling into government organisations and multinational corporations.
• Existing network within HR, Learning & Development or Talent functions.
• Previous experience recruiting, managing or mentoring Business Development professionals.