Head of New Business, LIONS Advisory

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Company Description

Informa Festivals marks an exciting new chapter in B2B events, bringing some of the world's most influential creative, technology and business festivals together. We're combining prestigious brands like Cannes Lions, Black Hat, Money20/20 and London Tech Week with cutting-edge marketing intelligence platforms and advisory services to deliver unmissable experiences and insights.

Our festival-led approach reimagines traditional B2B events, creating powerful, immersive experiences that drive innovation and industry advancement. Building on decades of expertise and powered by Informa's international reach, we're shaping the next generation of business festivals.

We're part of Informa, a global business with a network of trusted brands in specialist markets across more than 30 countries, and a member of the FTSE 100 who are #3 in Glassdoor's Best Places to Work 2025 UK list.

Job Description

We're looking for you to join our team in London as part of our Advisory function.

Your Role:

As the Head of New Business, you'll be at the forefront of our growth strategy. You'll develop and execute a robust business development plan, identify new opportunities, cultivate key relationships, and ensure alignment with LIONS' broader strategic objectives.

In this pivotal leadership role within the LIONS Advisory team, you'll spearhead strategies to acquire new clients and expand our market presence. You'll need a deep understanding of the industry landscape, a strong ability to identify and engage prospective clients, and a knack for tailoring solutions that align with their strategic challenges.

Your Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a global sales strategy and an Advisory-specific sales framework to achieve:
  • New business revenue and billings targets
  • Sales pipeline conversion ratio of 60% or above
• Lead, mentor, and develop a global business development team by:
  • Setting challenging targets for team members
  • Conducting regular joint meetings and one-on-ones
• Engage with senior decision-makers to position LIONS Advisory as a strategic partner by:
  • Developing market and industry knowledge
  • Understanding the needs of prospect organizations
  • Creating client stakeholder maps and specific strategies for new opportunities
• Monitor and analyze key data metrics related to revenue growth, client acquisition, and market penetration to refine strategies and ensure consistent performance improvement
• Contribute to business strategy and annual planning, ensuring effective sales plans are in place for new products and services
• Collaborate with delivery teams to ensure smooth project initiation and exceptional client experience by:
  • Holding cross-functional meetings for proposal development
  • Ensuring delivery teams understand client-specific strategies
• Represent the business at industry events, conferences, and forums to strengthen its thought leadership position by:
  • Ensuring commercial best practices are integrated into all processes
  • Developing and following best practices for pipeline management, sales activities, and CRM use
• Work with marketing and thought leadership teams to create compelling content and campaigns, measured by:
  • Share of voice in industry media
  • Percentage of inbound leads from thought leadership activities
  • Conversion rate of leads from content to opportunities

In this role, you'll play a crucial part in driving LIONS Advisory's growth and success, while developing your leadership skills in a dynamic, creative environment.

Qualifications

• Previous experience in either Consulting, Strategy and/or Proposition Development
• Experience in the Creative industry is preferred but not required
• Has experience in working with revenue targets of £20m+
• Proven sales team management
• Proven experience developing strategy, commercial business cases, financial models and reporting to a senior executive audience
• Proven track record of managing a portfolio of products with high average order values
• Commercial growth mindset, with demonstrated experience in driving strategic initiatives that have a direct P&L impact
• Proactive with a self-starter / can-do attitude, with ability to form strong working relationships with all levels of the organisation
• Ability to analyse market data and identify growth opportunities
• Experience using CRM systems
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including excellent written, oral, listening, and presentational skills
• Ability to work well under pressure and influence at all levels as a thought-partner
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, complex and dynamic environment with significant change, ambiguity and adapting to evolving organisational requirements

Additional Information

We work hard to make sure Life at Informa is rewarding, supportive and enjoyable for everyone. Here's some of what you can expect when you join us. But don't just take our word for it - see what our colleagues have to say LifeAt.Informa.com

Our benefits include:

• Freedom & flexibility: colleagues rate us highly for the flexibility and trust they receive and most of us balance time in the office with time working remotely
• Great community: a welcoming culture with in-person and online social events, our fantastic Walk the World charity day and active diversity and inclusion networks
• Broader impact: take up to four days per year to volunteer, with charity match funding available too
• Career opportunity: the opportunity to develop your career with bespoke training and learning, mentoring platforms and on-demand access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning. When it's time for the next step, we encourage and support internal job moves
• Time out: 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after two years, plus a birthday leave day and the chance to work from (almost!) anywhere for up to four weeks a year
• A flexible range of personal benefits to choose from, plus company funded private medical cover
• A ShareMatch scheme that allows you to become an Informa shareholder with free matching shares
• Strong wellbeing support through EAP assistance, mental health first aiders, a healthy living subsidy, access to health apps and more
• Recognition for great work, with global awards and kudos programmes
• As an international company, the chance to collaborate with teams around the world

We're not solely focused on a checklist of skills. We champion energy and ambition and look for colleagues who will roll their sleeves up, join in and help make things happen. If it sounds like a match and you have most - although not all - of the skills and experience listed, we welcome your application.

At Informa, you'll find inclusive experiences and environments where all perspectives and backgrounds are welcomed. As part of this approach and our diversity and inclusion commitments, we are also formally an Equal Opportunities Employer. This means we base decisions on relevant qualifications and merit and do not discriminate on the basis of key characteristics and statuses, including all of those protected by law. Ask us or see our website for full information.

See how Informa handles your personal data when you apply for a job here.