Senior New Business Manager

What's Possible Group; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent marketing agency in London is looking for a Senior New Business Manager to drive new business growth and manage relationships. The role requires a strong background in business development, excellent project management, and the ability to engage stakeholders effectively. Competitive salary with unique benefits like a 9-day fortnight and employee share options.

Benefits

9-day fortnight

Share options

Personal and professional growth benefits

Qualifications

• Proven success managing and winning pitch processes.
• Strong project leadership and strategic thinking skills.
• Understanding of entrepreneurial brands.

Responsibilities

• Convert leads and manage referral streams.
• Own and optimize formal pitch processes.
• Develop and execute a sales strategy.
• Represent the agency in external forums.

Skills

Business development

Project management

Stakeholder engagement

Consultative persuasion

Education

Proven experience in a senior sales or business development role

Tools

Pipedrive

Job description

About the Group

The world is obsessed by small start-ups or the largest corporates. Most UK media agencies are built to serve the top 100 spending clients, and there are a multitude of boutique agencies to serve those starting out in business. The Specialist Works is different. We are built exclusively for marketers at entrepreneurial brands. Businesses that are past the messy start-up stage but are worlds away from the slow‑paced nature of large corporates.

Our clients span large privately owned businesses (often PE backed, founder‑led or both) and small to mid‑cap public enterprises. They are fighting larger, more established competitors and know they need to think and behave differently to win. They don’t conform to category norms. Since they can’t out‑spend their competition, disruption is the safest move they can make.

The marketers leading these brands are innovative, resourceful, moving at pace and in all‑out growth mode. They’re powerful; redefining categories, overtaking and acquiring traditional businesses and changing consumer behaviour along with it.

Our clients share three common yet exciting challenges which define everything we do as an agency:

• Consumer – customer acquisition is key to their success
• Company – they are highly ambitious and built lean
• Category – they are often outspent by their competitors, need to out‑maneuver the competition and are passionate about disrupting an established category

Purpose of the Role

This is a pivotal commercial leadership role focused on driving new business growth across The Specialist Works and What’s Possible Creative. As Senior New Business Manager, you will be responsible for converting leads generated through marketing activity, cultivating referrals from a wide range of sources – including current and former clients, intermediaries (e.g., Oystercatchers, AAR), and internal networks – and proactively identifying growth opportunities within existing client relationships.

You’ll be the engine of our growth, owning the sales pipeline, nurturing key relationships internally and externally, and ensuring our pitch processes are continuously evolving and effectively applied to support winning outcomes. This role demands exceptional project leadership, strategic thinking, consultative persuasion, and a super‑collaborative mindset to align efforts across marketing, client services, and senior leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Lead Conversion and Growth Opportunities

• Convert competitive opportunities generated via marketing and referrals.
• Proactively manage referral streams from clients, ex‑clients, intermediaries (e.g. Oystercatchers, AAR), partners, and staff.
• Collaborate with internal teams to identify and convert upsell and cross‑sell opportunities within existing client relationships.
• Strengthen relationships with key intermediaries to maximise participation in relevant briefs and increase win rates.

Pitch Process Leadership

• Own and optimise formal pitch processes from initial qualification through RFI/RFP, chemistry/tissue sessions, final presentations, all the way through to the conclusion of the onboarding process alongside client and activation teams.
• Continuously refine and enforce structured pitch methodologies to ensure clarity, consistency, and team support.
• Own the feedback and wash‑up process to drive continuous improvement, enhance win rates, and build team confidence.
• Co‑ordinate multi‑disciplinary teams to deliver compelling, strategically aligned proposals that reflect our unique positioning as the media agency for entrepreneurial brands.

Sales Strategy and Reporting

• Develop and execute a sales strategy aligned with the agency’s growth ambitions.
• Maintain accurate sales pipeline tracking in Pipedrive and support outbound efforts via La Growth Machine.
• Analyse, and report on sales performance and pipeline health to inform decision‑making.
• Collaborate closely with the Marketing Director to ensure alignment between lead generation and conversion efforts.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Represent the agency in external forums, events, and intermediary meetings.
• Ensure consistent, high‑quality communication with prospects, partners, and stakeholders.
• Champion the agency’s value proposition and differentiation in every interaction.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Collaborate across client, activation, data, creative and commercial teams to produce pitch‑winning work that will build on our strong reputation in market.
• Promote a culture of excellence, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to colleagues involved in pitch and business development activities.

Experience & Skills

• Proven experience in a senior sales or business development role within media, creative, or marketing services.
• Demonstrated success managing and winning formal pitch processes, with a focus on evolving and improving team support.
• Excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Understanding of entrepreneurial brands and their growth mindset.

Working Conditions

• A minimum of 3 days per week in the office.
• May require some travel to meet with clients or attend industry events on an ad‑hoc basis.

Benefits

We provide an exciting, fast paced, people first environment that allows everyone to grow, learn and thrive.

We work a 9‑day fortnight, meaning staff have every other Friday off!

We offer all our employees share options, and we’ve built a benefits package that invests in our employees’ long‑term personal and professional growth and wellbeing.

Our Values

• Passion: You share your excitement about what drives you
• Inquisitiveness: Ask “what’s possible?”. Ask “why not?”
• Caring: Be a good professional, a good colleague and a good human
• Knowledge: Know plenty. Share it. Learn more.

And we live them every day #IamPICK

Social and Environmental Commitment

At What’s Possible Group, our mission is to build a group our people are proud of. Proud of what we deliver to clients. Proud of how we treat each other. Proud of our commitment to people, planet and profit.

Having rolled out a What’s Possible University with learning modules & policies, including anti bribery & corruption, DE&I and code of ethics, our people have continuous personal development, and the group is continuously improving.

We are dedicated to embedding social and environmental responsibility into every aspect of our business. You'll contribute to initiatives that promote social equity, diversity, and inclusion within our workplace and in the content, we create, whilst actively supporting and promoting sustainable best practice by, continuously working to minimise waste (for example, water & cardboard recycling), prioritise eco‑friendly suppliers (for example, renewable energy switch), and promote remote work to reduce carbon emissions.

Sound good to you? Then get in touch.

At The What’s Possible Group our culture, our creativity and our passion is powered by people. People just like you. Diversity and difference drive innovation, not only for us but also for our clients and is at the heart of everything that we do.

The What’s Possible Group is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all, regardless of race, gender, disability, religion, sexual orientation or age as we seek to recruit the very best at The What’s Possible Group from a diverse talent pool. If you require flexible working options, please still get in touch and we’ll be as accommodating as we can.