Senior New Business Manager

Seen Studios | B Corp Certified; England; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading creative agency in the UK is seeking a Senior New Business Manager to drive growth strategy and convert new business opportunities. The ideal candidate has over 5 years of experience in business development with retail brands and demonstrates excellent relationship-building skills. This role includes leading initiatives to enhance the agency's market profile, managing a business pipeline, and providing strategic insight. The company fosters an inclusive environment that welcomes diverse applicants.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years of proven new business or business development experience with retail brands.
• Strong network of contacts within retail, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and performance sectors.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive the agency's growth strategy and enhance market profile.
• Manage and nurture a pipeline of business opportunities.
• Provide reporting on pipeline health and new business KPIs.

Skills

New business development with retail brands

Stakeholder engagement

Commercial acumen

Communication skills

Organisational skills

Tools

Hubspot

Job description

This is a rare and incredible opportunity within industry leading agency, Seen Studios. We are on the lookout for a Senior New Business Manager & Marketing – Experienced in Brand Retail Experiences.

As the Senior New Business Manager, you’ll be responsible for driving the agency’s growth strategy, identifying, engaging, and converting new business opportunities, while leading proactive initiatives to enhance the agency’s market profile, alongside the Marketing Manager. Reporting directly to the Director of Retail, you will manage and nurture a pipeline of opportunities, secure new briefs, and play an integral role in shaping the agency’s commercial future.

Key Responsibilities

Lead Generation

• Lead and implement the agency’s Retail new business strategy, working closely with the MD, CSD and Director of Retail to agree key target categories and brands.
• Proactively prospect, qualify leads, and develop relationships with brand and marketing decision-makers.
• Identify, research, and target potential clients that align with the agency’s specialisms in strategic retail design, brand experience and content.
• Manage and nurture a new business pipeline through CRM and outreach initiatives, ensuring consistent, strategic engagement with prospects.
• Lead the ongoing development and updating of agency credentials, case studies, and marketing collateral. Ensuring content is always fresh, relevant, and reflective of the agency’s capabilities and recent work.
• Support the creation of persuasive proposals, RFP/RFI responses, in collaboration with the DOF, creative, project management, and leadership teams.
• Represent the agency at relevant industry events, awards, networking opportunities, and client meetings.
• Be the first point of contact to pick up and respond to inbound, new business opportunities.
• Present key opportunities and data to qualify these opportunities and make a recommendation to the MD, CSD and DOF as to how to proceed.
• Lead the development of our communication and response – e.g. tailored agency credentials, RFI and RFPs documents.
• Track all inbound opportunities and ensure prospect details are added to Hubspot.

Pitching

• Work with the SLT and wider agency to deliver exceptional pitch responses for net new clients.
• Be a font of knowledge when it comes to understanding the Retail brand’s needs and the client audience.
• Provide industry, brand and client insight to help shape the agency’s winning response.
• Manage pitch learnings sessions with the client and internal team.

Marketing and NB activity

• Own and coordinate the delivery of internal new business initiatives including seminars, roundtables, and agency-hosted events that support profile-building and lead generation.
• Work closely with the marketing team to shape and activate thought‑leadership content, PR opportunities, social campaigns, case studies, and inbound marketing activity.
• Stay ahead of trends, brand activations, and competitor activity — ensuring the agency is aware of, and responding to, shifts in the retail and experiential landscape.

Reporting

• Provide regular reporting on pipeline health, conversion rates, and new business KPIs to the leadership team.
• Lead weekly New Business meetings with MD, CSD and DOF, coming with updates and ideation on how to strengthen strategic outreach and qualification.
• Support the MD and CSD on monthly and quarterly board reports that looks back and ahead.
• Manage of specified new business expenditure lines, feeding into the CSD budget holder.
• Harness Hubspot as a hard-working CRM tool. Recommend and leverage the platform tools to improve our tracking, reporting and communications with prospects.
• Track and benchmark our performance against the competition.

Key Skills & Experience

• Minimum 5+ years of proven new business or business development experience with retail brands – with a focus on Retail Design briefs, ideally within a creative agency, production house, or retail/experiential environment.
• Strong network of contacts within retail, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and/or performance sectors.
• Demonstrable track record of identifying and securing new business with high‑profile brands.
• Excellent relationship builder, confident engaging with senior stakeholders, brand directors, and marketing decision-makers.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience navigating procurement processes, pitching, and negotiating contracts.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to balance immediate opportunities with long‑term business development goals.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills — confident writing proposals, presentations, and credentials documents.
• Organised, proactive, and results‑driven, with the ability to manage multiple opportunities and projects concurrently.
• A team player who enjoys collaborating internally, energising teams, and representing agency culture externally.

At Seen Studios we are committed to providing an inclusive environment where everyone feels seen, heard and celebrated. We welcome applications from everyone. If you are invited to an interview, please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to best accommodate your needs.