Business Development Manager

13th Floor Music; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

13th Floor Music in Texas is seeking an experienced Business Development Manager to drive new-client growth across hospitality, restaurants, hotels, bars, and venues. This role focuses on building a robust sales pipeline, nurturing relationships with decision-makers, and closing new business while the booking team handles talent fulfillment.

Based in Austin or Dallas-Fort Worth, this hybrid position allows remote work most days.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional sales experience.
• Must be based in either Austin or the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
• Demonstrated success in business development, outside sales, territory sales, or new-client acquisition.
• Strong prospecting and cold-calling skills.
• Proven ability to develop relationships and close new business.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Strong organizational and follow-up skills.
• Ability to independently manage a territory and sales pipeline.
• Highly self-motivated and comfortable working with significant autonomy.
• Comfortable conducting both phone-based and face-to-face sales.
• Willingness and ability to travel throughout Texas.
• A genuine passion for music and enthusiasm for the live-music industry.

Responsibilities

• Execute Texas sales strategy and drive new business.
• Identify and pursue opportunities across hospitality, restaurants, hotels, bars, and venues.
• Build and maintain a healthy client pipeline.
• Outbound prospecting via calls, emails, networking, referrals, and in-person visits.
• Meet with owners and decision-makers to understand entertainment needs and present 13th Floor Music value.
• Develop long-term relationships beyond transactional selling.
• Manage prospects through full sales cycle from discovery to close.
• Maintain disciplined follow-up with prospects.
• Develop opportunities with single locations and multi-location groups.
• Represent the company at events and client meetings.
• Collaborate with leadership on target accounts and growth opportunities.
• Ensure smooth handoff of new clients to booking agents.

Skills

Sales experience

Territory management

Relationship building

Cold calling

Travel readiness

Job description

Texas | Based in Austin or Dallas-Fort Worth

Every great night out has live music. Somebody booked it.

Somewhere in Texas tonight, a guitarist is plugging in on a hotel patio. A DJ is transforming a rooftop into the hottest place in town. A band is setting the stage for a wedding night no one wants to end. A room that would have been just a room is about to become the reason people stay for one more round.

Odds are good we put them there. 13th Floor Music is one of the largest music booking agencies in the United States by number of shows booked each year. That's a lot of nights made better, and a lot of working musicians getting paid to do what they do best.

We're one of the largest booking agencies. We want to be the biggest and best. That's where you come in.

13th Floor Music is a Texas-based live music and entertainment booking agency that connects venues, hospitality groups, restaurants, hotels, event spaces, and private-event clients with exceptional live talent.

We work with businesses to develop and manage their entertainment programming, handling the talent sourcing and booking process so our clients can consistently deliver great live music experiences.

As we continue to grow throughout Texas, we're looking for an experienced Business Development Manager to help expand our client base and develop long-term relationships with businesses that utilize live entertainment.

The Role

This is a dedicated business development position focused on one primary objective: winning new business for 13th Floor Music.

The Business Development Manager will be responsible for executing our sales strategy throughout Texas, identifying prospective clients, creating new opportunities, developing relationships with decision-makers, and converting those relationships into new 13th Floor Music clients.

This is a true outside-sales and relationship-development role. You'll prospect through cold calls, email, networking, referrals, and in-person visits, while developing a strong understanding of each prospect's entertainment needs and demonstrating how 13th Floor Music can provide value.

This is not a booking-agent position. Once you've successfully brought a new client into 13th Floor Music, the ongoing entertainment programming and talent booking will transition to our booking team. Your focus remains on building the pipeline, developing relationships, and closing new business.

What You’ll Do

• Execute 13th Floor Music's business development and sales strategy throughout Texas.
• Identify and pursue new business opportunities across hospitality, restaurants, hotels, bars, nightlife, event venues, private events, and other businesses that utilize live entertainment
• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified prospective clients
• Conduct consistent outbound prospecting through cold calling, email outreach, networking, referrals, and in-person visits
• Visit prospective client locations and meet face-to-face with owners, operators, general managers, entertainment directors, event professionals, and other decision-makers
• Develop a strong understanding of prospective clients' entertainment needs and position 13th Floor Music as their preferred booking partner
• Build genuine, long-term relationships rather than relying solely on transactional selling
• Manage prospects through the complete sales cycle, from initial outreach and discovery through proposal, follow-up, negotiation, and close
• Maintain disciplined and consistent follow-up with prospective clients
• Develop opportunities with both individual locations and larger hospitality or multi-location groups
• Represent 13th Floor Music at industry events, networking opportunities, and client meetings
• Collaborate with company leadership on target accounts, territory strategy, sales priorities, and growth opportunities
• Ensure a smooth handoff of newly acquired clients to our booking agents once the relationship has been established
• Remain focused on new-business generation while the booking team handles ongoing entertainment programming and talent fulfillment
• Travel throughout Texas as needed, generally up to one week per month

What We're Looking For

The right person for this role is an experienced salesperson who is proactive, self-directed, persistent, personable, and comfortable creating opportunities from scratch.

You should be equally comfortable picking up the phone to make a cold call, walking into a prospective client's business, sitting down with a senior decision-maker, developing a relationship over time, and asking for the business when the opportunity is right.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional sales experience
• Must be based in either Austin or the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
• Demonstrated success in business development, outside sales, territory sales, or new-client acquisition
• Strong prospecting and cold-calling skills
• Proven ability to develop relationships and close new business
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
• Strong organizational and follow-up skills
• Ability to independently manage a territory and sales pipeline
• Highly self-motivated and comfortable working with significant autonomy
• Comfortable conducting both phone-based and face-to-face sales
• Willingness and ability to travel throughout Texas
• A genuine passion for music and enthusiasm for the live-music industry

Experience That's a Plus

Experience selling within any of the following industries is especially attractive:

• Hospitality
• Restaurants, bars, or nightlife
• Alcohol and beverage sales
• Hotels
• Live entertainment or the music industry
• Events and event services

Existing relationships within Texas hospitality, restaurant, nightlife, entertainment, events, or beverage industries are also a significant plus.

Direct music-industry experience is not required. We're more interested in finding an exceptional salesperson and relationship builder who understands how to develop new business and genuinely loves music.

Location, Travel & Work Structure

This position offers substantial flexibility and autonomy.

The Business Development Manager must be based in either Austin or Dallas-Fort Worth and can expect to work from home approximately 75% of the time.

The remainder of the role will primarily involve getting out into the market: visiting prospective clients, attending meetings and networking events, developing relationships, and representing 13th Floor Music in person.

Because the position covers opportunities throughout Texas, some travel is required, typically up to one week per month.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role is straightforward: consistently creating qualified opportunities and converting those opportunities into new, long-term 13th Floor Music client relationships.

You won't be responsible for filling calendars with musicians or managing the day-to-day booking needs of the accounts you acquire. Our booking agents handle that.

Your job is to open doors, build trust, demonstrate our value, close new business, and then go find the next opportunity.

We're looking for someone who enjoys that process and wants the independence and responsibility that comes with owning business development for a growing live-music company.

Why This Job

Most sales jobs ask you to get excited about something that's hard to get excited about. This one asks you to sell live music.

Your territory is the best bars, restaurants, hotels, and venues in Texas. Your product is a night people remember. And when you close a deal, you get to go see it: a full room, a great band, a happy owner, and a musician with another gig on the calendar.

You'll own your pipeline, your calendar, and your corner of the map, with the backing of an agency that books at a volume few can match. We're growing fast, and the person in this seat will have a real hand in what 13th Floor Music becomes next.

Compensation

This role pays a $70,000 annual base salary plus uncapped commission. At an average quota, total earnings should come to around $125,000 a year, and high performers and strong closers can go well beyond that. Travel and business expenses are covered, so the miles you put in across Texas never come out of your pocket.

If you know how to open doors and you can't walk past a live band without stopping to listen, we want to hear from you. Send us your resume, and tell us about the best live show you've ever seen.