Business Development Manager
Location: Banbury, Oxfordshire (Hybrid/Flexible Working Available)
Reporting To: Managing Director / Head of Accounting
Salary: £35k + Performance Bonuses + Benefits
The Opportunity
We’re looking for a Business Development Manager who can play a central role in achieving that ambition.
You’ll be responsible for identifying, nurturing, and converting new business opportunities
You’ll become the face of the practice within the local business community, building a strong network of referrals, strategic partnerships, and high-value client relationships.
This is a chance to shape how the role develops. You’ll work directly with the firm’s senior team and receive support from our technical and marketing teams throughout the sales process. Your insight from conversations with construction industry businesses, will also help us improve our proposition and future business development activity.
What you’ll be doing
Business Development
- Identify and target profitable new client opportunities.
- Generate appointments through networking, outreach, referrals, and strategic partnerships.
- Build relationships with business owners, directors and other decision-makers.
- Help prospective clients understand how Progress can support their business and move suitable opportunities towards becoming clients.
- Help develop and deliver the business development plan.
Networking & Relationship Building
- Represent the firm at networking events, business exhibitions, and community events.
- Build strong relationships with professional introducers including solicitors, IFAs, bankers, and commercial finance providers.
- Maintain regular contact with referral partners and identify opportunities to work together.
Sales Pipeline Management
- Manage opportunities from first contact through discovery, proposal and handover, involving the relevant Progress specialist at the appropriate stage.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date CRM records.
- Provide an accurate view of pipeline, likely revenue, conversion and follow-up activity so priorities can be agreed with the leadership team.
- Work towards agreed activity, pipeline, conversion and new-business revenue targets.
Representing Progress
- Represent Progress in a way that reflects how we work with clients: approachable, commercially minded and interested in their business.
- Help more local business owners understand the wider support Progress provides beyond compliance.
- Work with the marketing team on campaigns, events, content and other growth activity.
What Success Looks Like
We’ll agree detailed targets with you. During your first 12 months, we would expect you to:
- Develop a good understanding of Progress, our services and the businesses we’re best placed to help.
- Build and convert a pipeline of new clients that match the agreed ideal client profile.
- Develop productive relationships with introducers and partners that generate measurable referrals and new business opportunities.
- Establish a consistent presence in the local business community and identify which events, groups and partnerships produce the best opportunities.
- Meet agreed pipeline, conversion and new-business revenue targets.
- Share market feedback that helps us improve our proposition and business development process.
What we’re looking for
We are looking for someone who demonstrates:
- A track record of developing and converting new business in a B2B professional services environment.
- Confidence speaking with business owners and senior decision-makers.
- The ability to develop opportunities over time and follow up consistently.
- Good commercial judgement and an interest in understanding how businesses operate.
- Strong communication, relationship-building and negotiation skills.
- A proactive approach and the motivation to manage your own activity.
- Good organisation and accurate pipeline management.
- The judgement to represent Progress credibly with prospective clients and professional introducers.
- A full UK driving licence and the ability to travel regularly across the region
- Competitive and results-driven.
- Comfortable hearing "no" and using it as motivation.
- Passionate about helping businesses grow.
About Progress Accountants
- Progress Accountants is a fast-growing, ambitious accountancy practice supporting business owners who want more from their accountant than year-end compliance.
- Alongside accounting and tax, we provide business advisory and strategic support that helps clients understand how their business is performing, improve profitability and make better-informed decisions about the future.
- Our ambition is to build one of the leading accountancy firms in the region. Construction and music are a particular focus for the next stage of our development, and we’re investing in the team and marketing needed to reach more businesses in these sectors.
Why Join Progress?
- Join Progress at an important stage of its growth and help shape how the firm approaches business development.
- Work directly with the firm’s decision-makers, with support from technical colleagues and the marketing team.
- Have the freedom to improve the pipeline, partnerships and business development process.
- Genuine career progression opportunities.
- Opportunity to make a visible impact on business growth.
- Be part of a team that works with ambitious business owners.
If you're the type of person who refuses to accept the status quo, loves winning new business, and wants to build something special, we'd love to hear from you.
Pay: £35,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company events
- Company pension
- Free parking
Experience:
- Business development: 2 years (required)
Location:
- Banbury, Oxfordshire (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Banbury
