( 00: Commercial )
Business Development Manager
- Contract
- Full time
- Team
- Commercial
- Based
- Birmingham showroom, Kings Norton
( 01: The role )
What the job actually is.
This is the senior commercial role in the studio and it exists because of a gap we can see plainly. We publish a trade programme aimed at architects, interior designers, property developers, principal contractors, project managers and stylists, and the workshop can genuinely serve all of them. What we do not have is somebody whose whole job is to go out and win that work.
That is the role. You would own the business-to-business side end to end: deciding which practices and developers are worth pursuing, getting in front of them, learning how they specify, and turning that into repeat work rather than one-off enquiries. It is a build, not an inheritance. You should want the version of the job where the pipeline is largely yours to create.
The thing that makes it winnable is the same thing that makes the consultant role work, only it matters more to a specifier than it does to a homeowner. You can walk an architect thirty metres from the showroom into the workshop and show them the drawer box, the spray booth and the person who will build their scheme. Nobody has to take a lead time on trust, because the people quoting it are through that door. For a practice that has been let down by a supplier once, that is not a sales point, it is the whole decision.
It is also the role that sets the standard for how the studio sells. You would be the most experienced commercial person in the building, working alongside the consultant on the domestic side, and we would expect you to lead by how you run your own accounts rather than by managing a rota.
( 02: Day to day )
What you would
be doing.
Written as the job is, not as a job advert. If any of it is a surprise at interview, we have wasted your afternoon and ours.
- 01Own the trade and specification pipeline end to end: identify the practices, developers and contractors worth pursuing, open the conversation, and see it through to a signed programme.
- 02Build genuine relationships with architects, interior designers, developers, principal contractors and project managers, and understand how each of them actually specifies rather than how we wish they did.
- 03Lead on multi-unit and contract work, where a scheme is several kitchens or a whole development rather than one room, including the tender and pre-qualification paperwork that comes with it.
- 04Work with the workshop on capacity and lead times before you commit to a programme, so a win does not become a problem for the people who have to build it.
- 05Quote and negotiate commercial terms against scope, and hold the line on the ones that would cost the studio money to honour.
- 06Set the commercial standard in the studio: how a pipeline is kept, how a client is followed up, how a quote is presented. Support the sales consultant with the harder conversations and bring them into the accounts they should be learning from.
- 07Represent the studio where specifiers actually are: practice visits, CPD-style presentations, trade events and site meetings.
- 08Keep the pipeline honest in the studio CRM and give the founders a forecast they can plan the workshop around.
- 09Stay with your accounts through manufacture and installation, because in trade the handover is the beginning of the next job rather than the end of this one.
( 03: Essential )
What we need from you.
- Five or more years in business development, specification sales or account management, selling a considered product into businesses rather than over a counter.
- A demonstrable record of opening accounts from nothing and turning them into repeat work. We will ask you to talk us through two of them in detail.
- The seniority to be the most experienced commercial person in the room and to set the standard by how you work, not by title.
- Comfortable with drawings, specifications and scope, and confident talking commercial terms plainly and early.
- The discipline never to promise something the workshop cannot build. Every deadline you agree lands on somebody in this building.
- A full UK driving licence, and willingness to travel to practices and sites. Most of the work is the West Midlands, with selected projects taking you further.
- The right to work in the UK.
( 04: Helpful, not essential )
Nice, but we can teach it.
- KBB experience. It is the single most useful background for this role and the one we would most like to see, because you would already know how specifiers, showrooms and manufacturers fit together.
- An existing network of architects, interior designers or developers in the Midlands.
- Experience of contract or multi-plot work: developer schemes, showhomes, or a fit-out programme run to a build sequence.
- Working knowledge of a kitchen design package such as ArtiCAD, Winner or Fusion.
- Experience selling from a business that manufactures, so you already know how much that changes what you can promise.
Do not rule yourself out over this column. Nobody has ever arrived with all of it.
( 05: In return )
What you get back.
( The package )
Basic and commission structure discussed at interview and set against your experience and the network you bring. Tell us what you are looking for in your application and we will be straight with you about whether it works.
- 01A workshop you can put in front of a specifier. Six trades under one roof at Kings Norton, and every lead time you quote comes from people you can walk to.
- 02A channel that is largely yours to shape. The trade programme is published and the capability is real, so the ceiling here is what you build rather than what you are handed.
- 03Direct access to the founders. Roozbeh and Amir are in the building most days, so a decision on a scheme or a price does not take a fortnight.
- 04The ten year guarantee behind you, which changes what you are allowed to promise a practice that has been let down before.
- 05The senior commercial seat in a small studio, with the founders alongside you rather than a layer of management above you.
( 06: Apply )
Tell us about yourself.
This goes straight to the studio, not to an agency and not into a keyword filter. A few honest lines are worth more than a perfect CV, and every application gets a reply either way.
If you would rather talk first, ring 0121 446 6859 and say you are calling about the Business Development Manager role.
( 07: Also open )
( 08: Not quite this one )
Still worth a letter. We hire people, not vacancies.
If this role is close but not right, say so in an email rather than talking yourself out of it. Tell us what you do and what you want to be doing, and we will tell you honestly whether there is something here now or worth waiting for.