Manager of Business Development

OUR MISSION

To become the car-changing destination of choice. By combining technology, media and deep automotive expertise, we've turned how people buy, sell, advertise and lease cars on its head.

What started as a simple reviews site is now one of the largest online car-changing destinations in Europe. Last year alone we grew over 50% with nearly £3bn worth of cars bought on site, while £1.8bn of cars were listed for sale through our Sell My Car service.

In 2024 we went big and acquired Autovia - creators of AutoExpress and Evo magazines - doubling our audience overnight. Together we now have one of the biggest YouTube https://www.youtube.com/carwow channels in the world with almost 10m subscribers and over 1.1 billion annual views, while we sell 1.2 million print copies of our magazines and have an annual web content reach over 350million.

And we’re a long way from done!

YOUR MISSION

We are looking for a high energy, results driven Manager – Business Development to lead, scale, and inspire a new team of 5 BDMs. This team is the "engine room" of our stock sourcing business, responsible for winning and onboarding independent motor dealers and franchise dealer groups.

You will be responsible for building a "hunter" culture, embedding high volume outreach processes, and ensuring that new partners don't just sign up but actively bid and buy. You will lead your team through the ambiguity of a fast scaling environment, acting as both a strategic lead and a hands-on coach.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Team Leadership & Development
• Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a team of 5 BDMs, fostering a collaborative and inclusive high-performance culture.
• Coaching: Provide hands-on coaching through call listening and "live" pitch feedback to sharpen the team's consultative selling and negotiation skills.
• Ambiguity: Navigate the team through market shifts and internal changes, maintaining high morale and clarity of mission.

Impact & Results

• Target Ownership: Own the team’s productivity and performance, ensuring acquisition and early lifecycle “first-buy" targets are consistently met or exceeded.
• Market Share: Drive the team to aggressively grow carwow’s buying platform adoption across the UK.
• Culture: Build an environment where people are excited to come to work and compete, celebrating wins and learning from "no's".

Structure & Strategy

• Sales Process: Embed proven outreach structures (phone first, CRM-led) that help the team achieve outstanding conversion rates from cold leads to active partners.
• Industry Expertise: Maintain an understanding of the automotive industry and market trends to help your team navigate complex objections.
• Strategic Input: Inform the wider commercial strategy by identifying roadblocks in the onboarding journey and suggesting improvements.
• Ensure the team consistently delivers value to partners and maximises commercial outcomes

Process & Structure

• Operational Excellence: Identify and remove friction points in the dealer onboarding process to get partners bidding and buying faster.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Account Management to ensure a seamless handover of "ready to grow" accounts.
• Recruitment: Lead the hiring and onboarding for your team, ensuring we bring in top tier "hunter" talent.

REQUIREMENTS

• Proven Leadership: Experience managing a sales or business development team, ideally in a high-volume "hunter" environment
• CRM Mastery: Proficiency in Salesforce, groove or similar CRM tools to manage data-driven sales pipelines.
• Hunter Mentality: A passion for prospecting and a track record of winning new business.
• Presence: Ability to work from our London office at least 3 days a week to provide on-the-floor coaching and support.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

• Introductory call with the Talent Partner
• Skills-based interview with the Team Manager and another manager within our commercial team
• Interview and role-based task with the Team Manager and a Head Of Department or Director
• Values based interview

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

• 💸 Competitive comp package
• 🌴 28 days' holiday increasing to 35 with length of service, plus extras for house moves, weddings and more!
• 📈 Employee-friendly share options
• 💰 Pension scheme via Royal London - up to 5% company contribution
• ❤️‍🩹 Vitality private healthcare insurance
• 💵 Life Assurance - 4x annual salary
• 💚 Monthly coaching sessions with Spill - our mental wellbeing partner
• 👪 Inclusive parental, partner and shared parental leave including up to 20 weeks' full pay maternity and shared parental leave, and 8 weeks' full partner pay, as well as fertility treatment and pregnancy loss policies
• 🧒🏽 Bubble childcare support and discounted nanny fees for little ones
• 🏖️ 'Work from abroad for a month' annual scheme
• 🧠 Generous learning and development budget
• 🖥️ £500/€550 home office budget

Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our culture. We know that diverse teams are strong teams, so we welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences to apply for this position. We make recruiting decisions based on experience, skills and potential, so all our applicants are treated fairly and equally.