Business Development Manager - Lead Generation

Introduction

The purpose of this role is to secure new clients across the full portfolio and to establish the group's presence in accounts where it does not currently trade. The mandate is new client acquisition. It does not include account management, renewal administration or the servicing of inbound enquiries as a primary activity.

The successful candidate will be expected to generate the majority of their own pipeline through an established professional network, direct engagement and referral, supported by, but nondependent on, marketing activity. The breadth of the portfolio is a material commercial advantage.

Few competitors are positioned to conduct a licensing compliance discussion with a Chief Information Officer and a managed services discussion with the same organisation. The role exists to convert that advantage into revenue.

Duties & Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

New business generation

• Own the complete new business cycle from initial engagement to signed contract, across advisory projects, annuity managed services and platform subscriptions.

• Generate pipeline principally through personal network, direct outreach and referral, and maintain sufficient activity levels to sustain agreed coverage ratios.

• Establish engagement at Chief Information Officer, Chief Financial Officer, IT Director, Head of Procurement and IT Asset Manager level within enterprise and upper midmarket organisations.

• Apply disciplined qualification criteria and disengage early from opportunities that do not meet them

Deal ownership and commercial control

• Lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles, typically of three to nine months, involving legal, procurement and finance functions.

• Construct the commercial case, covering scope, pricing, payback and risk, and confirm feasibility with delivery leadership before commitment is made to the client.

• Prepare and present proposals, tender responses and statements of work to a standard consistent with the Blackhill brand.

• Negotiate commercial terms and conclude agreements, protecting margin and ensuring that contracted scope is deliverable

Portfolio breadth

• Develop opportunity across the full portfolio, recognising that a managed IT prospect is also a SAM prospect and that an audit defence engagement is a route to managed SAMand to Aiyoda.

• Position the Aiyoda platform credibly in a first meeting, including the delivery or narration of a platform demonstration with pre-sales support.

• Identify and develop channel and partner routes to market where these accelerate reach.

Market presence and intelligence

• Represent Blackhill at industry events, vendor forums and client briefings, and maintain professional presence in the market.

• Monitor publisher licensing and audit activity, Microsoft enforcement timelines andcompetitor positioning, and report relevant intelligence into the business.

• Contribute to the development of service propositions and campaign themes based ondirect market feedback.

Governance and reporting

• Maintain accurate CRM records, including opportunity stage, value and close date.

• Forecast accuracy is a formal performance measure.

• Report weekly on activity, pipeline movement and concluded business, and present a formal territory review each quarter.

• Effect a structured handover to delivery on award, and remain sufficiently engaged with the account to identify subsequent opportunity

Desired Experience & Qualification

Minimum Requirements

• A minimum of five years' experience selling IT services, enterprise software, licensing

services or managed services, of which at least five years were spent carrying a new

business target.

• A demonstrable record of new client acquisition, supported by named engagement

values, sales cycle durations and the year of conclusion. (Candidates should be prepared

to discuss three such engagements in detail at interview).

• An established and current network of senior IT and finance decision makers within

South African enterprise and upper mid-market organisations.

• Consistent achievement against target, evidenced on request.

Experience of consultative, value-based selling in which the client is purchasing

expertise and outcome rather than product.

• Working knowledge of the Microsoft commercial landscape, including Enterprise Agreements, the Cloud Solution Provider programme, Microsoft 365 and Azure consumption models.

• The ability to present commercial models, savings cases and payback analysis to a finance audience.

• Proficiency in written and spoken English, including proposal and tender writing.

• A valid driver's licence and own vehicle. Regular client travel is required.

Preferred requirements

• Direct experience selling Software Asset Management, ITAM, FinOps or software audit

defence services.

• Familiarity with Tier 1 publisher audit practice, particularly Oracle, SAP, IBM or

Broadcom VMware.

• Experience concluding managed services contracts and multi-year annuity agreements,

including service level and commercial term negotiation.

• Experience selling subscription software platforms to IT leadership.

• An established network in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Africa