A growing professional services firm in Central Arkansas is seeking an accomplished Director of Business Development to lead new client acquisition, expand market presence, and develop a more sophisticated and proactive approach to business development.
This is not an entry-level sales opportunity. We are looking for an experienced business development professional who has a demonstrated history of selling professional services directly to business owners, executives, and other senior decision-makers and who already has a strong network of relationships throughout the Central Arkansas business community.
The Director of Business Development will be responsible for both personally generating new business and building the strategy, processes, campaigns, and pipeline necessary to create consistent long-term growth. The right person will be highly relationship-driven, but also creative and proactive in identifying new ways to reach prospective clients.
This individual should understand that successful professional services business development is rarely transactional. It requires credibility, persistence, strong executive communication skills, an ability to uncover business needs, and the ability to develop trusted relationships that ultimately lead to new engagements.
What You'll DoBusiness Development & Revenue Growth
- Develop and execute a comprehensive business development strategy focused on generating new clients and expanding the firm's presence throughout Central Arkansas.
- Personally identify, cultivate, and pursue new business opportunities with business owners, C-suite executives, senior leaders, and other key decision-makers.
- Leverage an existing network of relationships within the Central Arkansas business community to generate introductions, referrals, meetings, and new opportunities.
- Conduct discovery meetings with prospective clients to understand their organizations, challenges, priorities, and potential needs.
- Effectively communicate the firm's value proposition and develop solutions tailored to prospective clients.
- Manage opportunities throughout the full business development lifecycle, from initial identification and outreach through discovery, proposal, negotiation, and close.
- Develop and maintain relationships with referral partners and other professionals who can serve as ongoing sources of new business.
- Attend and participate in networking events, business organizations, community activities, conferences, and other opportunities that increase the firm's visibility and generate relationships.
- Consistently achieve established goals for qualified opportunities, pipeline development, proposals, new clients, and revenue.
- Enjoy a healthy base salary plus uncapped commission opportunities.
Strategy, Campaigns & Market Development
- Develop creative strategies for reaching prospective clients beyond traditional networking and cold outreach.
- Design and execute targeted business development campaigns focused on specific audiences, industries, business needs, or market opportunities.
- Identify new channels, partnerships, events, referral relationships, and other opportunities for generating qualified leads.
- Continually evaluate the Central Arkansas market to identify organizations, decision-makers, industries, and emerging opportunities the firm should pursue.
- Develop strategies for re-engaging past prospects and nurturing opportunities that are not immediately ready to buy.
- Collaborate with leadership to refine messaging, positioning, service offerings, and go-to-market strategies based on feedback from the marketplace.
- Bring new ideas and experimentation to the business development function rather than relying solely on established sales tactics.
CRM & Pipeline Management
- Own and maintain the firm's CRM and ensure prospects, activities, opportunities, next steps, and pipeline information are consistently and accurately tracked.
- Establish disciplined processes for managing prospects from initial contact through closed business.
- Maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified opportunities and proactively identify gaps before they impact future revenue.
- Use CRM data and business development metrics to evaluate activity, conversion rates, pipeline quality, and overall effectiveness.
- Develop appropriate follow-up and nurture strategies to keep the firm connected with prospective clients over time.
- Provide leadership with clear visibility into pipeline activity, projected revenue, opportunities, and business development performance.
Marketing & Brand Support
While this position is primarily focused on business development and revenue generation, candidates with marketing, branding, content, campaign development, or other creative experience will be especially attractive.
The Director of Business Development may collaborate on initiatives designed to increase visibility, strengthen the firm's reputation, generate leads, and create meaningful engagement with prospective clients.
Someone who can think creatively about both how to reach an audience and how to convert that audience into relationships and revenue will be particularly successful in this role.
What We're Looking For
- Demonstrated success in business development, sales, or revenue growth within a professional services or other relationship-driven B2B environment.
- Proven experience selling services to business owners, executives, C-suite leaders, and senior decision-makers.
- An established professional network and meaningful business relationships throughout Central Arkansas.
- Strong understanding of the Central Arkansas business community and the ability to quickly identify prospective clients, referral partners, and strategic relationships.
- Proven ability to personally originate and close new business.
- Experience developing and managing a meaningful pipeline of prospective clients.
- Strong CRM experience and a disciplined approach to documenting activity, managing follow-up, and forecasting opportunities.
- Experience developing business development campaigns, prospecting strategies, and new approaches to generating leads and opportunities.
- Strong networking and relationship-building skills.
- Excellent executive presence and the ability to communicate credibly with senior business leaders.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Self-directed, highly accountable, and comfortable operating with significant autonomy.
- Strategic thinker who can balance long-term relationship development with short-term revenue goals.
- Naturally curious and able to ask strong questions, identify business challenges, and recognize opportunities.
- Comfortable being measured against clearly defined business development and revenue goals.
- Marketing, branding, content development, event strategy, or other creative experience is a plus.
The Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is already well connected within the Central Arkansas business community and has spent their career developing relationships with the types of people who make decisions about outside professional service providers.
They know how to walk into a room of business leaders and build relationships, but they are equally comfortable sitting down with a CRM, evaluating a pipeline, developing a targeted campaign, researching prospective clients, and determining exactly where their time should be spent.
Most importantly, we're looking for someone who combines relationships, strategy, creativity, and execution. This person won't simply wait for referrals or attend networking events and hope opportunities develop. They will continually ask:
Who should we be talking to? How do we reach them? What message will resonate with them? And what can we do differently to create the next opportunity?
Pay: $80,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Little Rock, AR 72201
