Business Developer – A stupidly honest job description – Birmingham.

Right, this is one working for us directly. This is an unconventional job ad, but if you like that, you might just like us. We’re a bit unconventional but that can be a good thing for the right person.

Also, this job ad is MASSIVE - sorry. I got into a flow, and then just didn’t stop. Apologies. I came back and added this at the end.

At the minute, we’re looking for a real proper Business Developer, someone that loves selling, presenting to clients, building relationships, and being the face of the brand. It’s a tough job, but it’ll be worth it.

Before I get going… You’re nearly impossible to find, and we know that. We don’t mind if you come from an SDR / Marketing / Telesales / Presales / Research and Planning / Field Sales background. What we do care about though, is that you’re passionate about good sales.

Now, what we don’t need here, is a sleazy schmoozy greasy chest-beater type. If you’ve ever described yourself as an “alpha”, just no. We need a likeable, genuine, honest personality, but someone who’s hungry and driven, naturally tenacious, and inquisitive. Someone who has humility, and knows what they’re good at, but also recognises their weaknesses and wants to improve.

So in a nutshell;

We’re a Recruitment Company that specialises in placing people into positions in Amsterdam and Berlin, so the majority of our networks are all based there. No, we don’t take UK people and send them out there; instead, we work like a remote team, with regular visits to client sites to visit and develop our business and place Senior IT Developers into their new homes. We do Permanent and Freelance hiring, across a range of different company types and industries, and we’ve definitely worked with brands you know, and probably more with brands you don’t.

We’ve been around for 10 years, and we’ve done well. We’ve got a good brand, and a good reputation. That said, we’re not in the post Covid boom anymore, and recruitment isn’t as simple as it was a couple of years ago. We’re back to the difficult times, and we need someone who’s a natural leader and relationship builder to help us identify and help more companies struggling to find people, and help those looking for work into new positions.

This role, is specifically based around Business Development though, so it’s a mix of revisiting companies that we’ve helped before, but also going and introducing our services to new companies that haven’t met us yet, but we might be the solution that they’re looking for. You’ll have plenty of tools to get the job done, whether it be phone / email / whatsapp / LinkedIn Recruiter / video platforms, the list goes on and on and on…

Your main job will be to talk about all things recruitment. You’ll go to companies that already have a great recruitment process and look at ways we can get involved and enhance it, or maybe companies that have never worked with a recruitment company before, or maybe some that have had bad experiences with recruiters and it’s your job to change the stereotype.

You’ll talk to clients and show them the benefits of working with us, meet them, pitch us, and you, handle objections, agree service level agreements and commercial teams and then manage the accounts to ensure that their jobs are covered by our resource team and ultimately filled. There’s a lot to it, and there’s never a dull day.

Good business developers are hard to find, and it might be helpful to talk about some yes’s that work, and also some red flags that don’t. This isn’t to be divisive, it’s just to be open and transparent, and to give you a taste of whether or not this could be the right option for you.

Here's in my opinion, what you need to possess to be a successful Business Developer in Recruitment.

You have to be brave – nobody likes being cold called / approached, and the most common word you will hear will be ‘no’. But that’s ok. If you’re good at this, then 1 yes is worth 100 no’s and once that network is built the phone will start to ring.
You have to be naturally interested in the challenges that companies face, and inquisitive to find out more.
You’re a doer not a thinker. You’re probably someone who learns on the job and dives in and learns later. If that’s your attitude, you’ll do well here, and we’ll forgive the fact that you might be a bit disorganised.
You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You can’t just email people and win them over. There’s various ways to approach, and whilst tech / AI / Marketing tools fall in and out of fashion, good old Sales remains consistent, which brings me onto my next point.
Sales. Sales. Sales. Sales. Again, not in a sleazy way, but sales wins the day in recruitment every single time. Whether that be the courage to approach people, innovative thinking and problem solving, or just the courage to say no to a client and explain why, sales will be the absolute differentiator between being just ok, or super successful.

Here’s some things that don’t work in recruitment, and if this is you, it will be a really tough task to become successful.

Apprehension to approach people. No one likes being disturbed, that’s true, but if that puts you off making contact then maybe sales isn’t the role for you.
Lack of accountability. In recruitment you need to make it happen. It’s not a waiting game, and it’s not a place where you can send a few emails and the jobs fly in. I wish it was (trust me), but it’s not.
“I’m unlucky.” You make your own luck, with the right attitude and determination, it will come good for you, and you’ll be supported whilst you get up to speed.
Bad work ethic. Recruitment is the hardest job in the world unless you dedicate yourself to it, become passionate about it, almost addicted. Not because that’s what we demand from you, far from it, but it’s something that is a common trait, the most successful have the strongest work ethics.
Let the tech do the work: There are hundreds of SaaS platforms that can help you do your work, and some of them are bloody brilliant. But, they can’t do the work for you, and you can’t trust them to. Recent research shows that email open rates are on the decline, hyper-personalisation does not garner the same results, and there is a huge resurgence in face to face and phone based sales as we grow out of a turbulent market. Whilst you’ll have every tool you need to do the job, it’s your natural tenacity and sales ability we need first, and the tech comes later.

I’ve been honest there, because it’s not an easy job and it has a high fail rate, and I want you to only apply for this if this is more of a motivator and causes more mental ‘ticks’ than ‘crosses’.

So, what’s on offer?

We’re a good company, and we treat you well. We’re open on salary with this one, because it depends on your experience and background, but we always try and give you a bit more than you’re looking for when we can. There’s really good career progression on offer, and the chance to progress quickly, and become an owner of the business for some. That’s a real option here.

Other nice perks are:

A really really good comms scheme
Half day Fridays
A good pension
Nice offices (hybrid working possible, but probably not in your probationary period)
Team nights out and ridiculous incentives
Discounted Gym Membership
Private Healthcare
25 days holiday plus 3 duvet days and Christmas off too.
A likeminded group of actual nice people as colleagues.
There’s probably some other stuff I’ve forgotten about too

So if you come from a sales background, and you’re passionate about good sales, and this job ad hasn’t put you off, we should probably speak. Send me your CV and apply online, and I’ll come back to you with the next steps. As an extra bonus point, because of the sheer size of this, send me the part of the advert that appealed to you most and least, because I need to get better at not waffling.

Hope to speak to you soon.

That Recruitment Company

New Jobs

Business Development Specialist - A Proper Salesperson