Business Development Manager

The Business Development Manager at YouGov, owns a multi-sector territory spanning national and international accounts, identifying, qualifying and closing new business across our full suite of data, analytics, and custom research solutions. Reporting to our UK Head of Commercial, the Business Development Manager is a credible senior presence in front of client and prospect stakeholders, comfortable leading a pitch, negotiating terms, or stepping into a stalled deal. The successful post holder will work with Research and Product to make sure every proposal you put your name to is commercially sound and deliverable, and you'll have a genuine interest in using AI to work smarter across the sales cycle.

You Will:

Territory & Pipeline Ownership

• Own a personal sales target linked to revenue, forecasting it accurately enough to defend under scrutiny.
• Conduct comprehensive territory analysis across your sectors, identifying key opportunities and prospective clients at national and international level, and set ambitious goals for pursuing high-value targets.
• Develop and maintain a robust sales plan, reviewed monthly, to keep your new business generation sharp and effective.
• Manage a portfolio of concurrent, often complex or higher-value opportunities, allocating your own time and resource and balancing competing priorities.
• Consistently generate fresh opportunities weekly, ensuring a steady pipeline to meet and exceed targets.

Sales Process & Deal Leadership

• Lead qualification and discovery on your more complex, sensitive or high-value opportunities, applying MEDDPICC rigorously.
• Make defensible calls under pressure and with incomplete information, weighing the bigger picture and not only the immediate deal.
• Work with management to shape and sign off on bespoke commercial solutions and pricing for deals that don't fit a standard template, within agreed parameters.
• Leverage the latest sales enablement tools (Salesforce, Gong or equivalent) to streamline forecasting, call recording, quote creation, and win/loss analysis.

Client Leadership & Account Growth

• Identify key decision-makers (DMU) in each client organisation, ensuring you engage the right people and deliver value at every stage.
• Act as a trusted adviser to senior client stakeholders on complex opportunities, owning relationships through the sales cycle and into early account life so YouGov is never reliant on a single contact.
• Confidently position the full YouGov suite (Data Services, Data Products, Sport and Custom) and advise honestly on what's appropriate for the client.
• Build recognised sector expertise across your multi-sector territory and share it with the wider team so knowledge isn't dependent on one person.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Team Support

• Partner with Research and Product servicing teams to keep proposals methodologically sound and deliverable, and to shape bespoke solutions where needed.
• Use the YouGov platform suite (Crunch, BrandIndex, Profiles) confidently in front of senior prospects, and monitor usage to spot growth or retention risk early.
• Support Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) across your sectors, converting inbound leads into long-term client relationships.
• Collaborate with SDRs supporting your territory on outbound sales outreach to book qualified meetings, ensuring YouGov is represented by the right person for each prospect.
• Build data-led narratives that connect insight to a client's business decisions, coaching others across the team to do the same.
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date client and prospect information in Salesforce, ensuring no opportunities slip through the cracks.

Market & Industry Insight

• Stay informed on market trends and your clients' industries, using this knowledge to uncover new business opportunities and position yourself as a sector expert.

You Have

Essential

• Proven track record of managing and closing a portfolio of complex or higher-value opportunities, beyond simply carrying a personal quota, with a hunger for exceeding targets.
• Experience in consumer insights, market research, or subscription/SaaS sales, ideally including national and international account exposure.
• Experience targeting and managing potential clients across multiple sectors in a professional services environment.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to understand and articulate complex, bespoke solutions.
• Confident using CRM systems (Salesforce) and sales enablement tools to manage a book of business and forecast accurately.
• Analytical, with strong problem-solving skills and a results-driven mindset.
• Self-motivated and organised, with the ability to manage time effectively across a multi-sector territory.

Advantageous

• Experience running MEDDPICC-based qualification, and coaching or mentoring junior colleagues on it.
• Exposure to tenders, RFIs, or multi-stakeholder deals.
• Existing relationships with mid-to-senior client stakeholders across national or international markets.
• Experience registering and maintaining accounts, where needed, on client platforms for RFQ sharing and proposal submissions.
• A genuine interest in using AI to work smarter across the sales cycle — from speeding up proposal reviews to building sharper account and target cards and pulling together client insight.
• Some experience leading, coaching, or mentoring junior colleagues, or a clear readiness to take on first-line people leadership as the team grows.

AI in our recruitment process

As part of our application process, you may be invited to a structured conversation with Zee, an AI interviewer from our partner Zeeda, at a time that suits you. It's a chance to tell us about your experience in your own words, beyond your CV, and every application is reviewed by YouGov, who make all hiring decisions. If you are selected for a conversation with Zee, the invitation will include more information about how your data is handled, the decisions the AI interviewer may make and your rights and choices.

The closing date for applications to this vacancy is Friday 16th October.

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Why join YouGov?
Join our global team to help us achieve our social mission: to make millions of people’s opinions heard for the benefit of our local, national, and international communities.

Understanding diversity of opinion requires diversity of background. Although our global panel of millions of people worldwide powers our research, our biggest asset is our people. If our research is to be truly representative of what the world thinks, we need people from all walks of life to be part of the team to bring their perspective to the work we do. 

Life at YouGov
We are driven by a set of shared values. We are fast, fearless, and innovative. We work diligently to get it right. We are guided by accuracy, ethics, and proven methodologies. We respect and trust each other, bringing these values into everything that we do.

We strive to provide YouGovers with best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. We want our employees to have a sense of belonging and uniqueness in a supportive workplace, so they can bring their full selves to work. 
 
Equal Opportunity Employer
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, HIV status, political affiliation, socioeconomic background, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law or in line with our responsibilities as a fair and ethic employer. All employment decisions are made based on occupational qualifications, merit, and business need.

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