Business Development Manager, Corporate (Americas)

Business Development Manager, Corporate (Americas)
LOCATION: Washington, D.C.
SALARY: $70,000 + commission

Inside Higher Ed provides the latest news, analysis and solutions for the entire higher education community. Inside Higher Ed is owned by Times Higher Education (THE), the world’s most authoritative source of data, analysis and information on higher education, with five decades’ experience dedicated to the field.

Our mission is to provide forward-looking insights and services to the entire higher education community, empowering individuals and organizations to excel and transform learners’ lives.

About the role

The Business Development Manager, Corporate (Americas) is responsible for generating and converting net-new corporate business across the Americas. The role focuses on proactive prospecting, opportunity creation, stakeholder engagement and revenue generation from organisations seeking to engage with and support the higher education sector.

This is a scale role: Business Development Managers build pipeline and win new corporate clients across a broad prospect base, while developing relationships with senior stakeholders and identifying opportunities across THE’s portfolio. Once a new client is secured, the relationship is handed to Account Management for delivery, retention and future growth.

Key responsibilities

Prospecting & pipeline

· Execute structured outbound sales activity across target corporate organisations, generating opportunities through phone, email, LinkedIn, events and referrals.

· Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified net-new opportunities.

· Work closely with Marketing on campaign follow-up, lead conversion and new business activity.

Stakeholder mapping & discovery

· Identify decision-makers, influencers and users within target organisations, and map buying committees and procurement processes.

· Conduct discovery meetings and qualification calls to understand client objectives and identify relevant commercial opportunities.

Proposals & closing

· Present THE solutions aligned to client needs and objectives, and develop proposals and commercial recommendations.

· Negotiate and close net-new business within agreed commercial guidelines.

Market insight

· Execute the Americas go-to-market plan, including priority corporate sectors and segments agreed with the Business Development Director.

· Record competitive intelligence and complete win/loss reviews on closed deals.

Records & handover

· Maintain accurate stakeholder and opportunity data within the CRM.

· Qualify new opportunities within 2 business days of first contact and log discovery in the CRM.

· Route bespoke or high-value deals through the Deal Desk for approval, bringing delivery specialists into pre-sale where needed.

· Mark deals Closed-Won and log contract value and dates within 24 hours of contract, then hand over to Account Management with a strong brief.

Experience and skills background

· Experience (typically 2–5 years) in B2B new business sales, ideally within a SaaS, data or information business.

· A track record of hitting new business targets and building pipeline from outbound activity across a high volume of corporate prospects.

· Strong multi-channel prospecting skills, including LinkedIn and sales outreach tools.

· Familiar with qualification frameworks.

· Confident Salesforce user.

· Interest in higher education; understanding of organisations selling to or partnering with the sector is an advantage.

· Strong communication and presentation skills.

· Additional languages are an advantage.

· Willingness to travel domestically and internationally.