Sports Sales & Partnerships

Engagement: 3 months, Part-time, with the option to extend

Commitment: Flex-time, outcome-based

Compensation: Monthly retainer + Commission

Location: Remote, with potential travel to clients and events [EMEA]

About us

north of normal is a sports-focused creative studio: part creative agency, part production house. We work with brands, clubs, leagues, governing bodies, sponsors and athletes on brand strategy, campaigns and production. We don't run big fixed teams. We build a custom team for each project from a network of creative talent we've grown over twenty years.

What we need now is more of the right conversations, and someone who turns them into signed projects.

The engagement

We're looking for an independent sales/partnership professional who brings their own network, opens doors, builds qualified opportunities and helps move them through to signed work. You run your own approach and your own schedule. We care about results: a real pipeline and signed work.

This is an end-to-end new business role: identifying the right opportunities, getting us into the room, shaping the commercial conversation and helping convert that opportunity into signed work.

You own the commercial process, with the founder and creative team supporting pitches, proposals and all project delivery.

We'll start with 3 months. If it works for both sides, we extend.

Germany, the UK and Switzerland are priority markets, but we're open to the right person anywhere in EMEA.

What you'll deliver

• A pipeline of qualified opportunities with sports brands, clubs, leagues, federations, sponsors and athlete management.
• Introductions to marketing, brand and partnership decision-makers through your network.
• New leads from outreach, events, referrals and tender/RFP monitoring.
• Early qualification of opportunities: budget, timing, decision-maker and fit.
• Discovery calls, and input on proposals and pitches alongside the founders.
• Negotiation and closing of new projects.
• All leads and activity logged in our CRM, with a short weekly pipeline check-in.

For us, a qualified opportunity means a genuine business need, access to the relevant decision-maker and a realistic route to budget and timing.

Engagement KPIs

Reviewed together weekly:

• qualified leads
• discovery meetings with decision-makers
• proposals sent

The purpose of the first three months is to build a credible pipeline and move the strongest opportunities as far toward signed work as possible.

Who we're looking for

• An established freelancer or consultant, registered as self-employed or running your own business.
• Extensive experience in sales or new business, ideally selling creative, production, agency, media or sponsorship services.
• A deep network in sports marketing. You should be able to name people you'd call in your first week.
• A track record of closing deals, with numbers to show it.
• Credibility when you talk about creative work, and confidence in pricing and negotiation.
• Fluent English. Other languages are a plus.
• Other clients are fine, as long as they aren't direct competitors in sports creative or production.
• This is not a high-volume cold outreach role. We’re looking for someone who already knows the sports business and can create senior conversations through a mix of relationships, intelligent outreach and industry presence.

Fees

• Monthly retainer
• Success fee
• Tail period fee
• Expenses

The success fee applies to qualifying new business originated or materially advanced by you. An agreed tail applies to opportunities initiated during the engagement that close afterwards.

Why work with us

• You sell work you can stand behind, for clients who care about sport.
• You deal directly with the founder, and decisions happen fast.
• The success fee is uncapped.
• If it works, there's room to grow into a longer partnership.

How to apply

Send a short note to joinus@northofnormal.studio covering three things:

1. The deals you're most proud of closing.
2. The types of organisations and senior decision-makers you could realistically open doors to in your first 30 days.
3. How you would approach the first 90 days with north of normal.

• A CV or LinkedIn profile is welcome.