Head of Business Development - Business and Industrial Corporates

Posted 05 June 2021
Salary Competitive Salary (DOE)
LocationEngland
Job type Permanent
Discipline Renewable Energy & InfrastructureEnergy Supply & Trading
ReferenceLBLI-013
Contact NameLouis Blaser

Job description

Head of Business Development - Business and Industrial Corporates

  • Home Based – Southern England
  • Competitive plus Annual Bonus, Car/Cash Allowance + Benefits package

 

Overview

Our client is the Distributed Energy (DE) and Private Networks of a large utility business. They finance, own, operate and maintain energy infrastructure for commercial, industrial and residential customers.

 

The Role

Our client’s Distributed Energy team is currently expanding our portfolio of services and solutions. One area of focus for them is on local energy systems and corporate PPAs to large industrial corporates; encompassing manufacturing, processing, retail and logistics. The sales and potential investment approach to these customers requires that they develop collaborative relationships, partnerships and Joint Ventures.

 

They are targeting rapid growth in this part of the business and leading a transformation process founded on a 'whole system thinking' approach to future decarbonisation enabled by smart local energy systems and the integration of IoT technologies. Consequently, you will have a broad understanding of Distributed Energy systems, with direct expertise in solar applications, storage and embedded generation, the value that can be achieved from local energy systems and an appreciation of IoT and applicable platform / communication capabilities.

 

The role will report to the Director of Business Development for Distributed Energy but will work with and will report on a day to day basis through our matrix structure predominately into the Sector Director for Distributed Generation and Storage.

 

Candidates need to be flexible to cover the UK and Ireland. This role will have responsibility to coordinate a small UK wide team focused on the target market and will carry an annual team target and an individual sales quota/target. The individual will be expected to take ownership of and lead the larger more complex strategic deals, that are generally multi-site relationships or significant single projects, as well as provide market insights and support to the Head of Business Development for the mid-market team.

 

You will be responsible for identifying opportunities, managing client and wider stakeholder relationships and closing deals, supporting bid and development teams to secure contracts and partnerships with target organisations. The role will involve bringing together areas of different expertise and working with internal stakeholders, experts and external partners to ensure the proposition is scoped and developed in line with our customers' needs and our strategy.

 

You will need the gravitas to engage at senior levels and the emotional intelligence to prioritise and orchestrate relationships across multiple organisations. You will be required to build and communicate critical customer insights into formal bid processes and to drive partnerships joint venture and complex sales strategies to deliver the required results.

 

The role will be the main client interface throughout the proposition phase. You will have sales input and oversight to the supporting development teams to ensure that propositions/bids are delivered on time and positions taken during negotiation are signed off by the business. You will be responsible for achieving internal approvals in line with business governance processes and deliver against sales targets of completed contracts per year and total value across the team.

 

Key Responsibilities:

  • Managing the business development managers under your control, provide management reporting upwards and input to budget and business planning processes.
  • Developing and owning sales and client strategies in line with allocated market targets set for you and your direct and indirect team.
  • Work closely with the Sector Director for Distributed Generation and Storage to identify and close key targets and agree support required to grow the business in line with strategy.
  • Where required deputise for the BD Director and take ownership and the lead on various high-value sales pursuits and functional improvement activities.
  • Identify, qualify and scope new opportunities, ensuring the Salesforce CRM system is always current and accurate across the team.
  • Develop and manage a pipeline of activity across a wide client base and other key stakeholders within the eco-system of an opportunity, such as consultants, policy makers and development managers.
  • Attend networking events as required and deliver speaker slots, both internally and externally to build their brand awareness in the market vertical.
  • Monitoring the market to identify emerging technologies and solutions which the business can exploit and act as a senior point of coordination for the businesses wider offering and interface into the Industrial market.
  • Bring client drivers and market intelligence to all propositions/bids in this sector and as appropriate pre-position the business’ offering and value ahead of formal procurement processes.
  • Develop and maintain key account and client engagement / influencing plans and use these to direct future actions.
  • Working closely with colleagues across the businesses internal capability areas to develop propositions that meet client needs and maximise cross-business opportunity.
  • Direct responsibility for ensuring propositions/bids successfully transition from initial bid to contract signature stage - holding an annual sales and pipeline target.
  • Ensure that technical and commercial solutions meet the client's requirements and our financial performance requirements.
  • Manage the client relationship throughout the proposition/bid and negotiation process ensuring that client's requirements and drivers are reflected in the business' submissions.
  • Manage the outputs of supporting roles to provide high quality bids and approved negotiating positions.
  • Ensure clear briefing and buy-in from senior managers within Distributed Energy business unit and ongoing 'sponsorship' at that level for projects under the individual's control.
  • Continue building relationships with clients once contract/s are won and continue to own client relationships for the long-term.

 

Person Specification

  • Highly experienced in the energy sector with proven direct experience operating in the Industrial market, you will be able to evidence building and managing a successful sales team in this market.
  • Able to articulate and demonstrate experience of market influence and creating partnerships, forming joint ventures or special purpose vehicles to achieve scale and speed in the market with strong commercially and with sound judgement.
  • You will have a good working knowledge of principal forms of contract, energy infrastructure development, forms of PPA and the formation of special purpose vehicles.
  • Experience of developing budgets and building sales plans to deliver against strategic objectives, including target setting within an individual contributor and team sales environment.
  • Expert at creating and driving client engagement plans and influencing at a senior level towards a desired outcome.
  • Highly experienced networker and relationship manager - connected and able to build and manage diverse relationships with a wide group of stakeholders from C-suite and through the organisation.
  • Politically aware and can demonstrate influencing industry stakeholder groups, those involved in the energy transition and senior buyers in target blue-chip customers with excellent understanding of EU and UK policy frameworks as they apply to industrial energy, carbon reduction and the shift to advanced manufacturing/Industry 4.0.
  • Experience of solution / consultative selling and building bespoke value propositions with customers across a complex range of technology and solutions.
  • Experience communicating complicated projects internally to gain approval through governance processes and resource planning across a complex project to fully understand potential cost of project.