Business Development Manager

The Hearst E-Commerce team is looking for an experienced Business Development Manager to recruit Sellers for our e-commerce Marketplace in support of Hearst Magazines.

As a Business Development Manager, you will be responsible for overseeing the end-to-end process of Seller acquisition. This begins with the ongoing research and outreach to identify Seller targets and maintaining the CRM for successful cross team communication. The largest component of the role will be pitching the Marketplace opportunity to all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers, supporting the Seller in any due diligence regarding our Marketplace opportunity and ultimately negotiating the agreement while ensuring our Marketplace will have access to the key assortment and products the Category Management team identifies. You will need to be excellent at partnering across multiple teams both externally with brands and Retailers and internally with partner Hearst teams, e.g. Category Management, Business Operations, Merchandising, Product, Marketing, and Legal. To ensure an excellent Seller experience, post agreement signature you will be responsible for partnering with Category Managers to confirm the assortment across all respective Marketplaces and seamlessly transitioning the Seller to the Business Operations team for onboarding. 

The ideal candidate is a tenacious and persevering creative problem solver who is customer-obsessed and embraces data-driven decision-making. They feel comfortable with cold outreach, confidently presenting opportunities and articulating our value proposition to executive leadership, as well as partnering cross functionally to ultimately close and negotiate a Seller partnership. Demonstrating ownership, they continuously focus on how to provide value to current Marketplace Sellers to both retain current Sellers and recruit new Sellers. With a metric-driven and revenue growth-focused mindset, the candidate will find solutions to any challenge that arises to meet business development and team goals. Excellent communication skills and comfort in discussing critical concepts with functional stakeholders and leadership of all levels are essential.

If you’re interested in a startup environment with an opportunity to create new value for e-commerce Sellers and new shopping experiences for customers across our Hearst media brands, then this may be the role for you

• Conduct ongoing research and outreach to key stakeholders and decision makers at Seller targets.
• Maintain CRM and associated weekly reporting for successful cross-team communication.
• Lead prospective Sellers and their internal stakeholders through any due diligence regarding our Marketplace opportunity, including technical discovery and overall business model review.
• Partner with Category Managers to confirm the identified assortment per Seller, per Marketplace and communicate effectively in Seller pitches.
• Negotiate commercial terms and collaborate internally across leadership and partner teams (e.g., Finance, Legal) where necessary to execute Seller agreements.
• Seamlessly transition Sellers to the Business Operations team after agreement is signed and support throughout the Onboarding process.
• Continuously surface feedback from Sellers to internal teams (e.g., Product, Marketing, Business Operations) to ensure we are building a best-in-class experience and product.
• Provide subject matter expertise as a Business Development manager across the organization and attend industry events (trade shows, conferences) as needed to prospect new Sellers, stay on top of industry trends and competitor activities, as well as identify new growth opportunities to inform strategy.

• Bachelor's degree
• At least seven years of business development, sales, or partnerships experience in e-commerce and/or media advertising sales.
• Demonstrated tenacity and perseverance in driving business growth by measuring key performance indicators and achieving key objectives and results.
• Experience in selling, persuading stakeholders, and building compelling business cases to drive growth and achieve sales targets.
• Customer-centric approach with a focus on enhancing the overall Seller experience.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and creativity in finding solutions to complex challenges.
• Proven ability to take ownership of projects and see them through to successful completion.
• Experience in negotiating and closing deals with a focus on long-term partnerships.
• Embrace data-driven decision-making, able to provide recommendations backed by data.
• Best in class communication skills, both verbally and in writing, with a passion f