- Environmental. The Earth is our protagonist. Protecting it is at the center of everything we do.
- Collaborative. Climate change affects us all. By working collaboratively we know we can make a difference within retail, and beyond.
- Honest. Our voice is informative and authentic. We want to share what we are working on, be open about the challenges, and build an ecosystem that creates change.
About the Business Development Manager Role
The Business Development Manager is a key role at Vaayu, driving revenue to our growing climate technology startup. In this role it is essential to manage complex sales processes from start to finish, connect with sustainability teams from retail brands with a credible demeanour (which requires you to learn the key sustainability concepts quickly), and to find creative solutions in order to win over deals in an emerging market segment.
The Vaayu Business Development Manager is adept at selling to large retail companies. Starting from understanding customer concerns at introductory meetings, to creating personalised proposals and negotiating pricing packages. We believe that large part of sales happen between meetings, and therefore carefully prepared personalised sales materials are essential to success.
The Business Development Manager is not afraid of cold contacting, pursuing prospects persistently, and testing new ways of starting conversations with potential customers. While cold contacting skills are essential, it is worthwhile to note that a large part of prospects come inbound thanks to marketing, PR and positive word of mouth.
Vaayu is a growth stage startup and therefore independence and proactivity are highly valued. You can expect support and guidance from the team. However, over time you will decide what is the best course of action independently. You will work closely with the marketing team to collaborate on lead generation, the product team to support product development, and with the climate strategy team who will support you with their subject matter expertise.
A successful candidate is highly collaborative as you will work with multiple teams, have excellent communication skills as you will both prepare and present materials to prospects, and is a creative problem solver as often there is not a readily available answer because we are a growing startup within a new market segment.
This is a fully remote role that reports to the more senior Business Development Manager, with frequent contact with the CEO, Head of Product and, the Climate Strategy Team.
Key Responsibilities- Generate new leads by efficiently researching and contacting medium and large retail, marketplace, and second-hand companies via phone, email, LinkedIn and other channels. Quickly respond and set up meetings with inbound leads.
- Manage full sales cycles from introductory meetings to tailoring dashing sales decks, and personalised proposals. You will be supported by subject matter experts such as the Climate Strategy and Product teams.
- Identify sustainability-related customer challenges, and understand the mindset of the relevant stakeholders. Typical contact points are sustainability directors and the C-suite.
- Collect feedback from the market and translate that into insights for the Product, Marketing and Business Development teams.
- Help further develop processes and materials that optimise the customer acquisition process. Provide input to sales decks, Vaayu’s website, and sales strategies.
Preferred Experience
- 3+ years of experience from sales or business development roles, preferably selling complex software towards enterprise clients. We are open to applications with various sales backgrounds. The requirements are not strict if you can prove exceptional results.
Preferred Skills
- You are fluent in English. Additional European languages especially from Southern and Western Europe are not a necessity, but are seen as a bonus.
- You are curious, a great listener, and approach prospective customers with a consultative mindset. We are helping retailers with important sustainability topics, and our helpful attitude should show.
- You have excellent communication skills with the ability to turn complicated concepts into simple points and engaging conversations. Climate impact calculations and reductions are a complicated topic, which we help solve with technologies such as AI.
- You are proactive and take responsibility for your own and the team’s success.
- You are creative and resourceful. We might need an entirely new sales deck to convey the desired message to a prospect, we might want to offer something creative to convince a client, or we might need to create a novel proposal quickly.
- You are passionate about leveraging technology and science to fight climate change.
Nice to have
- Previous experience selling complex software or other highly technical solutions
- Experience working within the environmental sustainability space in one way or another, including any relevant courses.
- Understanding of carbon calculation, life cycle assessment and environmental sustainability topics
- Experience from a high-growth SaaS company or a funded startup
- Previous experience from selling products towards product brands and marketplaces is a plus, especially within fashion, cosmetics and furniture.
Main Benefits
- Competitive base salary with an uncapped commission, based on a % of the closed deal sizes
- Enjoy being part of a young, dynamic and innovative team of passionate experts who are committed to making a positive impact on our planet
- Team offsites for enhancing team-building and collaboration. Previous offsites have taken place in locations such as Barcelona, Valencia and Mallorca
- Remote-first employment, with the opportunity to work remotely anywhere in Europe
- Co-working budget in case you would like to occasionally work outside of your house
- Learning and development budget in case you would like to further educate yourself in relevant topics, such as environmental sustainability
- Enjoy 26 days paid leave with an additional day for every year of employment (up to 30 days)
- Employee stock options
