Head of Business Development & Sales

Job description

**This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Head of Business Development & Sales based in Portugal.** This is a high-impact commercial leadership role for an experienced B2B technology sales professional ready to shape a growing business. You will take ownership of lead generation, pipeline development, sales execution, and the full customer journey through contract signature. The role combines hands-on selling with strategic responsibility for rebuilding and scaling the business development process. You will help refine market positioning and develop compelling offers across digital products, integrations, platforms, automation, and managed services. You will also identify new revenue channels, develop strategic partnerships, and expand opportunities within existing customer accounts. Initially operating as a hands-on individual contributor, you will have the opportunity to build and lead a commercial team as the sales model becomes repeatable. This position is ideal for an entrepreneurial sales leader who thrives on autonomy, measurable outcomes, and building processes from the ground up. ### Accountabilities - **Lead Generation:** Develop and execute a practical lead-generation strategy across service and product offerings, defining ideal customer profiles, buyer personas, target-account criteria, priority markets, and acquisition channels. - Research industries, market segments, target accounts, partners, and commercial opportunities while building focused account lists and identifying relevant decision-makers. - Personally execute targeted outbound activities during the initial phase, using personalized email, LinkedIn, referrals, industry communities, events, and other appropriate channels. - Respond to and qualify inbound leads, reactivate previous leads and stalled opportunities, reconnect with former clients, and identify expansion opportunities within existing accounts. - Develop referral, technology, agency, and industry partnerships while working with marketing resources to improve landing pages, case studies, campaigns, sales materials, and inbound conversion. - Test different messaging, offers, industries, buyer segments, and acquisition channels, tracking performance from initial contact through qualified opportunity and revenue. - Build a repeatable lead-generation process focused on qualified opportunities and sustainable revenue rather than activity volume. - **Full-Cycle Sales:** Own opportunities from initial contact through contract signature, including inbound response, targeted outbound, qualification, discovery, solution shaping, proposal development, negotiation, follow-up, and closing. - Conduct business-focused discovery calls to understand customer objectives, challenges, stakeholders, budgets, timelines, decision processes, and commercial requirements. - Prepare proposals, estimates, presentations, statements of work, and follow-up materials while handling objections and maintaining momentum throughout the sales cycle. - Independently close standardized and lower-complexity opportunities without requiring founders to participate in every sales conversation. - **Sales Process Development:** Audit existing leads, proposals, and lost opportunities to identify weaknesses in qualification, discovery, positioning, pricing, proposals, follow-up, and trust-building. - Establish clear sales stages, qualification criteria, exit requirements, reusable sales templates, CRM practices, forecasting processes, and appropriate sales KPIs. - Conduct win/loss analysis and continuously improve the commercial process while avoiding unnecessary sales bureaucracy. - **Go-to-Market Strategy:** Work with leadership to refine market positioning and determine which services and products should be prioritized, repositioning the offering around digital products, integrations, platforms, automation, and managed services rather than technology-specific messaging. - Develop clearer, easier-to-buy commercial packages and evaluate pricing, scope, commercial structures, differentiation, and market demand. - Test new service propositions with prospects and recommend which verticals, customer segments, and opportunities should be prioritized or avoided. - **Revenue Channels:** Build a balanced pipeline through inbound conversion, existing-account expansion, reactivation of previous opportunities, targeted account-based outreach, strategic partnerships, referrals, technology ecosystems, industry events, selective outbound campaigns, and product-led opportunities. - **Account Development:** Identify consultative expansion opportunities with existing customers, including integrations, platform modernization, digital products, automation, artificial intelligence-enabled functionality, mobile and self-service experiences, accessibility, performance improvements, and managed services. - **Product Sales:** Support the commercial development of SaaS products by understanding target customers, conducting product discovery and demonstrations, qualifying opportunities, preparing proposals, closing straightforward deals, and identifying opportunities to combine products with professional services. - Collect market feedback and contribute to pricing, packaging, positioning, target-segment refinement, and product strategy based on demonstrated customer demand. - **Commercial Team Development:** Initially operate as a hands-on individual contributor, then identify future sales and marketing capabilities, participate in hiring, onboard and manage commercial team members, establish performance expectations, and build a scalable structure that reduces long-term dependence on founders. ### **Requirements** - Proven experience owning the complete **B2B sales cycle** for custom software development, digital products, systems integration, digital agencies, professional services, or related technology solutions. - Demonstrated experience personally generating, qualifying, progressing, negotiating, and closing sales opportunities. - Proven experience selling technology or professional services to **clients in the United States**. - Demonstrable track record of closing mid-market service or technology deals rather than exclusively selling low-cost SaaS subscriptions. - Strong experience conducting business-focused discovery calls and translating customer challenges into clear, commercially viable solutions. - Experience preparing proposals, statements of work, estimates, presentations, follow-up materials, and responses to **Requests for Proposals (RFPs)**. - Strong ability to manage objections, negotiations, complex stakeholder groups, and multi-stage decision processes. - Sufficient technical understanding of software development and delivery to communicate credibly with technical teams and customers. - Experience building or improving sales processes in environments where commercial processes were incomplete, inconsistent, or ineffective. - Strong organizational discipline, CRM proficiency, pipeline management, forecasting, and commercial reporting skills. - Ability to work independently and make decisions without requiring daily direction from company founders. - Comfortable working hands-on before transitioning into team-building and management responsibilities. - Strong written and spoken English proficiency at **C1–C2 level** for candidates whose native language is not English. - Comfortable operating in an environment with limited marketing and sales resources, taking ownership of both strategy and execution. - **Strongly preferred:** Experience selling both professional services and software products. - **Strongly preferred:** Experience selling digital product development, integrations, portals, platforms, SaaS, or managed services. - **Strongly preferred:** Experience creating or rebuilding a business development function. - **Strongly preferred:** Existing experience or relationships within nonprofit, membership, healthcare, fitness, cultural, education, or association markets. - **Strongly preferred:** Experience with HubSpot, referral partnerships, technology partnerships, account-based sales, and targeted outbound strategies. - Familiarity with CMS, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Application Programming Interface (API), cloud, and integration projects is an advantage. ### **Benefits** - Full-time position with a flexible working structure. - Contract arrangement during the first year, with access to company benefits afterward. - Fixed compensation combined with performance-based commission. - Significant ownership and autonomy over the commercial function. - Direct access to company leadership and the opportunity to influence strategic business direction. - Opportunity to build and scale the business development and sales function from an early stage. - Potential to develop and lead a commercial team as the sales model matures. - Exposure to diverse technology offerings, including digital products, integrations, platforms, automation, SaaS, and managed services. - Support for professional development and participation in relevant industry events. - Opportunity to create measurable impact across revenue generation, market positioning, customer acquisition, and account growth.