Graduate business development consultant

Sales / business development is one of the few jobs where you can be in control of how much you earn. If you put the work in you’ll get the rewards.

In addition to a basic salary of 25-30k, you get a bonus for each deal you do, with the average being £6,500, and you should get 3 or 4 of these a month; but it’s down to you how many you do. Commission is uncapped, and the top earner made 400k bonus in a year.

So, there is plenty of opportunity to make money; and the business will also look after you in other ways; for example trips abroad. There may even be shares available in the business in time.

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

The business is a consultancy that helps other businesses to improve in various areas; there are expert practitioners in the team who handle that aspect. Your job is to put them in contact with potential clients, so they can close the deal; and they do that around 80% of the time.

There is a strategic aspect. For example, if the service you are promoting is helping businesses to prevent financial crime, then you would do research to find out who are the main people who would be interested in that. Then you’ll work out how to speak with them; it could be by phone, email, LinkedIn, or even a networking event. You'll become an expert in various areas.

It’s a high performance environment, and there is a lot of banter, so you’ll need to be comfortable with that aspect.

You’ll get all the tech you need, and will also get training in how to do the role; and you’ll be reporting to the CEO, and can learn a lot off him.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

There is some flexibility in degree type, though Business ones may be particularly good. If you already have some sales experience that would be good, but it’s not essential. In fact, you may not have even considered sales as a career.

There can be some indicators: maybe you set up and promoted your own club night at university; or played sport to a decent level; or organised an event to raise money for charity. Perhaps you worked in retail or hospitality, and did well in upselling store cards or food items.

There are many possibilities.

There's a downside: it won't always go smoothly, and there will be a lot of knockbacks. So you'll need plenty of drive, resilience, ambition, and bouncebackability

You’ll need to be hard-working, willing to listen and learn, and have plenty of determination.

You should be based within 50 miles or less of the Stoke area.

Start date is asap