Business Development Executive - French Speaking

The Senior Business Development Executive is responsible for generating high-quality new business opportunities for the Unit4 Financials by Coda New Business team in France.

The role will focus on identifying target organisations, engaging senior decision-makers and creating qualified sales opportunities that can be progressed by the New Business sales team.

This is a proactive, outbound-focused role for someone who is comfortable opening doors into new organisations, developing relationships with senior finance stakeholders and creating opportunities in a market where establishing new customer relationships is a key priority.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• Generate qualified new-business opportunities for the Coda France New Business team.
• Proactively prospect into agreed target accounts and market segments.
• Research organisations to identify appropriate companies, stakeholders and potential business drivers.
• Engage senior finance stakeholders including CFOs, Finance Directors, Financial Controllers and Finance Transformation leaders.
• Use telephone, email, LinkedIn and other appropriate channels to create engagement with prospective customers.
• Develop personalised outbound campaigns and messaging rather than relying solely on high-volume prospecting.
• Understand the prospect's current finance environment, challenges and priorities sufficiently to identify potential opportunities for Coda.
• Qualify prospects against agreed criteria before passing opportunities to the New Business sales team.
• Secure introductory and discovery meetings for the sales team.
• Work closely with the France New Business team to identify and prioritise target accounts.
• Partner with Marketing on campaigns, events and account-based activity.
• Follow up marketing-generated leads and convert appropriate leads into qualified sales opportunities.
• Maintain accurate records of prospecting activity, contacts, leads and opportunities within the CRM.
• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of future opportunities.
• Develop knowledge of the French financial software market, Coda's proposition and relevant competitors.
• Provide feedback to Sales and Marketing on prospect conversations, market trends, competitor activity and messaging effectiveness.

Qualifications

Experience Requirements

• Strong experience in B2B business development, sales development or lead generation.
• Demonstrable success generating qualified opportunities through proactive outbound prospecting.
• Experience engaging senior business decision-makers.
• Experience within enterprise software, SaaS, ERP, finance technology or another complex B2B environment is highly desirable.
• Experience researching and developing named/strategic accounts.
• Experience using CRM and sales-prospecting technology.
• Experience working closely with Account Executives or New Business sales teams.
• Experience within the French market would be highly advantageous.

Required Skills

• Fluent French and strong professional English.
• Excellent telephone and written communication skills.
• Confident engaging senior and C-level prospects.
• Strong prospecting and relationship-building skills.
• Commercially curious and able to understand a prospect's business challenges.
• Persistent and resilient while maintaining a professional approach.
• Able to create compelling, personalised outreach.
• Strong research and account-planning capability.
• Highly organised with disciplined follow-up.
• Comfortable working towards clear activity, pipeline and opportunity-generation targets.
• Collaborative approach to working with Sales and Marketing.

Who we are

We are a people-first community that nurtures all the areas that surround your working experience. With us, you’ll be surrounded by a high-performance team that supports your authentic self and celebrates your uniqueness.

We believe that ‘How work should feel’ is an evolving statement. Work goes beyond tasks and everyday responsibilities it’s about feeling valued, empowered, promoted, impactful, seen, and appreciated.

We are reimagining how work makes people feel.

What we offer

· a culture built on trust and accountability - giving you the freedom and autonomy to be successful and make an impact
· balance - with our Flexible Leave Paid Time Off policy, remote working opportunities, Global Wellbeing Days, and other great benefits
· growth opportunities - we provide the tools and guidance required so that you can focus on what really matters to you and so, ultimately, you can achieve your best work
· talented colleagues, role models and mentors - work, learn and be inspired by some of the best talent in the software industry
· a commitment to sustainability - with initiatives such as our Environmental, Social, and Governance strategy and Act4Good programme
· a safe and inclusive working environment – supported by our Employee Resource Groups, which are open to all.

Our commitment to equity

Unit4 is committed to ensuring equal opportunity for everyone. We make our hiring decisions solely based on skills, qualifications, and our current business needs. We know that diversity brings fresh perspectives, ideas, and solutions to our company. This is the essence of our culture. We also welcome and encourage people who are pregnant and/or parents-to-be to apply. If you would like to know more about our commitment to diversity, visit our blogs:

• Our focus to DEI remains central to who we are

• Inclusive hiring at Unit4: Building equal opportunities for all

Background check

Meet Unit4. With over 40 years of heritage, we’re an agile, fast growing, Cloud company that is on a mission to redefine Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for mid-market people-centric organisations.

With our innovative, self-driving, adaptive and intuitive software, our customers can spend more time on meaningful high-value work.

At the heart of what we do lies a simple yet profound purpose: Improve how people work by focusing on what truly matters. — A powerful statement that enables different priorities for different people.

We’re shaping how work should feel, and we empower our people by providing them with the right tools to achieve the autonomy they need - it's what makes us unique.

Originally posted on Himalayas