Business Development Executive - Channel Performance

Are you a natural relationship builder looking to kick-start your career in sales and business development? Do you enjoy researching opportunities, creating compelling content and connecting with new people? Looking for a role where AI, innovation and commercial growth come together? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

About the role

Join our Channel Performance team and play a key role in driving business growth and building a strong pipeline of future opportunities. This is an exciting entry-level sales and business development position, ideal for someone looking to develop a successful commercial career within a leading research and insights organisation.

Working closely with experienced colleagues, you'll support new business generation through prospect research, outbound outreach and lead qualification activities. You'll also contribute to marketing and business development initiatives by creating engaging content, case studies and sales materials that help raise awareness of our services.

You'll gain exposure to the full sales cycle, supporting proposal development, client responses and commercial documentation. The role offers excellent learning opportunities, access to innovative AI tools and technologies, and the chance to develop valuable sales, marketing and stakeholder management skills within a collaborative, entrepreneurial and people-focused environment.

About you

• Genuine interest in sales, business development and marketing
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the confidence to engage new contacts
• Excellent research and information-gathering capabilities
• Ability to build relationships and establish credibility with prospective clients
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
• Proactive, self-motivated and eager to learn new skills and technologies
• Creative mindset with an interest in developing engaging marketing and sales content
• Collaborative approach with a strong customer focus and positive attitude
• Proficiency in using and adopting AI tools to support research, productivity, content creation and sales activities

Essential skills

• Experience using Microsoft Office applications, including PowerPoint, Excel and Word
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to conduct effective market, prospect and competitor research
• Confidence using telephone, email, LinkedIn and digital channels for professional outreach
• Excellent attention to detail and organisational skills
• Ability to manage workload effectively across multiple projects
• Willingness to learn CRM systems, sales technologies and AI-powered tools
• Commercial awareness and enthusiasm for business development activities

Desirable skills

• Previous experience in a customer-facing, sales, marketing or administrative role
• Experience using LinkedIn for networking, prospecting or business development
• Knowledge of market research, customer experience or mystery shopping sectors
• Experience creating marketing, social media or campaign content
• Familiarity with CRM systems and sales pipeline management
• Experience using AI tools to enhance research, content development or productivity
• Degree or professional qualification in business, marketing or a related discipline

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support you as an individual. Our standard benefits include 25 days annual leave, pension contribution, income protection and life assurance. In addition, there are a range health & wellbeing, financial benefits and professional development opportunities.

We have a hybrid approach to work and ask people to be in the office or with clients for 3 days per week. We appreciate you may have commitments outside of work and will consider flexible working applications. Please highlight what you are looking for when you make your application.

We are committed to equality, treating people fairly, promoting a positive and inclusive working environment and ensuring we have diversity of people and views. We recognise that this is important for our business success. A more diverse workforce enables us to better reflect and understand the world we research and ultimately deliver better research and insight to our clients. We are proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme and certified as a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. We provide an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. Your application will be reviewed by someone from our Talent Team who will be in touch either way to let you know the outcome.

Ready to have an impact? Apply now!

About UsIpsos is one of the world’s largest research companies and currently the only one primarily managed by researchers, ranking as a #1 full-service research organization for four consecutive years. With over 75 different data-driven solutions, and presence in 90 markets, Ipsos brings together research, implementation, methodological, and subject-matter experts from around the world, combining thematic and technical experts to deliver top-quality research and insights. Simply speaking, we help the biggest companies solve some of their biggest problems, serving more than 5000 clients across the globe by providing research, data, and insights on their target markets. And we are proud of our continuous efforts in making Ipsos the best place to work! About the Team

The Channel Performance Service Line is home to the largest mystery shopping agency in the world.  We complete over one million shops every year in 100+ countries across all industry segments and organization sizes.  We also offer Geolocation Surveys, Site Audits & Installations, and foundational research within our portfolio of services.  Our purpose is to help our clients improve their business performance across all channels in which they serve their customers – brick and mortar retail, digital e-commerce, and contact centers.  We do this by helping them size channel opportunities, measure the delivery of brand promises, and drive compliance and sales conversion across these channels.