Business Development, Senior Director (Sector Focussed)

Business Development, Senior Director (Sector Focussed)  

Team: Business Development (Insights UK)
Location: London (Hybrid), 50-60% of time spent with prospects
Reports to: Head of Business Development

Role Purpose

This role exists to unlock new revenue growth by opening doors, creating new conversations, and landing high‑value opportunities across priority sectors. You will be our frontline T-shaped deal‑maker, a commercially sharp, endlessly curious hunter who thrives on time with clients and converting conversations into pipeline.

You bring a black book of senior contacts, energy, pace, and the hunger to make things happen. Your mission is simple:
Find opportunity >> create opportunity >> win opportunity.

Why This Role Matters

Kantar’s growth depends on high‑impact hunters who can:

• Spot whitespace before the market does
• Build relationships that create multi‑year value
• Bring Kantar’s full suite of capabilities into new buying points
• Ignite commercial momentum sector‑by‑sector

This role is pivotal in net‑new revenue generation and sector penetration.

Key Responsibilities

1. Sector Hunting & Opportunity Creation

• Build and execute a clear sector‑specific hunting plan (e.g. Retail, Tech, FMCG, FS, Media, etc. – Sectors are TBC, dependent upon experience in these sectors).
• Identify, map and target high‑value accounts, using your black book and deep network.
• Convert cold relationships into warm conversations through outreach, networking, events and referrals.
• Reactivate dormant or lapsed accounts with strong revenue potential.
• Stay ahead of sector dynamics, identifying early signals that open new buying points.

2. Client Engagement & Discovery

• Spend extensive time in‑market, meeting senior decision‑makers, immersing yourself in client challenges through face to face and online meetings.
• Lead discovery conversations to uncover tensions, opportunities and growth barriers.
• Bring back sharp, actionable intel to the Business Development team, marketing, domains and leadership.
• Represent Kantar with credibility, energy and authentic enthusiasm.

3. Pipeline Ownership & Deal Progression

• Own your pipeline end‑to‑end — opportunity creation, qualification, sales strategy and progression.
• Partner with Orchestration Team (Converters/Programme Design) and Big Pitch (where necessary) on proposals and pitches; hand over warm opportunities smoothly, following our Business Development sales process best practice guidelines.
• Maintain forecasting accuracy and CRM discipline.
• Track outreach activity, conversion rates, and lead‑gen performance.

4. Cross‑Kantar Leadership & Internal Collaboration

• Work with Domain, Marketing, Thought Leadership and Business Development colleagues to shape compelling sector‑relevant narratives.
• Drive participation in sector events, campaigns and growth initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with SDRs and other hunters to maximise speed‑to‑market.
• Contribute to a high‑performance, supportive Business Development culture.

What You’ll Bring

Commercial DNA

• A proven track record of landing new logos, levering cross-sell opportunities and building multi‑million‑pound pipelines in B2B services (insights, consulting, data, tech, media or related).
• Strong understanding of at least one sector, with the agility to work agnostically across all.
• Experience navigating complex organisations, buying groups and commercial processes.

The Hunter Mindset

• You are hungry — motivated by outcomes, winning and pace.
• You are curious — obsessed with learning clients’ worlds and uncovering problems.
• You are fearlessly client‑facing — happiest when in conversation, not behind a laptop.
• You are tenacious — never shy about outreach, follow‑up, and maintaining contact momentum.
• You are approachable – never afraid to approach prospects at events, conferences and networking opportunities.

Your Network

• A meaningful black book of senior‑level relationships that can open doors quickly.
• Gravitas and credibility to influence C‑suite and senior buyers.

Skills & Capabilities

• Strong storytelling and value‑proposition crafting abilities.
• Ability to quickly understand and translate Kantar’s solutions for new audiences.
• Excellent collaboration and influencing across BD, CPs, Domains, Strategy, and Marketing.
• Strong organisational discipline in CRM, pipeline hygiene, and reporting.

Behaviours Aligned to Kantar Success Factors

• Purposeful Collaboration — partnering across teams to win.
• Growth Mindset — continually improving outreach, sector knowledge and hit‑rate.
• Flourish — bringing energy, positivity and pace to Business Development and to the wider business.

What This Role Is Not

• Not project delivery or ongoing client management.
• Not proposal ownership (sits with Orchestration Team - Converters / Programme Design).
• Not solution development or operational oversight.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-ED2

Location

Kantar Rewards Statement

At Kantar we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and also to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver. 

We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that’s out of the ordinary and join us. 

We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and well being is taken into consideration. 

We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes. 

Kantar is the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company. We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies, Kantar’s 30,000 people help the world’s leading organisations succeed and grow.