Business Development Manager

Role purpose

The Business Development Manager owns new workforce business in Malaysia: getting into target accounts and driving qualified opportunities through to a commercial decision.

You own each opportunity from first penetration until it is won, lost or formally disqualified. You also own the plan behind it: which accounts to pursue, how the pipeline is forecast, and where senior support will make the difference.

You stay accountable for the commercial pursuit even when senior leadership becomes involved.

Key responsibilities

Account strategy and planning

• Set the Malaysia new-business account plan with the Sales Research Analyst, and decide which qualified opportunities to pursue first.
• Build and maintain Malaysian market relationships and intelligence sources.

Penetration and relationship building

• Build access into target companies through calls, email, LinkedIn, introductions, networking and other legitimate routes.
• Identify and develop multiple stakeholders within each serious account.
• Build relationships across HR, Procurement, Finance, Operations and relevant business leadership.

Commercial pursuit

• Lead initial commercial conversations and discovery.
• Understand the client's workforce problem, timing, decision process and reasons for externalising.
• Move opportunities through discovery, defined scope, proposal, procurement and commercial decision.
• Work with Sales Admin to progress proposals, vendor registration, tenders and commercial documentation.
• Bring opportunities where senior discovery, proposition design, executive credibility, negotiation or difficult problem-solving can materially raise the chance of winning.
• Keep ownership of the opportunity after senior intervention.

Pipeline management and forecasting

• Maintain persistent, structured follow-up, so every active opportunity always has a clear next action.
• Keep accurate pipeline records: expected workforce size, commercial value and next-action dates.
• Forecast the Malaysia pipeline and report progress, risks and stalled deals to leadership.

Ideal candidate

• 5–8 years of B2B business development experience, with a track record of closing multi-stakeholder deals.
• Experience in staffing, outsourcing, EOR, BPO, professional services, technology services or another relationship-led B2B environment is preferred.
• Comfortable owning a territory target and forecasting a pipeline.
• Strong persistence and follow-up discipline, with a high tolerance for rejection and silence.
• Comfortable calling and repeatedly pursuing senior stakeholders.
• Hands-on and willing to do the commercial groundwork that wins deals.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Able to learn different client problems quickly.
• Comfortable asking directly for next steps and commitments.
• Highly disciplined with pipeline and follow-up.