Business Development Manager – Food & Drink Incubator Job at United Kingdom Full Time NEW

Mission Kitchen is looking for a driven and connected Membership & Events Sales Lead to attract members, grow our community, and scale our space hire business.Mission Kitchen is an incubator for the next generation of talent in London’s food sector. We operate the UK’s only dedicated co-working space for food and drink start-ups. Our 100+ members are ambitious independent food businesses at every stage of growth, from early-stage founders to scaling brands. It will be your job to grow this community, and bring more talented entrepreneurs into our networkAlongside membership, we offer space hire across two distinct products: Event Space for away days, workshops, talks, dining and filming; and our Development Kitchen for recipe development, team training, tastings, cookery classes and content creation. This is an increasingly important part of our business and your task will be to accelerate its growth.We are looking for a hustler who is energised by the food and drink industry. Equally at home in B2B business development and in-person relationship building, and ready to take ownership of their results.You will report directly to one of the Founders. This is a full-time, permanent position based at our site in Nine Elms, Central London. We offer hybrid working with 1 day per week WFH as standard.What will you be doing?Core Sales ResponsibilitiesSales Pipeline ManagementEnquiries: Responding to enquiries, taking sales calls, arranging visits, and managing leads from enquiry to close.CRM: Managing both sales funnels in our CRM, including contact databases, prospect communication, analysis, reporting and automations.Relationships: Achieving high conversion rates through active engagement with leads, relationship building, and responsive and proactive communications. Lead GenerationOutreach: Proactively identifying and engaging prospects across both membership and space hire through targeted outreach and direct sales activity.Partnerships: Building referral partnerships with relevant organisations to drive enquiries across membership and space hire.Networking: Representing Mission Kitchen at industry events and in relevant networks to build awareness and generate leads. Reporting & OptimisationReporting: Providing regular reports on pipeline and revenue performance against targets.Optimisation: Identifying and implementing improvements to the sales process in collaboration with marketing team and Founders. MembershipCalls & Tours: Arranging and hosting discovery calls and engaging in-person site tours with prospective members.Applications & Contracts: Reviewing applications to ensure strong community and product fit, and preparing and handling membership contracts and licenses through to sign-off.Onboarding: Ensuring a smooth handover of confirmed new members to the operations team.Invoicing: Creating and issuing new sales invoices, and overseeing monthly billing processes. Space HireProposals: Handling inbound enquiries, understanding client needs, and preparing proposals and quotes including venue usage, catering, staffing, furniture and AV.Site Visits: Arranging and leading site visits, bringing the space to life and demonstrating how it could work for clients.Event Delivery: Developing detailed event plans, co-ordinating with our operations team, and managing events on the day to ensure smooth running and client success.What are we looking for?RequiredAt least 2 years of relevant experience in sales, new business or related fields; with a track record of hitting and exceeding revenue targets.Strong B2B sales skills, comfortable managing the full sales cycle from prospecting to close.Comfortable working with a CRM and using data to manage a pipeline and report on performance.Self-starting and entrepreneurial, a hustler who takes initiative and finds creative ways to generate leads without relying solely on inbound.Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage confidently with a wide range of clients and prospects.Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple concurrent sales processes.A genuine interest in and enthusiasm for London’s food and drink industry.PreferredExperience and relevant existing networks within the food and drink sectorExperience in sales or community management in co-working or other membership organisations.Sector-specific sales experience in events, venue or space hire.