Head of New Business Development

Brief Description

Head of New Business Development

Build and Lead ESP’s Net-New Growth Engine

UK – Reading / Thames Valley | UK & US remit | Regular international travel

ESP Global Services is looking for an exceptional Head of New Business Development to lead the next phase of our net-new growth.

This is a senior sales leadership role with a very clear mandate:

Win new customers. Personally. Build a team capable of doing the same.

This is not an account management role, a customer-growth position or a leadership appointment where you step away from selling. We are looking for a proven new-business hunter who can originate and close significant enterprise opportunities while building, coaching and leading a high-performing new-business team across the UK and US.

If your track record is primarily renewals, inherited accounts or expansion of existing customers, this is unlikely to be the right opportunity.

If, however, you can demonstrate that you have created opportunities from scratch, built senior customer relationships, navigated complex enterprise buying cycles and converted those relationships into significant new-logo revenue, we want to hear from you.

The Opportunity

ESP Global Services provides technology support and managed services to major organisations operating complex, distributed and international environments.

We have strong customer relationships and a proven ability to deliver. Our next challenge is to translate that capability more consistently into net-new logo growth.

We are therefore creating dedicated senior leadership around new business development.

As Head of New Business Development, you will own the new-business lifecycle from target-account identification and initial engagement through qualification, proposal, negotiation and close.

Importantly, your accountability does not simply end at signature.

You will ensure that every customer relationship built during the sales process is transferred effectively into Customer Success through a structured, warm handover that protects the knowledge, credibility and trust established during the pursuit.

This Is a Player-Coach Role

We are deliberately looking for someone who still wants to sell.

You will carry a personal Year 1 net-new ACV target in excess of £3 million

, while leading a team of approximately 5–7 new-business sales executives across the UK and US.

The combined team target will be in excess of £12 million net-new ACV in Year 1.

Your team will include different levels of sales experience. Some will require coaching to move from account-management behaviours towards genuine new-business hunting; others will require structured mentoring as they develop their sales careers.

You will therefore need to be equally credible in front of a prospective enterprise customer and alongside a salesperson helping them improve how they qualify, pursue and close an opportunity.

What You Will Be Accountable For

You Will

• Personally originate, qualify, develop and close net-new logo opportunities, creating direct relationships with senior prospective customer stakeholders.
• Deliver £3m+ personal net-new ACV in Year 1 while leading the team towards a combined £12m+ net-new ACV target.
• Build and maintain a clear target-account strategy, identifying and prioritising named prospects across ESP's addressable markets.
• Lead, coach and performance-manage a UK and US new-business team, creating a consistent, relationship-led hunting culture.
• Establish rigorous opportunity qualification using a recognised methodology such as MEDDIC, BANT or equivalent.
• Create clear stage gates and qualification standards so that time and resources are invested in opportunities we have a credible route to win.
• Introduce disciplined review and checkpoint/kill decisions for aged or low-probability pursuits rather than allowing weak opportunities to remain indefinitely in the pipeline.
• Improve pipeline quality, CRM discipline, forecast accuracy and transparency.
• Work closely with bid, pricing and delivery colleagues to ensure significant proposals are appropriately qualified, commercially robust and positioned to win.

Analyse late-stage losses and translate those lessons into better qualification and sales execution.

Own the transition of every newly won customer into Customer Success, including a documented account plan, relationship history and warm personal introduction.

Report clearly to executive leadership on pipeline health, new-logo conversion, forecast, team development and sales-to-Customer-Success transition.

Requirements

What We Need to See

The Most Important Qualification For This Position Is Straightforward

You must be able to demonstrate that you have personally won genuine net-new business.

We will want to understand the opportunities you originated, the customers you won, the value and complexity of those deals, how you created the initial relationship and your personal contribution to getting them signed.

Specifically, We Are Looking For

A demonstrable net-new track record.

You have successfully originated and closed significant new-logo business in enterprise or mid-market environments. Your success cannot primarily have come from renewals, inherited relationships or expanding established accounts.

Continued personal sales ambition.

You are comfortable carrying a substantial personal target alongside your leadership responsibilities. You still enjoy prospecting, opening doors, developing relationships, shaping opportunities, negotiating and closing.

Complex enterprise selling capability.

You understand long sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders, procurement processes, commercial negotiation and complex service propositions — and you know how to maintain momentum and qualification discipline throughout them.

Strong relationship-building capability.

Your approach is consultative and relationship-led. You can build credibility with senior stakeholders and understand that the quality of the customer relationship matters before, during and after the sale.

Sales process discipline.

You understand formal qualification methodologies such as MEDDIC, BANT or equivalent and can distinguish genuine pipeline from activity. You are prepared to challenge assumptions and qualify opportunities out when the evidence says we should stop pursuing them.

Leadership and coaching capability.

Ideally, you have led and developed a sales team of five or more. Equally, we will consider an exceptional senior individual contributor with the track record, maturity and ambition to make the transition into leadership while continuing to sell.

A global outlook.

You are comfortable operating across geographies and cultures, leading colleagues across the UK and US and travelling regularly to develop major customer opportunities.

CRM and data transparency.

You are comfortable operating in an environment where pipeline, conversion, ageing, forecast accuracy and — importantly — new-logo performance are measured explicitly.

What Success Looks Like

After 12 months, we expect to see a materially stronger and more disciplined new-business engine.

You will have personally delivered more than £3m in net-new ACV, with the wider team delivering more than £12m.

But success will be measured by more than the revenue number.

We Expect To See

• A strong pipeline built around clearly identified target accounts.
• Meaningful improvement in new-logo conversion.
• Earlier disqualification of opportunities that do not have a credible route to win.
• Fewer expensive, poorly qualified pursuits reaching full proposal stage.
• A team operating with consistent hunting behaviours and qualification discipline.
• Newer salespeople developing through structured coaching and mentoring.
• Accurate, transparent pipeline and forecasting.
• Every new customer transitioning into Customer Success through a structured, relationship-led handover.
  
  

Who This Role Will Suit

This opportunity is likely to appeal to a Head of New Business, New Business Director, Sales Director, Enterprise Sales Leader or senior new-logo salesperson who wants greater ownership and the opportunity to build.

Your sector background may be in technology, managed services, outsourcing, professional services or business services, but sector pedigree alone will not qualify you.

Evidence of winning new logos will.

We are particularly interested in people who can talk specifically about what they have sold, who they sold it to, how they originated the opportunity, how they qualified it and how they personally moved it from first engagement to contract.

This is a demanding commercial leadership appointment with significant visibility across ESP.

For the right person, it is also the opportunity to build and lead a genuinely focused new-business function while remaining personally at the heart of the deals that define its success.

Think you fit the brief?

We would welcome a conversation if you can demonstrate three things clearly:

You have originated and closed significant net-new business.

You still want to personally hunt and sell.

You can build other salespeople into disciplined new-business hunters.

If that describes your track record and the next step you want to take, we would like to hear from you.

Summary

About ESP Global Services

ESP Global Services is an international technology and managed services business, delivering IT support and infrastructure solutions to customers across more than 150 countries. We support complex, business-critical environments across multiple vertical sectors and majoring in Transportation / Aviation, combining global reach with the agility and customer focus of a specialist organisation.

For an experienced sales professional, ESP offers the opportunity to sell a broad portfolio spanning managed services, technology solutions, professional services and workforce solutions. Our international delivery capability and established customer relationships provide a strong platform from which to develop strategic accounts, open new markets and build significant, long-term customer partnerships.

We are ambitious about our next stage of growth and value people who can bring commercial insight, credibility and energy to that journey. At ESP, senior sales professionals have the opportunity to make a visible impact — shaping opportunities, influencing how we take solutions to market and helping build the customer relationships that will underpin our future growth.

ESP Global Services is an equal opportunities employer.