Proposal Development Manager Jobs in Rochester, MI

Job Summary

The Business Development Lead is a strategic hunter role responsible for driving new revenue growth and expanding People Results’ market presence through proactive business development, consultative selling, and executive relationship management. This individual excels at identifying and pursuing new opportunities, opening doors with senior decision-makers, and building trusted relationships that translate into long-term client partnerships.

Serving as a key driver of the People Results growth strategy, the Business Development Lead converts early-stage interest into qualified opportunities by uncovering organizational challenges, shaping client vision, and aligning People Results’ services and solutions to business and workforce priorities. This role requires a highly consultative and relationship-oriented professional who can balance disciplined pipeline generation with sophisticated stakeholder engagement across complex organizations.

The ideal candidate is both a results-driven hunter and a credible advisor — someone energized by creating new opportunities while building lasting executive relationships grounded in trust, insight, and value.

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Essential Job Functions

Strategic Business Development and Opportunity Creation

• Proactively identifies, pursues, and develops new business opportunities through strategic outbound prospecting, networking, referrals, market engagement, and relationship cultivation.

• Builds and sustains a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities aligned with organizational growth priorities.

• Converts inbound and outbound leads into high-quality opportunities through disciplined business development practices and consultative engagement.

• Develops targeted account strategies to penetrate new markets, industries, and client organizations.

• Re-engages dormant clients and uncovers expansion opportunities within existing relationships.

Executive Relationship Management

• Establishes and nurtures trusted relationships with CHROs, HR executives, labor relations leaders, operational executives, and other senior decision-makers.

• Demonstrates executive presence and credibility in high-level business conversations.

• Navigates complex, multi-stakeholder environments while aligning competing priorities and decision criteria.

• Positions People Results as a strategic partner through insight-driven conversations and value-focused engagement.

• Maintains strong relationships throughout the sales lifecycle to support long-term partnership growth and client retention.

Consultative Selling and Solution Alignment

• Leads sophisticated discovery conversations to identify organizational challenges, strategic objectives, workforce priorities, and operational gaps.

• Diagnoses client needs and translates business challenges into tailored People Results solutions and engagement approaches.

• Collaborates with Operations Leaders and Consultants to shape customized solutions that align with client goals and measurable outcomes.

• Influences early-stage deal strategy and helps define compelling client problem statements and engagement visions.

• Supports proposal development, solution positioning, and transition into contracting and implementation phases.

Pipeline Leadership and Revenue Growth

• Owns progression of opportunities from prospect identification through qualification, proposal development, and handoff to closing stages.

• Drives momentum through disciplined follow-up, strategic meeting orchestration, and proactive next-step management.

• Improves pipeline quality, conversion rates, and sales velocity through consistent execution and relationship stewardship.

• Contributes to forecasting, revenue planning, and pipeline review processes.

• Maintains strong focus on achieving growth targets, business development metrics, and strategic revenue objectives.

CRM Discipline and Market Intelligence

• Maintains accurate and timely opportunity management within customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

• Ensures integrity of pipeline data, forecasting inputs, opportunity stages, and activity tracking.

• Provides strategic insights regarding market trends, buyer behavior, competitive positioning, client feedback, and emerging workforce challenges.

• Identifies patterns and opportunities that inform go-to-market strategy and service innovation.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partners closely with:

o Marketing to refine messaging, targeting strategies, campaign effectiveness, and market positioning

o Pipeline Development teams to ensure seamless lead qualification and opportunity transition

o Operations and Consulting teams to align client needs with service capabilities and delivery excellence

o Leadership to support strategic growth initiatives, market expansion, and business priorities

o Infrastructure and reporting teams to ensure data integrity, proposal governance, and reporting accuracy

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Other Duties

Market Presence and Thought Leadership

• Represents People Results at conferences, networking events, webinars, and industry engagements.

• Contributes to thought leadership initiatives and serves as a voice of the client within the organization.

• Supports development of sales playbooks, discovery methodologies, talk tracks, and business development training resources.

• Provides feedback on pricing strategies, service offerings, competitive positioning, and market opportunities.

Team and Organizational Support

• Assists in onboarding and mentoring future business development team members as the function scales.

• Contributes to continuous improvement of sales processes, pipeline management practices, and business development operations.

• Performs additional duties as assigned by leadership.

Qualifications, Experience, and Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Human Resources, or related field required.

• Advanced degree (e.g., MBA) or additional training in sales, consulting, negotiation, or strategic business development preferred.

• 8–10 years of progressive experience in business development, consultative sales, strategic partnerships, or professional services.

• Demonstrated success in a hunter-oriented role with a strong track record of developing new business opportunities and driving revenue growth.

• Experience building executive-level relationships and selling into HR, labor relations, organizational effectiveness, or workforce-related functions preferred.

• Prior experience selling consulting, advisory, professional services, or HR-related solutions strongly preferred.

• Exceptional consultative selling, relationship-building, and executive communication skills.

• Strong strategic thinking and ability to connect business challenges with innovative solutions.

• Demonstrated ability to influence across functions and navigate complex organizational environments.

• High degree of initiative, accountability, professionalism, and business acumen.

• Strong organizational and pipeline management skills with disciplined follow-through.

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and growth-oriented environment.