Business Development Manager

As a Business Development Manager, you will help Empowered Hospitality convert interest into strong, lasting client relationships. You will manage and qualify inbound leads from marketing and referrals, conduct consultative discovery conversations, prepare thoughtful proposals, maintain clear CRM discipline, build referral and partner relationships, attend networking events, and guide opportunities from first conversation through signed agreement. This is a relationship-driven commercial role for someone who enjoys meeting new people, understanding business needs, and helping prospects identify the right path forward. You will partner closely with Marketing, Leadership, and Client Services to ensure qualified opportunities are pursued timely, scoped appropriately, and transitioned smoothly once sold. Success requires warmth, curiosity, commercial judgment, strong follow-through, and the ability to represent Empowered Hospitality with authenticity and professionalism. This role will also directly support clients who engage Empowered Hospitality for recruiting services. For those clients, you will help clarify hiring needs, qualify requisitions, confirm expectations, and coordinate with the recruiting team to support a smooth client experience. Core Competencies Lead Qualification & Opportunity Management: Vetting inbound leads, understanding client needs, assessing fit, and moving qualified opportunities through a clear sales process. Relationship Development & Consultative Communication: Building trust with prospects, referral partners, hospitality operators, and HR leaders through thoughtful questions, clear communication, and professional follow-through. Proposal Development & Commercial Judgment: Translating client needs into tailored proposals, scopes, and service recommendations that align with Empowered Hospitality’s capabilities and business goals. CRM Discipline & Pipeline Visibility: Maintaining accurate HubSpot records, tracking activity, documenting next steps, updating pipeline stages, and providing reliable visibility into opportunities and forecasts. Partnership Development & Networking: Building referral relationships, representing Empowered Hospitality at industry events, and identifying creative ways to strengthen our presence in the hospitality community. Client Handoff & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Coordinating smooth transitions from signed agreement to Client Services, ensuring goals, scope, stakeholders, timelines, and relationship context are clearly communicated. Business Acumen & Market Insight: Understanding hospitality operators’ realities and using relevant market insights to create urgency, identify opportunities, and position Empowered Hospitality’s HR, talent, payroll, training, and people-operations solutions effectively. Role Responsibilities Manage, qualify, and follow up on inbound leads from marketing campaigns, website inquiries, referrals, events, and partner relationships. Conduct discovery conversations to understand each prospect’s business, people challenges, goals, urgency, budget, timeline, decision process, and fit with Empowered Hospitality’s services. Prepare thoughtful proposals, scopes, presentations, and service agreements in partnership with Leadership and subject matter experts. Maintain accurate CRM hygiene in HubSpot, including activity history, notes, follow-up tasks, opportunity stages, projected timing, and pipeline visibility. Build and nurture relationships with hospitality operators, HR leaders, industry vendors, referral partners, associations, and other potential sources of qualified opportunities. Attend networking events, industry panels, trade shows, client functions, and partner meetings to expand Empowered Hospitality’s visibility and relationship network. Partner with Marketing on campaign follow-up, lead qualification, messaging feedback, event strategy, and conversion of interest into qualified opportunities. Support pricing conversations and proposal revisions within established guidelines, escalating questions or exceptions to Leadership as appropriate. Coordinate thoughtful handoffs once a project is sold, including client goals, scope, stakeholders, timeline, relationship history, risks, and next steps. Share market feedback, common client needs, objections, and deal learnings with Marketing, Leadership, and Client Services to improve positioning, sales process, and service offerings over time. Identify opportunities to strengthen Empowered Hospitality’s business-development process, CRM discipline, proposal templates, sales collateral, and handoff practices. Support recruiting-service clients by clarifying hiring needs, qualifying requisitions, confirming expectations, and coordinating with the recruiting team to ensure a smooth client experience. Experience & Education 5+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, account management, sales, client development, hospitality operations, or consultative professional services. Proven ability to qualify opportunities, build relationships, manage follow-up, and guide prospects through a thoughtful decision-making process. Experience preparing proposals, presentations, or client-facing communications. Strong CRM discipline and comfort using HubSpot or a similar CRM to manage pipeline stages, activity, notes, tasks, and reporting. Experience attending networking events, developing referral relationships, or representing a company externally in a professional setting. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including comfort leading discovery conversations and presenting recommendations to senior stakeholders. Hospitality industry experience and/or experience selling professional services, HR services, recruiting, payroll, training, or people-operations solutions is a plus. Bachelor’s degree in business, communications, hospitality, human resources, marketing, or related field preferred. This is an individual-contributor role with meaningful ownership of Empowered Hospitality’s business-development process. With strong performance, there is opportunity to take on larger opportunities, deepen partner relationships, improve our go-to-market systems, and expand ownership across business development, partnerships, and growth strategy. What's in it for you? Compensation: $130-200k (base and commission) Vacation: 15 days PTO + 10 company holidays Healthcare: Medical, Dental and Vision coverage Retirement & financial: 401(k) with employer match; pre-tax commuter, medical and childcare benefits; monthly cell phone and internet reimbursement; company laptop, home office reimbursement Lifestyle support: Work-from-home flexibility; WeWork membership; team-building events; tuition reimbursement; employee recognition program *You must be based in the NYC metro area to be considered for this position Empowered Hospitality (including affiliates) is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all aspects of one's employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. #J-18808-Ljbffr