Business Development Executive - French Speaking

The Senior Business Development Executive is responsible for generating high-quality new business opportunities for the Unit4 Financials by Coda New Business team in France.
The role will focus on identifying target organisations, engaging senior decision-makers and creating qualified sales opportunities that can be progressed by the New Business sales team.
This is a proactive, outbound-focused role for someone who is comfortable opening doors into new organisations, developing relationships with senior finance stakeholders and creating opportunities in a market where establishing new customer relationships is a key priority.
Accountabilities & Responsibilities
Generate qualified new-business opportunities for the Coda France New Business team.
Proactively prospect into agreed target accounts and market segments.
Research organisations to identify appropriate companies, stakeholders and potential business drivers.
Engage senior finance stakeholders including CFOs, Finance Directors, Financial Controllers and Finance Transformation leaders.
Use telephone, email, LinkedIn and other appropriate channels to create engagement with prospective customers.
Develop personalised outbound campaigns and messaging rather than relying solely on high-volume prospecting.
Understand the prospect's current finance environment, challenges and priorities sufficiently to identify potential opportunities for Coda.
Qualify prospects against agreed criteria before passing opportunities to the New Business sales team.
Secure introductory and discovery meetings for the sales team.
Work closely with the France New Business team to identify and prioritise target accounts.
Partner with Marketing on campaigns, events and account-based activity.
Follow up marketing-generated leads and convert appropriate leads into qualified sales opportunities.
Maintain accurate records of prospecting activity, contacts, leads and opportunities within the CRM.
Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of future opportunities.
Develop knowledge of the French financial software market, Coda's proposition and relevant competitors.
Provide feedback to Sales and Marketing on prospect conversations, market trends, competitor activity and messaging effectiveness.
Qualifications
Experience Requirements
Strong experience in B2B business development, sales development or lead generation.
Demonstrable success generating qualified opportunities through proactive outbound prospecting.
Experience engaging senior business decision-makers.
Experience within enterprise software, SaaS, ERP, finance technology or another complex B2B environment is highly desirable.
Experience researching and developing named/strategic accounts.
Experience using CRM and sales-prospecting technology.
Experience working closely with Account Executives or New Business sales teams.
Experience within the French market would be highly advantageous.
Required Skills
Fluent French and strong professional English.
Excellent telephone and written communication skills.
Confident engaging senior and C-level prospects.
Strong prospecting and relationship-building skills.
Commercially curious and able to understand a prospect's business challenges.
Persistent and resilient while maintaining a professional approach.
Able to create compelling, personalised outreach.
Strong research and account-planning capability.
Highly organised with disciplined follow-up.
Comfortable working towards clear activity, pipeline and opportunity-generation targets.
Collaborative approach to working with Sales and Marketing.

Employment type
Full-time

Work arrangement
Yes