Senior Business Development Manager

Department: Business Development

Reports to: Founder

Location: Mumbai (On-site)

About the Role

The Senior Business Development Manager drives overall agency growth for Sorta Famous winning new business across PR, social media, and integrated marketing mandates. This role owns the full new-business lifecycle: identifying prospects, leading pitches and RFP responses, negotiating retainers, and expanding into new client verticals. This role is focused on winning new agency clients and retainer business at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end new business pipeline: prospecting, qualifying leads, and converting them into signed retainers or project-based clients
• Lead responses to RFPs/RFIs, coordinating with creative, strategy, and servicing teams to build winning pitches
• Identify and enter new client verticals and market segments to diversify the agency's client base
• Build and maintain senior-level relationships with CMOs, marketing heads, and business owners across target industries
• Own revenue targets and pipeline forecasting; report progress regularly to the Founder
• Negotiate commercial terms, scope, and retainer structures with prospective clients
• Represent Sorta Famous at industry events, award functions, and networking forums to build market visibility
• Collaborate with servicing/account teams to ensure smooth handover of new clients post-signing
• Track competitive landscape and agency market trends to inform positioning and pitch strategy
• Mentor junior BD/partnership team members as the function scales

Requirements

• 6-10 years of experience in business development, new business, or client acquisition agency-side experience (PR, social media, advertising, or integrated marketing) required
• Demonstrated track record of winning new agency clients/retainers, ideally with disclosed deal sizes or revenue contribution
• Strong experience leading pitches and RFP responses in a competitive agency environment
• Established network among CMOs/marketing decision-makers is a strong plus
• Excellent negotiation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills
• Comfortable owning revenue targets and being measured on pipeline conversion

Key Result Areas

• New client acquisition (number of new retainers/accounts signed per quarter)
• Revenue generated from new business
• Pitch win rate
• Pipeline health, forecasting accuracy, and market/vertical expansion