Business Development Director

About Us

Sparks is a leading global brand experience agency, specializing in the design and execution of award-winning experiences that forge deep connections between brands and audiences. Recognized by Adweek as Experiential Agency of the Year, we bring a unique blend of strategic insight and execution excellence to every brand activation, corporate event, trade show exhibit, and immersive experience. Our commitment to creativity, innovation, and flawless execution drives us to craft impactful experiential marketing solutions that deepen relationships, inspire action, and build trust-all around the world.

Summary

This position will focus on strategic sales and engagement with net new clients and banners. The position will work with some of the world’s leading brands to understand their needs, audiences and challenges, and then deliver smart, strategic, results-driven sales recommendations across the Strategic Event & Exhibit porfolio as well as the Sparks portfolio with a focus on creative and fabrication services that build long lasting and engrained relationships which can grow into other areas of our business. This role will be responsible for adhering to the overarching growth strategy through prospecting, event attendance, lead identification, proposal management, and the facilitation of a smooth handover to Account Directors and relevant teams.

The Senior Business Development Director is responsible for creating opportunities for sales growth within our target markets and across our multiple business lines, products and services. This is a results-driven position primarily measured by opportunity created and business closed.The position requires an advanced level of business acumen and ability to maintain and report on pipeline progress in addition to other analytics as required. The position will manage multiple competitive proposals and projects per year in varying capacities and may work on projects independently or as part of a larger team.

This position will support our Business Development Group under our Growth (Sales) team. It is eligible to work a hybrid schedule, generally requiring work in-office and/or show site 2-3 days per week. Preferred locations for this role include the following; however, qualified candidates outside of these markets will also be considered.

• Philadelphia, PA
• Los Angeles, CA
• Chicago, IL
• Grand Prairie, TX
• Royal Oak, MI
• New York, NY
• San Francisco, CA
• St. Paul, MN
• Milwaukee, WI
• Fort Wayne, IN
• Las Vegas, NV

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Learn Sparks’ complete portfolio of products and services and have the ability to present our complete portfolio offering with special emphasis on professional services (creative and strategy), events, conferences, activations and exhibits.
• Develop sales plans tailored to sell Sparks products/services within identified target accounts.
• Work collaboratively with the sales and marketing teams and fosters a culture of continuous process improvement and a more sophisticated Go-To-Market process.
• Pursue target accounts, evaluate opportunities, build relationships, collect key information and drive internal teams to create proposals and presentations to prospects.
• Utilize all business development techniques: phone, email, html, direct mail, association involvement, public speaking and networking...to build relationships and create opportunities.
• Records all contact and activity in Salesforce with a focus on accuracy and timely reporting.
• Follow up and evaluate opportunities that come into Sparks in the form of RFP’s, RFI’s and general inquiries.
• Develop relationships and processes that allow for seamless transition to account team once new banners are onboarded.
• Provide weekly reporting on items such as prospect meetings, new opportunities, project development, targeted campaigns and forecast updates.
• Desire to own projects and exceed expectations, with ability to find solutions and deliver results within a rapidly changing, entrepreneurial, technology-driven culture.
• Ability to identify and solve client issues strategically.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with management and cross-functional teams, for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, High School Diploma or Equivalent with relevant work experience required.
• Minimum 7-10 years of senior sales management experience within event marketing, exhibits, experiential, or agency environments.
• Proven track record of building brand awareness, developing strong client relationships, and successfully closing new business.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and grow a personal book of business, generating approximately $6M+ in revenue.
• Strong relationship-building skills, resourceful networking abilities, confident presentation skills, and creative thinking.
• MUST be willing to consistently cold call and proactively solicit new business.
• Comfortable working independently and in a remote or hybrid environment.
• Experience with-or willingness to learn-Sparks’ custom Salesforce instance.
• Proficient in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office.
• Strong attention to detail, a positive attitude, and a collaborative, team-oriented mindset.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.

Travel Requirements

Travel up to 25%

What We Offer

The Freeman Company provides benefits that aim to empower our people and their families to thrive mentally, physically, and financially. These are a handful of the types of programs and benefits our full-time people may be eligible for. There may be some variances in specific benefits across regions.

• Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Parental Leave
• Life, Accident and Disability
• Retirement with Company Match
• Paid Time Off
• Salary range of $100,000-$125,000 based upon experience
• Eligible for a growth commissioned bonus

Diversity Commitment

At The Freeman Company, our commitment to diversity and inclusion is helping us to create not only a great place to work, but also an environment where our employees, our customers and our communities around the world can reach their goals and connect with each other. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status and other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.