Business Development Associate; B2B Events Industry

Bristol, England

Monday – Friday | 8:30am – 5:30pm | Office-based

£26,000 – £29,000 Base Salary + Uncapped Commission

Year 1 OTE: £50,000 – £70,000

Fast-track progression & full sales training

Looking for your first opportunity in sales, business development, or a commercial environment?

Business Show Media is growing its commercial team and is looking for enthusiastic, driven individuals to join us as Business Development Associates.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone who wants to build a career in sales but may not have extensive experience yet. Whether you're a recent graduate, have experience in customer-facing roles, or simply have the confidence and determination to succeed, we'll provide the training and support to help you develop.

Business Show Media operates a portfolio of large-scale business events connecting entrepreneurs, founders, executives, and growing companies around the world.

With events across the globe, you'll be joining an international business with plenty of opportunity to learn, progress and grow.

As a Business Development Associate, you'll work at the beginning of our commercial sales process.

Your role will be focused on identifying interesting businesses, starting conversations with potential clients and helping create new commercial opportunities for our events.

• Research companies and identify potential prospects
• Contact businesses through Linked In, email and telephone
• Introduce our events and understand potential client needs
• Speak with founders, business owners and marketing professionals
• Identify companies that could benefit from exhibiting or sponsoring
• Qualify potential opportunities for the sales team
• Arrange introductory meetings with prospective clients
• Keep accurate records of your activity within our CRM
• Follow up with prospects and maintain professional relationships
• Work towards achievable daily and weekly activity targets
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing and Events teams
• Attend selected business events and gain first-hand commercial experience

You won’t be expected to know everything on day one.

You'll receive structured training and regular coaching to help you become confident in prospecting, communication, objection handling and commercial conversations.

We're looking for someone with the attitude and potential to become a great salesperson.

You could be:

• A recent graduate looking for a commercial career
• Working in retail, hospitality, recruitment or customer service
• In an entry-level role and ready for your next challenge
• Someone with some sales experience looking to develop further
• Naturally competitive and motivated by achieving goals
• Confident speaking to new people
• Curious about how businesses operate
• Comfortable picking up the phone and starting conversations
• Organised and willing to learn
• Resilient when things don’t go your way
• Motivated by financial and career progression

Most importantly, you should be hungry to learn, willing to work hard and excited by the opportunity to build something for yourself.

From your first weeks, you'll receive hands‑on training covering areas such as:

Prospecting → Communication → Qualification → Objection Handling → Relationship Building → Sales

A potential career path could look like:

Business Development Associate → Business Development Executive → Sales Executive → Senior Sales Executive → Sales Leadership

Our aim is to develop people internally, meaning strong performers can progress significantly as their skills and responsibilities grow.

• £24,000 – £27,000 starting salary, depending on experience
• Uncapped commission
• Year 1 OTE of £40,000 – £50,000
• Structured onboarding and sales training
• Regular one-to-one coaching
• Ongoing…