VP, Business Development

About this role

Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading sports agency representing top-tier talent, blue-chip brands and marquee properties. Our success is rooted in our people, our high character reputation and our commitment to creating a diverse and welcoming workplace. We focus on team chemistry, collaboration, strong relationships, valuable networks, and ambitious ideas to deliver innovative solutions that keep our clients and agency ahead of the curve.

Excel Sports Management is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).

Position Summary: As VP, Business Development, you are a senior commercial leader driving Excel Sports Management (ESM) Brand Marketing's growth agenda. You define and pursue new business opportunities, lead RFP responses and pitches, shape go-to-market strategy, and position Excel Brand Marketing as the indispensable partner for brands seeking culturally resonant, integrated sports marketing programs. You operate at the intersection of relationship development, opportunity identification, and strategic counsel. You advise senior brand stakeholders, build and convert a robust pipeline, and lead pitches that showcase the full breadth of Excel Brand Marketing's capabilities — from strategy and creative to talent, experiential, and analytics. You will partner closely with the SVP, Business Development on integration across the business development cycle, owning key commercial outcomes: revenue growth, new client acquisition, and the continued expansion of ESM's Brand Marketing division.

What You'll Do

Business Development Leadership

• Serve as the senior business development lead for Excel Brand Marketing, owning pipeline growth from prospecting through close.

• Build and execute a targeted outreach strategy, leveraging an established network to generate brand conversations, meetings, pitches, and RFPs.

• Bring a strong network of senior level brand and property relationships to the organization.

• Drive the RFP response process, including the integration of key support functions across strategy, creative, production, measurement, hospitality and account management.

• Lead the team responsible for the full business development cycle — identifying and targeting prospects, conducting outreach, preparing materials, drafting scopes of work, and coordinating onboarding with finance and legal.

• Partner with Excel's broader sales organization to identify existing relationships across the organization that can accelerate introductions and close new business.

• Maintain and evolve Excel Brand Marketing's new business pipeline in Salesforce, ensuring real-time visibility and disciplined tracking.

Commercial & Revenue Growth

• Own revenue targets and conversion metrics across new business efforts.

• Develop long-term commercial frameworks that support durable, scalable client partnerships.

• Play a leading role in high-priority pitches and RFP responses, ensuring Excel's integrated offering is compellingly positioned.

Strategic & Creative Influence

• Demonstrate a command of all Excel Brand Marketing service areas — strategy, activation, measurement and analytics, talent, creative, digital, social, experiential, and hospitality — and connect those capabilities to client business needs.

• Understand how Excel Brand Marketing services can bring solutions to new business prospect challenges, briefs, and opportunities.

• Bring deep knowledge of sports, culture, and the brand marketing landscape to identify emerging opportunities and craft differentiated partnership narratives.

Project-Based Client Leadership

• Support execution of select short-term, project-based engagements once secured, managing internal coordination and external client communication with precision.

• Play a key role in ramping up new projects alongside the account management function, ensuring smooth handover for execution

Agency Leadership & Talent Development

• Manage and mentor teammates up, down, and across the group — fostering a culture of accountability, curiosity, and exceptional client service.

• Contribute to agency-wide strategy and the ongoing evolution of the Business Development function within Excel Brand Marketing.

• Develop strong relationships with colleagues in other divisions, including Properties, Talent, and Search

• Maintain and grow an active executive network across brands, properties, agencies, and the broader sports and marketing industry.

• Represent Excel Brand Marketing externally in client-facing and industry settings.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA preferred.

• 10+ years of direct experience in sponsorship marketing, brand marketing strategy, or agency business development.

• Proven track record of securing new revenue and identifying organic growth within existing client portfolios.

• Prior experience in sports marketing or agency business development strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated success developing and implementing sponsorship marketing strategy and activation on behalf of a client or company.

• Experience managing day-to-day relationships with clients, properties, and agency partners.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Deep understanding of the business development process within a creative or sports marketing agency environment.

• Exceptional commercial instincts and a proven ability to identify, pursue, and close new revenue opportunities.

• Executive presence with the ability to build trust and influence senior and C-suite brand stakeholders.

• An established network of brand relationships and a genuine desire to grow and activate that network over time.

• Outstanding communicator — written and verbal — with the ability to craft and deliver compelling brand narratives.

• Strategic thinker who balances long-term partnership vision with near-term commercial realities.

• Proficient in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, with the ability to build and lead the development of high-impact presentations.

• Proactive, action-oriented,

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