Business Development Executive - French Speaking

Unit4

About The Position

The Business Development Executive is responsible for generating high-quality new business opportunities for Unit4 Financials by Coda’s New Business team in France. This proactive, outbound-focused role identifies target organisations, engages senior decision-makers, and creates qualified opportunities for the New Business sales team. The role involves opening doors into new organisations, building relationships with senior finance stakeholders, and developing opportunities in a market where establishing new customer relationships is a priority. The successful candidate will research target organisations, create personalised outreach, understand prospective customers’ finance environments and challenges, and qualify potential opportunities. They will work closely with the France New Business team and Marketing, maintain accurate CRM records, build a future-opportunity pipeline, and share market and prospect feedback with Sales and Marketing. The role also requires developing knowledge of the French financial software market, Coda’s proposition, and relevant competitors.

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.
Fluent French and strong professional English.
Excellent telephone and written communication skills.
Confidence engaging senior and C-level prospects.
Strong prospecting and relationship-building skills.
Commercial curiosity and ability to understand a prospect’s business challenges.
Persistence and resilience while maintaining a professional approach.
Ability to create compelling, personalised outreach.
Strong research and account-planning capability.
Highly organised, with disciplined follow-up.
Comfort working toward clear activity, pipeline, and opportunity-generation targets.
Collaborative approach to working with Sales and Marketing.

Nice To Haves

Experience in enterprise software, SaaS, ERP, finance technology, or another complex B2B environment.
Experience researching and developing named or 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.

Responsibilities

Generate qualified new-business opportunities for the Coda France New Business team.
Proactively prospect agreed target accounts and market segments.
Research organisations to identify suitable 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 engage prospective customers.
Develop personalised outbound campaigns and messaging rather than relying solely on high-volume prospecting.
Understand prospects’ current finance environments, challenges, and priorities 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 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 CRM records of prospecting activity, contacts, leads, and opportunities.
Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of future opportunities.
Develop knowledge of the French financial software market, Coda’s proposition, and relevant competitors.
Provide Sales and Marketing with feedback on prospect conversations, market trends, competitor activity, and messaging effectiveness.