OTE: ± €120,000 (65/35 fixed/variable split)
Commission: Variable component tied to ARR growth
Location: Remote-first, with regular presence in Brussels and at clients
Focus: New Business | Public Affairs & Policy | SaaS
CONTEXT
Our client is a Dutch SaaS company that has developed an AI-driven platform for political and policy monitoring, automatically collecting, structuring and analyzing political, parliamentary and regulatory information across EU, federal, regional and local levels.
The platform is used by public affairs professionals, regulatory teams and organizations that depend on policy information, offering continuous monitoring, AI-driven filtering and prioritization, thematic tracking, alerts, AI-powered analysis and summaries, and workflow support.
Belgium and the wider EU are explicit growth markets, with Belgium still in an early, largely greenfield phase.
The role reports to / works closely with the VP Sales Belgium & EU and is a 100% new-business / hunter role, not a classic account management position, in a niche where domain knowledge of EU and Belgian institutions, regulatory pressure and public affairs workflows is a strong asset.
Our client is looking for a Business Development Manager to build a new client base in Belgium (and partially the EU) among corporates in regulated sectors, public affairs and government relations teams, NGOs, consultancies, sector federations and government institutions.
WHY
- Join a SaaS company with a proven product-market fit in the Netherlands (market leader position) now scaling into Belgium and the EU
- Take on a role with direct, visible impact on growth during a clear scale-up phase
- Operate in a niche combining SaaS, AI and public affairs, with a product that has a clear and concrete use case, including a reference case showing roughly 75% reduction in search time for users
- Enjoy strong autonomy in approach and market development, in a remote-first organization with limited hierarchy
- Have direct interaction with founders and senior management
- Help shape the positioning of the product in a Belgian market that is still in an early, low-competition phase
- Benefit from realistic targets relative to market context, with support from SDRs and marketing
WHO
- Demonstrable experience in new business sales (essential), with experience in outbound prospecting and pipeline building
- Experience with SaaS or solution selling, managing multiple parallel sales cycles
- Strong in discovery, need-creation, objection handling (budget, timing, status quo) and demo skills tailored to the client
- Trial management and conversion optimization skills, with commercial modelling capabilities (deal size, pipeline, conversion)
- Understanding of the “science of selling” (conversion, funnel, metrics) and the ability to apply an Inspire-Educate-Sell approach
- Strongly results-driven and competitive, with high intrinsic motivation, comfort with uncertainty and immature markets, and persistence in long, complex sales cycles
- Self-driven and ownership-minded, with strong self-reflection and learning ability
- Affinity with public affairs, regulatory or policy topics is a strong plus; understanding of the Belgian institutional context is important
- Fluent in Dutch and English; French is a plus but not a must
- Around 5-7 years of relevant sales experience, ideally in a high-volume / mid-ticket sales environment
OFFER
- A role with direct impact on growth during a scale-up phase, with strong influence on positioning in a Belgian market that is still developing
- A unique combination of SaaS, AI and public affairs in a niche domain, with proven traction in the Netherlands as a reference
- International expansion scope across Belgium and the EU
- Direct interaction with founders and senior management, with high autonomy and limited hierarchy
- A remote-first organization with regular presence in Brussels and at clients
- Realistic targets relative to market context, with support from SDRs and marketing
- The opportunity to help build the team and structure as the Belgian/EU business grows
