New Business Manager

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer / Chief Executive Officer

Location: San Diego, CA (onsite/hybrid)

Grizzly is an independent creative agency. We guide brands onward™ to challenge convention and impact culture. We work at the convergence of branding and advertising — blending strategy, design, and storytelling to build deeper connections between brands and people.

We partner with brands pioneering new futures. The trailblazers. The visionaries. The courageous. The businesses of tomorrow that believe in a better world and are hell-bent on building it. Adventurous Brands™ create and lead categories, secure the world’s work, and change how we live. We put creativity to work for business because we believe the most innovative brands have the power to affect just about anything. They challenge convention, impact culture, and forge connections. We help them navigate an increasingly complex and challenging world. This is how we guide brands onward.

The New Business Manager owns net-new pipeline generation for Grizzly: identifying, prioritizing, and personally engaging the right prospects, and qualifying real opportunities for the team to carry forward to close. This role works from an established foundation: a defined ICP, a warm contact list, a live CRM system in Attio, a ready pitch deck, and a growing library of case studies - the job is to activate and grow that foundation.

This is a consultative role, not a scripted one. You'll curate and prioritize target lists, run outreach that reads as a genuine peer conversation rather than a pitch, and qualify real opportunities before handing them to Grizzly leadership and the broader team for proposal development and close. You are the first real conversation a prospective client has with Grizzly, and the quality of that conversation shapes whether they ever have a second one.

This is a full-time, in-office role based in San Diego. Being embedded with the team - in the room for client work, learning directly from the Chief Creative Officer and Chief Operating Officer, as well as Chief Executive Officer, absorbing how Grizzly actually thinks and operates - is core to the role, not a preference. This is not a remote or primarily independent position.

Brand marketing, content, PR, and awards submissions are owned by Grizzly's Content Producer - this role is focused entirely on origination and qualification: finding the right people, starting the right conversations, and bringing qualified opportunities to the table.

Prospecting & List Management

• Curate and continuously refine target lists against Grizzly's ICP, using existing Attio data and research to prioritize who to approach and when

• Keep Attio current as Grizzly's single source of truth for pipeline status, targets, and contact history

• Identify warm-path opportunities within the existing contact list before cold outreach, sequencing effort toward the highest-probability conversations first

Outreach & Consultative Engagement

• Run outbound outreach: email, LinkedIn, phone, and warm introductions - personally, not through a scripted sequence tool alone

• Lead early-stage conversations as a consultant, not a salesperson - understanding a prospect's actual business challenge before positioning Grizzly's fit

• Represent Grizzly's point of view credibly in first conversations with brand, marketing, and communications leaders, using existing decks, case studies, and positioning materials

Qualification & Handoff

• Qualify opportunities against a clear standard (defined problem, budget, authority, timeline) before advancing them

• Deliver qualified opportunities to Grizzly leadership and the broader team, who own positioning, pitch development, and close - this role is not expected to run or close deals independently

• Maintain an accurate, forecastable pipeline in Attio - stage, next step, and expected timing kept current on every active opportunity

Reporting & Collaboration

• Deliver a weekly written pipeline update - activity, new opportunities, stage movement, and any blockers

• Partner with the COO on target account strategy and quarterly pipeline goals

• Loop in the Content Producer where a case study, award, custom content or PR moment would materially help an active conversation

2026 is a ramp period, with quota escalating month over month as this person builds relationships and pipeline familiarity; 2027 is when this role is expected to sustain real growth. Quota is set against qualified opportunities delivered - the part of the job this role fully owns - not closed revenue, which sits with leadership and the broader team.

Qualified opportunity defined as: prospect with validated need that can be serviced by Grizzly’s core competency, contact with authority over budget & decision making, realistic possibility of purchasing within a defined period of time.

• Month 1: no qualified-opportunity expectation: onboarding, ICP immersion, Attio familiarity, initial outreach

• Month 2: 1 qualified opportunity delivered

• Month 3: 2-3 qualified opportunities delivered

• Month 4 onward (2027 run rate): 3 qualified opportunities delivered per month, sustained - roughly $4-5M in annual qualified pipeline at Grizzly's average deal size

Closed revenue is not part of the managed quota, since close sits with leadership and the broader team — but it directly drives this role's variable compensation, which keeps the incentive on sourcing genuinely convertible opportunities rather than volume alone.

• 5 - 8 years of business development or new business sales experience, ideally at a creative, brand, or marketing agency, or another professional services firm with a consultative sales motion

• Demonstrated ability to build and work a target list independently, not just execute against one built by someone else

• Comfortable in longer, relationship-driven sales cycles rather than high-volume transactional selling

• CRM fluency required; Attio experience a plus

• Sharp written and verbal communication — able to represent Grizzly's point of view credibly to senior marketing and brand stakeholders

• Self-directed and comfortable owning a number, while working in-office alongside the team day to day

• San Diego, CA

• Up to 40% travel (as needed)

• Flexibility with schedule to meet client commitments

• Domestic and international travel may be required

The above job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. It is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for the position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform other job-related duties requested by their supervisor in compliance with Federal and State Laws.

All job requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health and safety of themselves or other employees.

Requirements are representative of minimum levels of knowledge, skills and/or abilities. To perform this job successfully, the employee must possess the abilities or aptitudes to perform each duty proficiently. Continued employment remains on an "at-will" basis.