Business Development Lead

About the role

Vertex Communication Group is a trusted extension of clients' teams for email program management. Since 2002, we have helped publishers, associations, and membership organizations run complex email programs with structure, clarity, and dependable execution. We are a fully remote team of about 10, headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, with roughly 20 active clients, a 100% recurring revenue model, and retention north of 90%. We handle campaign operations and deployment, HTML and CSS email development, ESP management, systems integration, and hands-on account management across platforms including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, iPost, Braze, and Bloomreach.

Responsibilities

• Own new-business development across associations and membership organizations, from target identification through qualified, advanced opportunity.
• Build and work a pipeline of national organizations, state and regional bodies, and their networks; use a land-one, expand-across-the-network approach where chapters or affiliates exist.
• Open doors through existing relationships, warm introductions, referrals, conferences, and disciplined outbound; focus on patient relationship building.
• Run discovery and early qualification: understand organization structure, email and membership challenges, technology stack, decision process, and map the path to a decision.
• Advance opportunities to serious buying conversation, then partner with leadership to scope and close; stay engaged through close.
• Represent Vertex at industry events and in communities where association professionals gather.
• Maintain a clean, current view of pipeline and activity in CRM for accurate forecasting.
• Feed market insights back to the team: what is landing, recurring objections, and where to lean in.

Requirements

• Association insider: deep understanding of how associations operate (boards, committees, chapters, foundations, long buying cycles, consensus decisions) from having worked at, sold to, or served associations, societies, or membership organizations.
• Existing relationships in the association space sufficient to know where to start and how to navigate first conversations.
• Hunter mindset: energized by building new relationships from scratch, comfortable with long sales cycles, and able to push.
• Ability to earn trust with senior buyers (executive directors, marketing leaders, operations heads) and build credibility quickly.
• Organized and self-directed: able to run own pipeline and cadence, keep CRM clean and current without reminders, comfortable working remotely day‑to‑day.
• Able to talk shop: hold a conversation about email programs and marketing operations well enough to earn a second meeting, even if not technical.

Skills

• Nice‑to‑have: Hands‑on HubSpot experience (or comparable CRM) for immediate productivity.
• Nice‑to‑have: Portable book of business you can bring with you.
• Nice‑to‑have: Relationships spanning multiple association segments.
• Nice‑to‑have: Familiarity with association technology (AMS, CRM platforms, ESPs) and membership data flows.
• Nice‑to‑have: Experience selling services or managed programs where the sale is trust in a team.
• Nice‑to‑have: Track record