Silk Road Imperial
Business Development Manager
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Company Description
Silk Road Imperial Travel Ltd designs curated business missions to China for UK companies, starting with the China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) in Shenzhen, November 2026. We help clients access verified suppliers and factories, arrange B2B matchmaking with Chinese and Hong Kong partners, and navigate a market that's difficult to enter alone. We're an early-stage company building our first cohort of clients and shaping our service offering around real market demand.
Role Description
We're looking for a UK-based Business Development contractor to help us find and understand our first customers.
You'll identify UK companies with a genuine interest in sourcing, manufacturing, or expanding business ties in China — particularly around the CHTF Shenzhen fair — and have real conversations with them to understand what they actually need: supplier meetings, factory visits, B2B matchmaking, market entry advice, or a combination. You'll gather what they'd realistically pay for this kind of support, which directly shapes how we price and package our services.
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Your work: outreach to prospects (via chambers of commerce, trade associations, LinkedIn, referral networks), qualifying interest, running discovery conversations, preparing proposals, and keeping organized records of the pipeline. You'll work directly with the founder to translate what you learn into our package design and pricing, with the opportunity to close the first clients yourself.
This is a self-employed, commission-only engagement — you manage your own schedule and approach, and are free to take on other clients alongside this work.
Qualifications
- Experience or strong aptitude in B2B sales, business development, or client-facing roles — experience in travel, trade missions, export promotion, or consulting is a plus
- Confident, professional communicator, comfortable initiating conversations with unfamiliar companies
- Able to run a structured discovery conversation and translate client needs into a clear brief
- Organized — able to manage a pipeline of leads and conversations without things falling through the cracks
- Comfortable working independently as a self-employed contractor
- Interest in international trade, China market entry, or cross-border business is a strong plus
- Proficiency with standard tools (spreadsheets, CRM or simple lead trackers, presentation software)
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Compensation
Commission-only, self-employed contractor basis. Commission rate and structure (e.g., per qualified lead, per closed client, or tiered on deal size) to be agreed and set out in a contractor agreement prior to start. No base salary or guaranteed hours.
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