Bode Contract supplies bespoke loose furniture — tables, chairs, banquette seating and soft seating — to the hospitality sector. We work with hotel groups, restaurant and bar operators, interior designers and fit-out contractors across the UK and Ireland, manufacturing to each scheme’s drawings, finishes and fabric specification rather than selling from a fixed range.
Our work spans hotels, restaurants, bars and members’ clubs, ranging from single-site independents to multi-site operators and international hotel brands. The business currently has an active pipeline of hotel and restaurant projects across the UK and Ireland.
The role
This is a pure business development role, focused on building relationships, progressing pipeline opportunities and closing orders.
Relationship building is the central element of the position. Contract furniture is rarely won from a single approach; it is won because a designer is already familiar with Bode’s capability, because an operator has experience of us delivering to programme, or because a project manager contacts us at the outset of a scheme. These relationships are developed over months and generate work for years.
London accounts for the majority of specification decisions in our sector, and the role requires a consistent presence there: securing introductory meetings, establishing Bode on tender lists, and remaining close enough to each project to compete effectively when the specification is issued. You will be working along the incumbent telemarketer with responsibility of obtaining your own appointments alongside the appointments generated by telemarketing.
What you’ll be doing
- Opening doors. A high volume of introductory meetings each week with hotel groups and operators, interior design practices, architects, restaurant and bar groups, main contractors, FF&E procurement consultants and project managers.
- Staying on the radar between projects. Keeping contact warm with people who have nothing live right now, so that when their next scheme starts, we are in the conversation from day one rather than bidding into it late.
- Progressing the pipeline. Qualifying opportunities properly, understanding budget, programme and decision-making, and keeping projects moving from first conversation through specification, quotation and revision to order.
- Closing. Working with our estimating team to get quotations out quickly and accurately, then negotiating and converting them into orders.
What we’re looking for
- Proven field sales or business development experience, ideally in contract furniture, FF&E, interiors, fit-out or a related product sold into hospitality or commercial projects.
- A track record of winning new accounts from a standing start — not managing an inherited customer account base.
- A relationship builder rather than a transactional seller — willing to invest in a contact whose project may be eighteen months away, and to keep showing up in between.
- Comfort with high meeting volume and the self-discipline to sustain it without close supervision.
- Credible in a design studio and in a procurement meeting — able to talk about construction, finishes and lead times as fluently as price.
- Confident closing, negotiating and holding margin.
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