Business Development Manager - Tampa & N. Florida

Raymond Search Group | Retained Executive Search

Business Development Manager

Premium Surface Protection | Tampa Bay & North Florida

Build a premium European brand across Florida and the Southeast, from the ground up, as one of the first two people on the U.S. team.

TITLE - Business Development Manager

MARKET - Tampa Bay, Central and North Florida, Georgia, and select Southeast markets

BASE - Central and/or West Florida

STRUCTURE - Remote, home-based with regional travel

REPORTS TO - Head of International Sales (Europe)

COMPENSATION - USD $95,000 - $120,000 base, USD $120,000 - $150,000 OTE

START - Fall 2026

THE OPPORTUNITY

A European manufacturer with a 140-year record in premium technical products is entering the U.S. market, and they are building the American team from scratch. This is one of the first two hires on the ground. You would not be stepping into a territory someone else shaped. You would be the person who shapes it.

The company makes high-performance temporary surface protection: the engineered materials that protect expensive floors, surfaces, and finished components during construction, renovation, and fit-out. It is a category most people never think about until they are the one explaining why a $200,000 terrazzo floor got scratched two weeks before handover. Their products are the reason that call does not happen.

U.S. order fulfillment and sales execution run through an established distribution partner. That is deliberate, and it is the single most important thing to understand about this role, so it gets its own section below. Your job is not to process orders. Your job is to build the market.

WHAT MAKES THIS ROLE DIFFERENT

Read this part carefully, because it is where most candidates either lean in or realize the role is not for them. Both outcomes are fine. Wasting three interviews to get there is not.

You are not the closer. A distribution partner handles final quoting, price negotiation, and order processing. You create demand, develop projects, build relationships, and hand mature opportunities over for execution. If your identity is wrapped up in owning the close and the commission check that follows it, you will be frustrated here, and we would rather say so now.

You are building, not maintaining. There is no book of business to inherit and no warm pipeline to work. There is a premium product, a strong brand story, and a blank map. The people who thrive in this are the ones who find that exciting rather than terrifying.

You will represent a European company on American ground, largely on your own. Leadership sits overseas and will not be looking over your shoulder. That means real autonomy, and it means you have to be the kind of professional who runs a disciplined process without anyone asking. Trust is the whole job.

You sell on value, not price. These are premium products in a market with cheaper alternatives. You win by making people understand why the cheaper option costs more in the end. That is a specific skill, and it is the one we are screening for hardest.

WHAT YOU WOULD ACTUALLY DO

▪    Open the Tampa Bay and Northern FL market: identify and develop the general contractors, flooring and industrial-flooring contractors, renovation specialists, distributors, and specialty dealers who need this product and do not yet know it exists here.

▪    Build a real project pipeline, from early identification through specification, bid, and jobsite execution, using construction project databases and your own network.

▪    Educate the market: run demos, jobsite trainings, and lunch-and-learns that turn a skeptical contractor into a believer.

▪    Develop the market intelligence the company needs to get the U.S. right: who the buyers are, what they pay, what the competition does, and what the product needs to win.

▪    Work hand in glove with the distribution partner, handing over qualified demand and clear buying intent in a clean, structured way.

▪    Feed the field back to headquarters: roll sizes, packaging, application realities, and what American jobsites actually need.

▪    Own the Gulf Coast and Southeast: Tampa Bay and Central Florida as your core, extending north through Jacksonville and into Georgia as the market develops.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

You have spent 5 to 10 years in business development, technical sales, project sales, or specification sales, and you have carried a premium, explanation-intensive product before. You know what it takes to make someone believe in something they cannot buy off a shelf on price alone.

Your background is in something adjacent to this world: construction materials, flooring or industrial flooring, surface protection, building envelope, interior finishing, contractor supply, specialty distribution, or a related technical building product. You are credible on a jobsite and in a boardroom, and you can move between the two in the same afternoon.

You are organized to a fault. You follow up, you document, you report, and people can rely on what you tell them, because in this role the company, the partner, and the customer all depend on your word.

You are entrepreneurial without being a lone wolf. You want the autonomy, but you understand that a partnership model only works if you keep everyone aligned.

Spanish is a plus in this market but not essential.

THIS IS NOT A FIT IF

▪    You need to own the close and the commission that comes with it.

▪    You want an established territory and a warm pipeline handed to you.

▪    You compete mainly on price and discount.

▪    You need daily direction and close supervision to perform.

▪    You have no curiosity about the technical side of a product.

WHAT IS ON OFFER

The rare chance to be first.

Employee-number-one autonomy, a premium product with a genuine story, direct access to European leadership, real influence over how the product is built for the U.S. market, and a credible path into a regional leadership role as the business grows. Compensation is USD $95,000 - $120,000 base, USD $120,000 - $150,000 OTE, plus car allowance and full benefits.

THE PROCESS, AND HOW TO REACH ME

This is a retained, confidential search. I represent the company directly, and I will tell you who they are on our first call once I understand your background. Final-round candidates will meet company leadership in person here in Florida in late September, because for a first U.S. hire, both sides need to know the fit is real.

If this sounds like you, or like someone you rate, I want to hear from you.

Jeff Raymond

President and Chief Executive Officer, Raymond Search Group

jeff@raymondsearchgroup.com  |  904-618-3460  |  www.raymondsearchgroup.com