Position Summary / Primary Purpose
Be a Catalyst for Regional Growth
Are you a dynamic business development leader ready to help shape the economic future of one of America’s most vibrant regions?
The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is a membership-driven organization that has served as the voice of business across Middle Tennessee since 1847. With more than 1,800 business members representing a wide array of industries, the Chamber drives progress in a 10-county region through bold initiatives in economic development, talent attraction, placemaking, and policy. We provide a home for businesses to collaborate, innovate, and drive civic engagement to harness the power of community and advance our region.
Our mission is simple yet powerful: to create economic prosperity by facilitating community leadership. We believe that strong businesses build strong communities—and we bring together decision-makers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and civic leaders to turn vision into action.
As Nashville and the surrounding region continue to experience extraordinary growth, the Chamber plays a pivotal role in aligning business interests with community priorities. From small startups to global headquarters, our members count on us to provide access, advocacy, and actionable insight.
What You’ll Do
We are seeking a Business Development Team Leader who is passionate about our mission, values, and the unique, intangible products we provide: access, influence, and community leadership. The ideal candidate is a strategic yet hands-on sales leader who thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment. You have a proven ability to lead and motivate sales teams, build meaningful relationships, and drive revenue through both membership and sponsorship channels.
In this role, you will work closely with your team to creatively generate new opportunities, advance deals through the sales cycle, and negotiate proposals and agreements. You’ll ensure alignment and momentum at every stage, and step in as needed to help close new business.
You’ll lead, supervise, and support the Member Development Representatives in a unified effort to ensure that new and existing Chamber members and sponsors receive measurable value and a positive return on their investment. You’ll oversee and continuously improve member fulfillment strategies to encourage strong engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
You will:
- Lead, motivate, and develop the member development team to meet and exceed revenue goals.
- Design and execute a comprehensive growth strategy for both membership and sponsorship development.
- Ensure fulfillment of sponsorship and member benefits, working collaboratively with marketing, events and membership teams.
- Drive outbound sales initiatives, including prospecting, pipeline management, and deal progression.
- Serve as a strategic advisor, aligning offerings with the needs of Nashville’s diverse business community.
Essential Functions
- Provide hands-on leadership, motivation and management of the member development team to ensure budget expectations are met.
- Lead, supervise and support the Member Development Representatives in a unified effort to ensure that new and existing Chamber members and sponsors in the MDR’s portfolio are receiving value and a positive impact related to their Chamber experience.
- Develop and provide leadership of Member and Sponsorship Development strategic plan and annual budget and regularly track and report progress toward those goals.
- Oversee, interact and develop member fulfillment to encourage and motivate membership and sponsorship retention.
- Identify strong potential prospects to generate outbound leads and sales opportunities for membership and sponsorship.
- Manage and train MDR on extensive member & sponsor prospect identification and research system to aid prospect development and tracking activities efficiently and effectively.
- Serve as a thought leader and initiator for the development of strategic membership and sponsorship sales initiatives which increase the Chamber’s membership and sponsorship base.
- Work in partnership with Chief Growth Officer, VP, Member & Investor Relations to build sales and prospect strategies to acquire new members and sponsors ensuring future renewal.
- Responsible for hiring and developing staff for member and sponsor development when those positions need to be created, filled or otherwise adjusted.
- Develop an effective strategy to secure prospect appointments.
- Accountable for managing a sales funnel to achieve or exceed revenue recruitment goals.
- Participate in Chamber events to promote interest in Chamber investment.
- Coordinate sales ask if needed with Member Development Representative.
- Ensure membership and sponsorship offerings, packaging and presentations are consistent with the Chamber’s key messaging and brand standards.
- Work with the Chamber’s communication staff to provide story ideas for market membership and sponsorship offerings through the Chamber’s communications tools.
- Work with the Chamber’s communication/logistics staff to ensure sponsorship fulfillment.
- Have meetings with the development team regularly to ensure the team is operating effectively and efficiently.
- Maintains confidentiality of member information.
