Fractional Business Development & Partnerships Director - Part Time

Business Development & Partnerships Manager

Remote (Chicago-area candidates a plus) | 12–15 hours/week | $40/hour + commission

About Our Client

Our client is a boutique digital marketing agency founded in 2010 and based in Chicago. They help growth-minded consumer brands scale through paid media (Meta, Google, and programmatic advertising), conversion rate optimization, email and lifecycle marketing, and digital strategy.

Their strongest results come from multi-location hospitality brands, wellness and supplement companies, and manufacturers that sell both direct-to-consumer and through retail partners. They also partner with agencies whose clients need performance marketing services they don't offer in-house. They're looking for someone to help grow the business across both areas.

The Role

You'll lead new business development across two key areas:

Direct Client Development (approximately 70% of your time)

You'll identify prospective clients and initiate conversations with brands in three areas where our client has a proven track record:

• Hospitality and Experiential Brands: Eatertainment concepts and multi-location restaurant groups offering a mix of dining, gaming, and private events.
• Wellness and Consumer Health: Supplement and direct-to-consumer (DTC) wellness brands with approximately $2–10 million in revenue.
• Hybrid DTC and Wholesale Brands: Manufacturers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, including beverage brands, that sell directly to consumers as well as through retail or distribution partners.
  
  

Agency Partnerships (approximately 30% of your time)

You'll identify and build relationships with agencies and consultancies that serve similar clients but don't offer the same performance marketing services. These may include branding and creative studios, PR firms, web development shops, social media and content agencies, and fractional CMOs.

Our client can serve as their performance marketing partner, either under the agency's brand through a white-label arrangement or through a referral and co-delivery partnership.

Across both areas, you'll initiate conversations, qualify opportunities, and pass promising leads to the CEO for strategy discussions and closing. This is a senior-level role with limited weekly hours, focused on results rather than time logged.

What You'll Do

• Build and maintain prioritized target lists of brands in the three focus areas and complementary agency partners.
• Conduct personalized outreach through email, LinkedIn, and your professional network.
• Lead initial conversations, qualifying brands based on fit, budget, and timing, and agencies based on client overlap, service gaps, and partnership opportunities.
• Schedule discovery and partnership calls and hand off qualified opportunities with clear background and context.
• Maintain relationships with active partners through periodic check-ins and referral follow-ups.
• Track outreach activity and pipeline progress in HubSpot and provide brief weekly updates.
• Share market insights and feedback to help refine the agency's positioning and business development strategy.
  
  

How Our Client Approaches Outreach

Our client uses HubSpot as its CRM and Apollo for prospect research and contact information. The approach prioritizes thoughtful, personalized outreach over high-volume messaging, generic email sequences, or mass-produced AI-generated content.

Every initial message should demonstrate familiarity with the company, whether through a specific observation about its marketing, locations, or channels, or an understanding of an agency's clients and service offerings. Outreach should also clearly communicate why a conversation would be worthwhile.

Quality matters more than quantity. The goal is to send approximately 15 thoughtful, personalized messages per week rather than hundreds of templated emails. AI tools may be used for research and organization, but outreach should always feel personal and authentic.

What Our Client is Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in B2B sales, business development, partnerships, or account leadership, ideally within an agency or marketing services environment.
• Experience selling to or working with hospitality, restaurant and entertainment, CPG, beverage, or wellness brands.
• Experience with brands that sell through both DTC and retail or wholesale channels is a strong plus.
• An agency-side network or experience building agency partnerships, referral programs, or white-label relationships is a strong plus.
• A proven track record of writing outreach messages that generate meaningful responses.
• Familiarity with HubSpot and Apollo, or similar CRM and prospecting tools, is preferred.
• Confidence initiating conversations with marketing directors, CMOs, founders, and agency principals.
• A self-directed, organized approach to managing outreach, relationships, and pipeline activity.
  
  

Compensation

• Hourly Rate: $40/hour, up to 15 hours per week.
• Direct Client Development: 20% commission on collected fees for the first six months of each new retainer client you source, plus 20% commission on one-time projects you source.
• Agency Partnerships: 10% commission on collected fees for the first six months of each client engagement generated through a partnership you establish, provided the engagement begins within the first 12 months of that partnership.
  
  

Why This Role?

• Flexible schedule with fully remote work.
• Meaningful earning potential tied directly to your results.
• Direct access to agency leadership, with no unnecessary layers between your work and the decision-maker.
• An established service offering and real case studies to support your outreach, so you're building on an existing foundation rather than starting from scratch.