A note from Jessica Chivers, Founder.
Hello,
I have been running The Talent Keeper Specialists (TTKS) for over thirteen years. In that time, we have built something I am genuinely proud of: a small, high-trust coaching firm with a distinctive methodology; long-standing relationships with organisations such as ITV, Twinings and Kilburn & Strode LLP; and a team executive coaches who are excellent at what they do.
What I have not built, yet, is a consistent, proactive approach to business development. Most of our growth has come through relationships and reputation, which is a wonderful problem to have and also a fragile one. There is significant untapped potential in our existing client base, and a much wider market of organisations that genuinely need what we offer. I need someone to help me reach them.
This is not a sales role in the traditional sense. I am not looking for someone to pitch or cold-call on my behalf. I am looking for a commercially sharp, relationship-minded partner who will build the pipeline, create the conditions for conversations, and get the right opportunities in front of me, so that I can do what I do best.
I want to work with someone who will make this feel energising rather than effortful. Someone who brings ideas, understands our world, and who I can trust to represent TTKS with the same warmth and credibility that our clients expect from us.
I am warm, energetic and I like to get things done to a high standard – which can be a lot at times! I have two children aged 19 and 17, live in St Albans, and love netball, running and walking my whippet, Rocky, while listening to politics, business and human performance podcasts.
I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Jessica
About Talent Keeper Specialists
We are a specialist executive coaching firm working with mid-to-large organisations, particularly in professional services, financial services, media and PE-backed businesses, who want to retain and develop their strongest people through pivotal career moments.
Founded in 2012 following the publication of our book Mothers Work!, we have grown into a firm with a distinctive, evidence-based methodology and a reputation for doing work that shifts performance. Most of our clients have worked with us for more than five years.
The five professionals we coach
Our work is organised around five career moments where capable people most need support, and where the cost of getting it wrong is highest:
- The Returning Professional: back from maternity, parental, sick or extended leave. At risk of leaving, losing confidence and becoming a poor advert for career breaks at your organisation.
- The Promoted Professional: stepping into a bigger role and feeling the stretch. At risk of clinging to old tasks, failing to lead at the right level and losing the confidence of their new peers.
- The Overlooked Professional: driven and dedicated but not seen or progressing. At risk of quiet quitting, resignation and leaving a hole in your succession plans.
- The Potential Partner: technically excellent, questioning whether Partnership is the right path. At risk of remaining stuck or stepping into Partnership without the right preparation.
- The Overloaded Professional: carrying too much, running on empty. At risk of burnout, mistakes, ill health and eroding the morale of the team around them.
The opportunity
This is a new role, and a genuinely important one.
The growth opportunity for TTKS sits in two places: 1) deepening the work within our existing client base, where most clients work with us on one or two of the five Professionals when three or four are likely relevant and 2) building relationships with new organisations who have the same kinds of people challenges and the sophistication to value what we bring.
The model for this role is deliberate.
Your job is to build the pipeline, warm the relationships, and get the right opportunities in front of Jessica. Jessica’s job is to walk into those conversations and do what she does exceptionally well. Everything before the meeting is yours. Everything after it is yours too: the follow-up, the proposal, the next step. The meeting itself belongs to Jessica, with your support. There is opportunity for future growth in the role to take a central role in all aspects including the sales meeting.
Most sales in this market take eight to twelve meaningful touchpoints over several months. The commercial engine is not any single message or meeting. It is consistent, patient, well-timed relationship-building. That is the core of this role.
What success looks like
You will know you are doing well in this role when:
- There is a clear, active pipeline of warm conversations at different stages of development.
- Jessica is spending her meeting time with well-qualified, well-briefed prospects, not cold enquiries.
- Existing clients are being proactively nurtured, and new opportunities are emerging from accounts we already know.
- Nothing falls through the cracks: proposals go out promptly, follow-ups happen consistently, every conversation is logged.
- Jessica feels supported, energised and lighter, with more bandwidth for wider business objectives. There is a trusted relationship established between you both.
- Revenue is growing through both new business and account expansion.
What the role involves in practice
This is a hands-on, relationship-led role. In practice, your week will be a mix of the following, with the balance shifting as you find your rhythm and the pipeline matures.
Building and warming the pipeline
- Research and map target organisations, identifying the right buyer contacts: Chief People Officers, Heads of Learning & Development and Talent, HRBPs, DEI leads.
- Connect with and engage the right people on LinkedIn, genuinely, not generically.
- Monitor for trigger events: parental leave policy updates, promotion cycles, succession gaps, burnout or retention news.
- Share TTKS resources and diagnostics as genuine conversation-starters.
- Identify relevant speaking opportunities, conferences and network events for Jessica.
- Explore our Pivotal newsletter and instagram for warm leads, cross-referencing engaged readers with LinkedIn connections.
Managing existing client relationships
- Maintain regular, thoughtful contact with our existing client base, not just when we have something to sell.
- Map each existing client against the five Professionals: which personas are we working on, and which are untouched?
- Flag expansion opportunities to Jessica.
- Ensure no existing relationship goes cold between engagements.
- Introduce and implement a six month review process with existing clients, to deepen relationship, share relevant insights and market updates.
Referrals and partner relationships
- Develop and run a simple referral process for past clients, both organisations and individual coaches, to encourage introductions in a systematic and unhurried way.
- Identify adjacent organisations and professionals who could refer work to TTKS or receive referrals from us: HR consultancies, executive search firms, recruitment consultants and leadership development providers.
- Maintain regular, light-touch contact with this referral network so that TTKS stays front of mind when the right opportunity arises.
Getting opportunities to Jessica
- Qualify conversations before they reach Jessica: right contact, right moment, genuine need, budget signals present.
- Brief Jessica thoroughly before every meeting: the person, the organisation, the conversation history, the relevant Professional persona(s).
- Prepare a short context note for each meeting so Jessica can walk in informed and focused.
Proposals and follow-through
- Draft proposals within 72 hours of Jessica’s meeting, using TTKS templates tailored to what emerged in the conversation.
- Lead with the cost of inaction, not the features of the service.
- Follow up at five days and ten days if no response; manage objections professionally.
- For new clients or where budget is uncertain, propose a start-small option: a single coaching engagement; a masterclass or short pilot.
- Escalate to Jessica only for complex, bespoke or high-value opportunities that warrant her direct involvement.
Structure, systems and rhythm
- Own the CRM from day one: every conversation, signal, next step and outcome logged and visible.
- Recommend and help implement a simple CRM that fits the size and ambitions of the business (new business development and client management).
- Bring a fortnightly review rhythm: pipeline update, priorities, what needs Jessica’s attention.
- Help shape a BD calendar around buyer cycles: budget seasons, DEI awareness months, parental leave peaks, performance review windows.
How the first few weeks will look
I want this role to feel purposeful and commercially grounded from the start. Before you do any outreach, you need to know TTKS properly.
Weeks 1 to 3: Understand
- Get to know the five Professionals deeply: the language, the risks, the outcomes.
- Review existing client relationships and understand what we have built and where the gaps are.
- Understand our services: 1:1 executive coaching and Comeback Community.
- Understand the wider coaching commercial market, where we fit and our unique selling points.
- Review the Pivotal newsletter, Comeback Coach podcast and LinkedIn presence.
- Begin mapping target organisations and identifying the right buyer contacts.
- Review and understand the pricing framework, CRM approach and communication rhythm.
- Review (and recommend improvements) to the business development and account management process, to create ownership and transfer of responsibilities.
Weeks 4 to 6: Activate
- Begin outreach: warm contacts first, then prioritised cold targets.
- Start booking initial conversations and briefing Jessica.
- Establish CRM and pipeline structure.
- Identify two or three existing clients with clear expansion potential.
- Begin mapping adjacent referral partners.
Beyond that: Optimise and grow
- Establish consistent pipeline rhythm and fortnightly review cadence.
- Refine targeting, messaging and timing based on what is working.
- Support account expansion strategy across existing clients.
- Build and maintain referral and partner network.
- Help shape seasonal BD calendar around buyer cycles.
About you
You will likely have:
- A background in corporate B2B sales, with experience of relationship-led sales and account management in a professional services or consultancy environment
- A track record of managing commercial relationships over time: you understand that the best clients are built, not just won
- Experience selling into HR, L&D or Talent buyers, or enough familiarity with that world to understand how CPOs and Heads of L&D think, what they are measured on and how buying decisions get made
- The ability to work independently and fractionally, within a founder-led business, without needing day-to-day direction
- Strong commercial instinct: you can read a conversation, qualify an opportunity and know when to push and when to wait.
- The organisational discipline to keep a pipeline moving: consistent follow-up, clean CRM, reliable rhythm.
You are:
- Conscientious, tenacious and commercially sharp, but never pushy.
- Someone who takes pride in doing the small things well: the follow-up message, the well-timed nudge, the thoughtful brief.
- Comfortable working in a fluid, evolving environment without needing hand-holding.
- Genuinely curious about people and organisations.
- Someone who finds relationship-building energising, not draining.
A bonus but not essential:
- Direct experience in coaching, HR, L&D or professional services.
- Confidence supporting LinkedIn content or helping shape social presence
What this role is, and what it is not
It is:
- Thoughtful, strategic, relationship-led business development.
- A high-trust partnership with a founder who wants to give you autonomy.
- Pipeline building and follow-through: getting the right opportunities to Jessica and making sure nothing is dropped.
- A chance to shape how growth happens in a small, well-regarded business.
- Work that compounds over time: relationships built in month one will pay off in month six.
It is not:
- High-volume cold calling or spray-and-pray outreach.
- A role where you represent TTKS in client meetings, Jessica does that.
- A heavily KPI-driven sales job where every action is tracked against a quota.
- A role where you will be micromanaged.
- A marketing role; content support is helpful but secondary to pipeline and relationship work.
Package
- Rate: £40 hour
- Hours: 10 hours per week, flexible and self-employed.
- Location: Fully remote, UK-based. Optional in-person for networking or events.
Performance bonus
New client bonus: 10% on the first piece of work secured with a new client you have introduced.
Existing client expansion bonus: 5% on new work generated within existing clients where you have initiated or progressed the opportunity.
Attribution: bonuses are paid on revenue received, not invoiced. Where attribution is not clear-cut, this will be agreed in conversation between you and Jessica. The intent is always fairness and transparency. The structure will be reviewed at the three-month mark.
How to apply
Please email jc@talentkeepers.co.uk with:
- A link to your LinkedIn profile
- A short note (a few paragraphs) about why this role and why now. We are not looking for a cover letter; we are looking for something that tells us who you are and how you think
- Where you are based in the UK
If there is a strong fit, we will invite you to share a short voice or video note, informal, around five minutes, on how you would approach the first 90 days. You will then be invited to a (remote) conversation with Jessica.
- Closing date: Friday 1st May 2026
- Conversations from: Thursday 14th May 2026.
- Ideal start: June 2026.
Find out more about us
The following will give you a proper sense of who we are and what we do:
We look forward to hearing from you.
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