A pure sales role owning lead generation to conversion for impactDash's research, evaluation and advisory
business.
Role: Manager, Growth & Partnerships (Research & Consulting)
Vertical: Research & Consulting
Reporting to: Co-founders, impactDash
Location: Mumbai, India
Work arrangement: Mumbai-based (on-site), with travel to client and partner locations as engagements require
Engagement: Full-time, individual contributor
Compensation: ₹10,00,000 fixed per annum plus up to ₹4,00,000 performance-linked variable (up to ₹14,00,000 per annum).
About the Role
impactDash's Research & Consulting vertical delivers need assessments, baseline, midline and endline studies, impact assessments, Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyses, MEAL system design, and thematic and sectoral research for corporates, CSR foundations, NGOs, government departments and multilateral agencies.
We are looking for an experienced sales professional to own the full sales cycle for this vertical — from lead generation through to signed mandate. This is a pure sales role. You will build and work a pipeline, run outreach, hold conversations with senior buyers, shape and defend proposals, negotiate commercials, and close.
It is a hands-on individual contributor position reporting directly to the co-founders. There is no team to manage and no marketing or product remit. What there is instead is complete ownership of a number, and the autonomy to build the sales engine that gets you there — the prospect database, the outreach cadence, the partnership map and the CRM discipline that holds it all together.
Work in this vertical is won on credibility. Buyers commission research because they need evidence they can defend, and much of the opportunity arrives as Terms of Reference, RFPs, tenders and empanelment calls. You will need enough command of what we do — study design, sampling, methods, effort and cost — to scope an engagement in the room and hold your own with a client's research or programme team.
This role calls for someone who has done this before, in this sector. We are not looking for a generalist seller who will learn the social impact space on the job.
The position is based in Mumbai, with regular travel to client, partner and, occasionally, field locations.
Key Responsibilities
- Target ownership: own the sales number for Research & Consulting; forecast accurately, deliver against pipeline, conversion and revenue targets, and report progress and risks directly to the co-founders.
- Lead generation: proactively identify and generate qualified leads through direct outreach — calls, email, LinkedIn and professional networks — and through referrals, sector events and existing relationships.
- Prospecting and market mapping: map the addressable market across corporates with CSR mandates, foundations, NGOs, government departments and multilateral agencies; identify the right buying units and decision-makers, and prioritise by fit and likelihood to buy.
- Sales database ownership: build, clean and continuously enrich impactDash's sales database — accounts, contacts, hierarchies, budget cycles, past engagements, commissioning history and relationship history — so the pipeline is built on accurate, current information rather than guesswork.
- Opportunity sourcing and bid tracking: systematically monitor RFPs, Terms of Reference, tenders and expressions of interest across corporate and foundation procurement, government e-procurement portals, and multilateral and donor channels; maintain a live calendar of recurring bid and budget cycles so nothing is missed.
- Empanelment and pre-qualification: pursue empanelment with corporates, foundations, government departments and multilaterals, and keep the credentials, past-performance records, team CVs, certifications and statutory documents current so bids are never delayed by paperwork.
- Qualification and discovery: run structured discovery with prospects to understand programme context, evaluation questions, internal drivers, budget and timelines, and qualify opportunities in or out early and honestly.
- Solution shaping and scoping: work with the research team to translate client requirements into a credible study design — evaluation questions, theory of change, sampling approach, methods, geographies, timelines and deliverables — and articulate it persuasively to the client.
- Proposals and bid management: own the bid end to end: drive go/no-go decisions, coordinate technical and financial submissions with the delivery team, ensure full compliance with ToR requirements and evaluation criteria, and draft, edit and finalise proposals, pitch decks and supporting documents to a high standard.
- Commercials, pricing and negotiation: build effort estimates and cost models with the delivery team, price to win without eroding margin, and negotiate scope, fees, payment terms and contracting through to signature.
- Conversion: drive opportunities from first contact to signed mandate and clean handover to delivery, leading discovery conversations, presentations, methodology defences and follow-ups with senior counterparts.
- Relationship and partnership building: build and sustain long-term relationships with CSR and sustainability leadership, foundation and NGO partners, government counterparts and multilateral programme teams, and convert them into repeat and referred business.
- Consortium and channel partnerships: identify and manage relationships with academic institutions, sector specialists, field agencies and complementary consultancies that unlock consortium bids and larger multi- geography mandates.
- CRM discipline: independently own and update the CRM (Bigin) — every account, contact, opportunity, stage, next step and activity logged accurately and on time, without prompting. This is a non-negotiable part of the role.
- Sales process adherence: follow the defined sales process consistently — qualification criteria, stage definitions, approval gates, pricing sign-offs and documentation standards — and improve it where you find gaps.
- Pipeline analysis and reporting: maintain trackers and forecasts, analyse funnel conversion and bid win rates, run structured win/loss reviews, and translate what the data shows into changes in targeting, positioning and pricing.
- AI-enabled selling: use AI tools and agentic workflows, including Claude, Claude Code and AI agents, to scale prospecting, ToR analysis, account research, outreach and proposal drafting, and continuously find new ways to embed AI in your own sales workflow.
- Sector and competitor intelligence: track developments across CSR regulation and reporting, sustainability and impact disclosure, evaluation practice, climate action and allied domains, and maintain a sharp view of competing research and advisory firms, their positioning and their pricing.
Required Qualifications and Experience
These are essential. Applications that do not meet them will not be shortlisted.
- A bachelor's or master's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics, Development Studies, Public Policy, Social Work, Statistics or a related field.
- A minimum of 2 years in a quota-carrying B2B or enterprise sales role, with a demonstrable record of owning the full cycle from lead generation to closure.
- Direct experience selling in the social impact sector — to CSR teams, corporate foundations, development organisations, NGOs, government bodies or multilateral agencies. Sector familiarity acquired only through adjacent or delivery-side work will not substitute for having sold into it.
- Experience selling research, evaluation, advisory or consulting services, including responding to RFPs and Terms of Reference and coordinating technical and financial submissions against defined evaluation criteria.
- Working literacy in social research and evaluation concepts — theory of change, output and outcome indicators, sampling, quantitative and qualitative methods, and impact assessment — sufficient to scope work credibly and hold a substantive conversation with a client's research team.
- Strong analytical skills: comfort with numbers, effort and cost models, funnel and win-rate analysis, and the ability to reason from data rather than instinct.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write clear, persuasive proposals and present confidently to senior stakeholders.
- Proven CRM discipline, with the ability to maintain records independently and to a high standard (experience with Bigin, Zoho, HubSpot or similar is an advantage).
- Demonstrated ability to work to a defined sales process and to operate independently, without supervision or day-to-day direction.
- Strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple relationships, bids and deadlines in parallel.
- Working proficiency with AI assistants (e.g. Claude), with a demonstrated ability to use them for research, writing, prospecting and workflow automation.
Preferred Profile
- Experience at an impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation, research or management consulting firm selling into CSR and development-sector buyers.
- Familiarity with India's CSR regime, including Section 135 of the Companies Act and the statutory impact assessment requirement.
- Exposure to government or multilateral procurement processes, empanelment routes and consortium bidding.
- An existing network among CSR heads, foundation leadership and development-sector decision-makers.
- Familiarity with lead-generation and prospecting tools (e.g. LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo or similar).
- Hands-on experience with agentic AI tools and automation, such as Claude Code, AI agents, and prompt-based or MCP-driven workflows, applied to a sales workflow.
- An experimentation mindset, with comfort adopting new tools quickly and turning them into practical efficiency gains.
- Experience working with geographically distributed delivery teams.
