Business Development Associate

We are hiring a Business Development Associate to create qualified, well-prepared sales conversations and keep our revenue system moving. You will research prospective accounts, communicate with existing and new customers, qualify opportunities, prepare follow-up, and maintain accurate CRM records.

This is not a high-volume appointment-setting role and it is not a senior closing position. It is a hands-on development role for someone who writes exceptionally well, follows through without being chased, enjoys learning technical products, and can build trust with busy business owners and operators.

You will work closely with our Business Development Manager and collaborate with sales, marketing, operations, customer service, and technical teammates. Your early focus will include professional lighting installers, adjacent trades, and selected partner, franchise, municipal, and commercial opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Research target companies and identify the right contact, fit signals, business context, and reason for reaching out.

• Prepare thoughtful, specific outreach for approved campaigns instead of generic mass messaging.

• Respond promptly to replies, referrals, bookings, quote requests, and routine commercial questions.

• Conduct or support qualification calls and capture the customer's business model, scale, current buying motion, timing, and decision process.

• Prepare concise account briefs so planning calls start with useful context.

• Send clear same-day recaps with the recommendation, relevant resources, owners, and a dated next step.

• Keep Pipedrive records, stages, notes, activities, and next steps complete and accurate.

• Reactivate existing or lapsed professional accounts with account-specific communication.

• Support research and follow-up for franchise, multi-location, municipal, commercial, and tradeshow opportunities.

• Learn our products and programs well enough to answer routine questions, recognize uncertainty, and involve the right technical owner.

• Contribute to weekly revenue reviews and help improve one process at a time.

What Success Looks Like in Your First 90 Days

In your first 30 days, you will learn our brands, customers, products, sales process, and systems. You will demonstrate accurate research, clean CRM work, strong call preparation, and clear follow-up with coaching.

By 60 days, you will be working confidently alongside the sales team across active customer conversations and campaigns, handling routine replies and qualification, maintaining reliable next steps, and helping keep opportunities moving.

By 90 days, you will independently run a defined development motion within clear guardrails, create credible qualified opportunities, report what is working, and recommend one measurable improvement to the process.

What You Bring

• Excellent written communication that is concise, professional, specific, and human.

• A confident, respectful phone and video presence with entrepreneurs, operators, project managers, and other professional stakeholders.

• Strong follow-through: you turn conversations into owners, dates, and completed next actions.

• Consistent CRM and data discipline, including accurate notes and clean next steps.

• Sound research and commercial judgment; you can distinguish a real fit signal from a superficial match.

• Curiosity and the ability to learn technical products and installation realities.

• A consultative approach: you ask useful questions before recommending a solution.

• High initiative with good judgment; you act without waiting for a perfect task list while respecting approval boundaries.

• Comfort working in a growing, seasonal business where priorities and systems continue to evolve.

Years of experience are less important than evidence that you can communicate clearly, learn quickly, and execute reliably.

Strong Advantages

The following are helpful, but they are not mandatory:

• Experience in B2B ecommerce, wholesale or distribution, home services, trades, lighting, technical products, franchise systems, or municipal/commercial sales.

• Experience with thoughtful outbound prospecting, inbound qualification, account reactivation, proposals, RFQs/RFPs, or partner programs.

• Familiarity with Pipedrive, Apollo, Shopify, Google Workspace, Slack, Intercom, or comparable tools.

• Hands-on exposure to installation, field service, construction, electrical, roofing, landscaping, or another practical trade.

Compensation and Location

• Base salary: $60,000–$70,000 CAD annually, based on experience and fit.

• Additional compensation: commission and bonus opportunities.

• Employment: full-time, salaried.

• Work model: hybrid, based in British Columbia, with the ability to attend our Richmond-area office when needed.

Our Hiring Process

Our process is designed to be clear, practical, and respectful of candidates' time:

1. Application review.

2. A brief screening call.

3. A structured first interview and compact, job-relevant exercise.

4. A final interview.

5. Reference checks and an offer conversation before any formal offer is sent.

Please include a concise cover letter explaining why this role and environment are a strong match for you. We care more about clear thinking and genuine communication than polished sales jargon.

Big Star Lights helps professional installers, contractors, businesses, and community organizations deliver exceptional exterior and decorative lighting programs. Our roots are in real installation work, so we care about the practical details: reliable products, thoughtful guidance, responsive support, and solutions that work in the field.

We are part of the White Raven Brands family and work closely with FestiLight, our design and installation business. Together, that gives us a valuable perspective across product, ecommerce, wholesale, installation, and customer service.

Our values are innovation, integrity, professionalism, quality, people, and entrepreneurial spirit. We are building better systems as we grow, and we want people who care about both the customer experience and the quality of the work behind it.