Head of Business Development & Commercial Excellence in Business Banking

Head of Business Development & Commercial Excellence in Business Banking

ING Group

Brussels, Belgium

Role purpose

The Head of Business Development & Commercial Excellence leads the Business Development & Commercial Excellence agenda for Business Banking. The role translates strategic priorities into integrated commercial plans, go-to-market execution, sales enablement, customer-experience improvements and sustained performance management across segments, products and distribution channels.

As the strategic voice of Business Banking towards the independent-agent network, the role creates the commercial steering framework, insights, governance and enablement required for independent agents to deliver against shared Business Banking ambitions, while respecting their entrepreneurial model and channel-specific dynamics.

Key accountabilities

Strategy, growth and portfolio development

• Define and continuously refine the Business Banking development strategy, translating strategic ambitions into a prioritized commercial roadmap.
• Identify growth opportunities through customer insights, competitive intelligence, NPS, product usage, market developments and emerging propositions.
• Orchestrate integrated commercial plans and go-to-market strategies with Sales, Tribes, Product, Digital Sales & Adoption, Marketing and Data & Analytics.
• Bring clear strategic choices, trade-offs and recommendations to Business Banking governance and ensure disciplined follow-through.

Commercial excellence and execution

• Own and embed the Commercial Excellence framework across statutory sales channels and the independent-agent network.
• Establish consistent commercial rhythms, standards and ways of working, from opportunity identification and targeting to execution, follow-up and corrective action.
• Sponsor strategic workshops and translate outcomes into concrete initiatives, accountabilities and measurable business impact.
• Promote cross-segment and cross-product best practices that improve customer relevance, commercial effectiveness and execution quality.

Commercial steering of the independent-agent network

• Act as the Business Banking strategic counterpart for the leadership of the independent-agent network and represent Business Banking in relevant channel governance.
• Provide agents and network leadership with actionable performance insights, client-potential views, campaign priorities and clear steering signals.
• Enable execution through fit-for-channel propositions, playbooks, dashboards, training, coaching and structured feedback loops.
• Monitor outcomes and barriers, facilitate timely decisions across stakeholders, and initiate corrective actions where performance or execution deviates from plan.

Sales enablement and capability building

• Provide functional direction to sales-enablement communities and ensure strong alignment with Sales Management and Business Developers.
• Shape sales targets and performance expectations with Business Banking leadership and reinforce accountability for delivery.
• Sponsor training, coaching and capability-building programs that strengthen commercial conversations, proposition adoption and execution discipline.
• Ensure sales teams and independent agents receive timely, practical and relevant commercial support.

Customer experience and proposition impact

• Champion the voice of the customer in strategic decisions and throughout proposition and requirement development.
• Connect feedback from customers, statutory sales teams and independent agents with Tribes and Product teams to improve propositions, journeys and servicing.
• Ensure commercial initiatives contribute to customer relevance, accessibility, satisfaction and sustainable value creation.

Performance management, data and governance

• Define the commercial performance framework, including targets, leading indicators, dashboards and management routines.
• Prioritize insight and dashboard development with Business Insights & Data Analytics, ensuring metrics support decisions and commercial action.
• Monitor sales performance, product usage, campaign results and execution quality across channels; escalate issues and drive remediation.
• Provide concise, decision-oriented reporting to Business Banking governance bodies and senior stakeholders.

Team and stakeholder leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the Business Development & Commercial Excellence team, creating clarity of purpose, ownership and collaboration.
• Build a high-performance culture that combines strategic thinking, customer focus, data-driven decision-making and operational agility.
• Align senior stakeholders across Business Banking Sales, Easy, Guided, Relationship, the independent-agent network, Finance, Tribes, Marketing and Analytics.

Expected outcomes

• Strategic clarity: A focused, evidence-based commercial roadmap with explicit priorities and ownership.
• Execution strength: Consistent commercial routines and faster conversion of plans into measurable action.
• Channel enablement: Independent agents equipped with relevant targets, insights, tools and support.
• Performance transparency: Reliable dashboards and governance that enable timely steering and course correction.
• Customer impact: Commercial decisions grounded in customer needs, feedback and proposition value
• Team impact: An empowered team recognized as a strategic partner and execution catalyst for Business Banking.

Experience and qualifications

We hire smart people like you for your potential. Our biggest expectation is that you’ll stay curious. Keep learning. Take on responsibility. In return, we’ll back you to develop into an even more awesome version of yourself.

You bring

• Proven leadership experience in business development, commercial strategy, sales excellence or a comparable role, preferably in financial services.
• Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into commercial plans, governance, execution and measurable outcomes.
• Strong track record in leading teams and complex cross-functional initiatives without relying solely on hierarchical authority.
• Experience working with multiple distribution models; exposure to franchise, intermediary, broker or independent-agent networks is a strong asset.
• Solid understanding of customer experience, sales enablement, digital marketing, data analytics and client targeting.
• Excellent senior-stakeholder management, influencing and communication skills.

Core competencies

• Strategic leadership: Sets direction and converts complexity into clear choices.
• Commercial acumen: Connects customer value, growth, pricing, channel dynamics and execution.
• Data-driven steering: Uses insights to prioritize, challenge and act.
• Enterprise collaboration: Creates alignment across functions, segments and channels.
• Change leadership: Mobilizes stakeholders and embeds new commercial ways of working.
• People leadership: Builds trust, accountability, capability and sustainable performance.