B2B Growth Executive

A B2B growth executive helps a business that sells to other businesses (B2B means "business to business") find and win more customers. The work sits between marketing and sales: running campaigns, testing new channels, building prospect lists and tracking which activities actually generate enquiries and revenue. It's a common junior role in tech startups, SaaS (software sold on subscription), agencies, professional services and B2B media.

Starting salary: £24k–£32k
Live graduate jobs: 1 open now
Main way in: Direct application to startups and scale-ups
They usually ask for: Degree subject usually doesn't matter much

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £24,000–£32,000 to start, though this varies widely by employer, sector and location - London and funded tech startups tend to sit at the higher end, smaller regional businesses and agencies lower. Many roles add a bonus or commission tied to leads or pipeline generated, which can be a meaningful part of total pay in sales-leaning versions of the job.

What you'd actually do

Building and cleaning lists of target companies and contacts using tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator and data providers, then loading them into the CRM (customer relationship management system - the database that tracks every prospect and deal)
Writing and sending outbound email sequences or LinkedIn messages, then reviewing open and reply rates and rewriting the ones that aren't working
Setting up and running paid campaigns or content pushes - writing ad copy, building landing pages in tools like HubSpot or Webflow, checking cost per lead
Pulling numbers into a spreadsheet or dashboard and reporting on them: how many leads came in, from which channel, how many turned into meetings, how many became customers

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Running small experiments - a new subject line, a new audience segment, a different offer - and deciding from the results whether to scale it or kill it
Sitting in on or listening back to sales calls to understand what objections come up, then feeding that language back into marketing messaging
Coordinating with sales, product and sometimes an external agency so that leads are followed up and campaigns match what the product actually does

How graduates get in

Direct application to startups and scale-ups, which is the most common route. These roles are advertised year-round rather than on a graduate-scheme cycle, and hiring is often quick - a couple of interviews plus a practical task.
Graduate schemes at larger B2B companies, agencies and tech firms, usually badged as marketing, commercial or sales graduate schemes rather than 'growth'. Less common but more structured.
Internally from a sales development (SDR) or inside sales role - some people spend six to twelve months doing outbound prospecting and move across into growth because they already understand the pipeline.
Internally from a marketing assistant or content role, moving towards the more data- and acquisition-focused side.

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Via a placement year or summer internship in marketing at a B2B business - genuinely useful because the work is near-identical to the graduate job.
Self-taught portfolio route: free certifications (HubSpot, Google Ads, Google Analytics), running marketing for a student society, side project or small local business, and showing the numbers you moved. Unusual as a sole route but it works well in small companies that care more about evidence than degree.

What employers ask for

Degree subject usually doesn't matter much. Business, marketing, economics and psychology are common, but employers hire from any discipline if you can show commercial interest. A few data-heavy growth teams prefer a numerate degree.
Most employers ask for a 2:1, though plenty of smaller companies and startups don't filter on classification at all and will look at what you've actually done instead.
No professional qualification is required. Free vendor certifications (HubSpot inbound/marketing, Google Ads, Google Analytics) are cheap signals and are worth having; CIM (Chartered Institute of Marketing) qualifications exist but are more associated with traditional marketing careers and are usually taken later, if at all.
Comfort with spreadsheets is almost always expected - pivot tables, basic formulas, reading a funnel. Some employers set a practical exercise on this.

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Evidence of having done something commercial: a sales job, running socials for a society, a freelance project, an internship. This matters more than most candidates expect.
Some roles expect a willingness to do outbound calling or cold outreach. Check the advert carefully - 'growth' covers everything from pure analytics to effectively a sales role.

Skills that matter

Spreadsheet and basic data analysis

You'll be asked constantly which channel is producing leads at what cost, and you need to work that out yourself rather than wait for an analyst.

Clear, short commercial writing

Most of the job is writing emails, ad copy and landing pages that a busy stranger will actually read and respond to.

Understanding of the sales funnel and CRM hygiene

Knowing how a lead moves from first click to signed contract - and keeping the records accurate - is what lets you tell whether anything is working.

Experiment design and discipline

Growth work is a series of small tests, and you need to change one thing at a time and wait for enough data rather than redesigning everything on a hunch.

Learning new software fast

The tool stack (CRM, email automation, analytics, data enrichment) differs at every employer and changes often, so you'll be self-teaching regularly.

Resilience to low response rates

Outbound outreach is mostly ignored or rejected by design, and people who take that personally burn out quickly.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Growth executive or marketing executive for roughly the first one to two years, owning specific channels or campaigns under supervision.
Senior growth executive, growth manager or demand generation manager - owning a budget, a channel end to end, and sometimes a junior report. Timing varies a lot: in a fast-growing startup this can happen inside two years, in a larger company it's slower.
Specialisation at this point is common - people branch into performance marketing (paid ads), lifecycle/CRM marketing, product marketing, marketing operations, revenue operations, or move fully into sales as an account executive.
Head of growth, head of demand generation or marketing manager, running a small team and the acquisition budget.
Longer term: marketing director, chief marketing officer or chief revenue officer at a smaller company; alternatively consulting, freelance growth work, or founding something. Timelines here vary enormously and depend far more on company size and growth than on years served.

What people get wrong

“'Growth' means growth hacking - clever viral tricks that make a product take off overnight.”

In B2B it's mostly unglamorous repetition: list building, email sequences, cleaning CRM data, and incremental improvements to conversion rates. The wins are compounding and slow.

“It's a marketing job, so you won't have to do sales.”

The line is blurry, and at smaller companies 'B2B growth executive' can mean substantial cold outreach, booking meetings and even running early-stage sales calls. The job advert's wording matters more than the title.

“You need to be creative - it's about brand, design and big ideas.”

Creative output matters, but you'll be judged on numbers: leads generated, cost per lead, meetings booked, pipeline created. People who dislike being measured weekly tend not to enjoy it.

“B2B is just B2C marketing aimed at companies.”

B2B deals involve several decision-makers, long sales cycles of months, and far smaller audiences - so tactics that rely on mass reach often don't apply, and targeting the right handful of accounts matters more than volume.

Where this varies

The title covers quite different jobs. At a small startup it often means doing everything - outbound emails, paid ads, website copy, CRM admin - with little supervision and a strong sales flavour. At a larger B2B company it's usually a narrower demand-generation or campaigns role within a bigger marketing team, with more structure, more budget and more stakeholder sign-off. In an agency you'd do this for several client businesses at once, which means more client management and less deep product knowledge. Sector matters too: software and tech sell fast-moving subscriptions with lots of measurable digital activity, while manufacturing, professional services or industrial B2B rely more on trade events, long relationships and a smaller named list of target accounts. Always read the advert's responsibilities rather than the title.

See all 1 live B2B Growth Executive jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.