Business Development Intern - Merchant Acquisition

This isn't a typical internship where you'll simply make reports or observe a sales team. You'll be part of the early team helping build MPG's first merchant pipeline. You'll work closely with the founding team to find potential merchants, research their businesses, identify decision-makers, start conversations, understand their payment requirements, qualify opportunities and help move genuine interest toward business discussions. The goal is simple: find the right businesses, start genuine conversations and build a qualified merchant pipeline for MPG.

The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:

Merchant Research

• Research D2C brands, e-commerce businesses, agencies and other relevant online businesses.
• Identify companies that could potentially benefit from MPG.
• Understand their business model, customers and online operations.
• Research how they currently accept payments and identify potential payment or settlement requirements.
• Find founders, owners and relevant decision-makers.
• Build and continuously expand a targeted merchant database.

Lead Generation and Prospecting:

You'll find new merchant opportunities through:

• LinkedIn
• Company websites
• Business directories
• Industry communities
• Startup and business databases
• Online research
• Other professional sources
• You'll identify the right person to approach within each organisation and prioritise prospects based on their potential fit with MPG.

Business Outreach:

You'll initiate professional conversations with potential merchants through email, LinkedIn and other appropriate channels.

You'll learn how to:

• Write effective business introductions.
• Personalise outreach.
• Explain MPG clearly.
• Ask useful discovery questions.
• Understand a prospect's response.
• Handle basic objections.
• Follow up professionally.
• Move interested prospects toward a proper business conversation.
• This is not a spam-based sales role.
• The objective is to reach the right businesses with the right message.

Merchant Qualification:

When a business responds, you'll help determine whether there is a genuine opportunity. You'll learn to understand:

• What the business sells and who its customers are.
• Where customers are located and how they currently pay.
• Existing payment providers and settlement processes.
• International payment requirements.
• Potential interest in fiat or crypto payments.
• Current payment-related challenges.
• Who makes the purchasing decision.
• What the company would need before evaluating MPG.
• Your job isn't to turn every response into a "hot lead. Your job is to identify real opportunities.

Understanding MPG:

• You'll learn enough about MPG to have meaningful business conversations. This includes hosted checkout, payment links, embedded checkout, QR checkout, invoice checkout, fiat and crypto payments, payment verification, transactions, merchant ledger, settlement, fiat/crypto conversion, merchant dashboard, APIs and webhooks.
• You don't need to be a developer, but you should understand the product well enough to explain it clearly and know when to escalate technical questions.

Meetings and Follow-ups:

When a prospect shows genuine interest, you'll help move the conversation forward by:

• Scheduling meetings.
• Preparing basic prospect information.
• Sharing merchant requirements with the founding team.
• Joining introductory discussions where appropriate.
• Recording questions and feedback.
• Following up after meetings.
• Keeping interested prospects engaged.
• Helping move qualified prospects toward evaluation and potential onboarding.

Pipeline Management:

• We'll manage the merchant pipeline through an Excel-based tracking system.
• You'll keep prospects updated with company, industry, website, contact person, designation, contact details, lead source, outreach date, response, qualification status, meeting status, requirements, opportunity stage, follow-up date, next action, notes and feedback.
• If it isn't recorded and followed up, it's easy to lose. Keeping the pipeline accurate and organised is a core part of the role.

What We Expect From You:

You don't need to know everything on day one. You do need to be willing to learn and take ownership.

You'll be expected to:

• Find prospects independently.
• Research before reaching out.
• Identify the right decision-makers.
• Communicate professionally.
• Follow up consistently.
• Learn from rejection.
• Try different approaches and improve based on results.
• Keep your pipeline organised.
• Ask questions when you need help.
• Share useful feedback with the team.
• Take responsibility for your assigned prospects.

Requirements:

• Good verbal and written communication.
• Professional English.
• Good research skills.
• Confidence communicating with new people.
• Ability to organise information.
• Strong follow-up discipline.
• Self-motivated attitude.
• Ability to work independently.
• Willingness to learn.
• Genuine interest in business development.

Good to Have:

• Sales, business development, lead generation, cold outreach, LinkedIn prospecting, B2B sales, startup, FinTech, payment gateway, e-commerce, D2C, SaaS, digital payments or cryptocurrency experience.
• Previous sales experience is not mandatory.
• We're more interested in your communication, curiosity, initiative and ability to learn.