director commercial manager London, England
Job description
ABOUT US
We are a passionate team of 50 based in the UK and Budapest. Our two international events, digital portfolio, and editorial business, provide the latest HR insights, analysis, and trends on the challenges and opportunities shaping the new working world.
Since 2011, we have served as a strategic transformation engine for the most powerful network of human resources leaders. They represent a range of organisations from the world’s leading employers from the Fortune 2000 to innovative start-ups and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire, connect, and empower leaders to navigate the fast-changing world of work and technologies.
You will be working in a collaborative environment alongside curious, dynamic, and transparent team members. Most of all you will enjoy working in an industry leading and customer centric environment.
THE ROLE
The Commercial Director ensures the UNLEASH portfolio of event and digital products exceeds its sales targets through thoughtful sales planning, design of effective processes, and leading a team of five people across new business and account management.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Financial:
Exceed monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue targets across exhibition, sponsorship, and digital sales
Review and update revenue forecasts on a monthly basis
Sales planning & reporting:
Lead the development of the annual sales plan, in consultation with other senior members of the team, separating between new business and account management, and breaking it down into quarters
Collaborate with the marketing teams to ensure the business development effort is adequately supported by high quality marketing activity
Champion the bowtie methodology, using it to guide tactics and direction of effort
Produce and distribute a weekly report on sales outputs and forecast v. plan
Produce and distribute a written monthly report covering the group’s renewal and new business pipelines
Support the Chief Revenue Officer with data and information to feed into Leadership Team meetings and board reports
Team management:
Maintain a clear team structure so that all members understand the purpose of their role, how it fits within the business structure and what outcomes they are accountable for
Set clear standards for team, particularly around the quality, quantity and direction of all sales activity
Lead weekly team meetings to enable open, honest communication about progress against goals
Enable high performance by identifying and removing any barriers to effective sales activity
Address underperformance promptly and supportively, escalating issues as necessary
Keep the team motivated and engaged and ensure that each role provides ample scope for training and development to enhance their career development. Flag any specific training needs so that they can be addressed
Work with the wider management team to manage career development and succession planning through managed moves across the group
Personal sales:
Achieve and exceed monthly; quarterly and annual personal sales targets by growing a defined customer base and aggressively targeting a defined patch of new business opportunities
Work autonomously to monitor and understand the vendor marketplace
Plan and execute customer coverage to maximise sales revenue, including face-to-face meetings, sales trips, and attendance at relevant industry events
Build relationships and engage in in-depth, consultative conversations with customers to understand their medium-term marketing objectives and plan effective event and digital campaigns to fit their needs
Creatively plan & effectively present proposals to both clients and their agencies
Effectively manage personal pipeline to maximise both yield and revenue
Optimise handover to customer-success team, to facilitate long-term working partnerships between our brands and our customer-base
Collaboration and tech:
Collaborate with sales colleagues; company management; product managers; content; marketing and development teams to ensure that sales objectives are clearly articulated and incorporated into wider plans
Closely align with the customer success team to ensure all commercial heads are handing accounts over correctly and accounts are managed effectively
Working with the marketing department ensure that the sales teams have easy access to appropriate, high-quality, up-to-date sales collateral, whilst maintaining a strong flow of high quality leads
Manage and optimise the UNLEASH CRM, SalesForce, to ensure a productive way of working through automation, reporting, and dashboards
Business development:
- Working as part of the UNLEASH Partnerships team, you will share responsibility for developing and executing a comprehensive partnerships strategy to support the growth and success of our international events. You will play a pivotal role to identify, develop, and manage partnerships with vendors, consultants, industry associations, trade organizations, academic institutions, and other relevant organizations, both nationally and internationally.
- Take the leading role of the UNLEASH Startup program. Responsible for all operations and process that will build a meaningful product offering for startups and design the digital and in-person architecture to connect them with investors, partnerships, and buyers.
ABOUT YOU
The ideal candidate:
+8 years sales leadership experience in B2B events (essential) and media (desirable)
A strong leader who has demonstrable experience working on a similar Confex event model to UNLEASH (essential)
Experience managing operations and/or production teams (desirable)
Proven track record of achieving exceptional commercial results
Excellent selling, negotiating and closing skills
Experience working with Salesforce or similar CRM
Comfortable with driving a team to achieve high-activity call and email prospecting
Exceptional organisational skills – the ability to multi-task, prioritise, and manage time effectively
Data-driven and ability to constantly review and optimise sales process
Excellent verbal, presentation and written communications skills
Ability to present at a senior decision maker level
Personal characteristics:
Great attitude: proactive and energetic, enthusiastic and fun to work alongside, with a strong work ethic
Highly organised and structured planner with the ability to deliver projects on time
Outstanding people skills with the ability to develop relationships with a wide range of individuals
Completely invested in driving both individual and team success
Excellent accuracy/attention to detail essential
Commercially astute
Able to remain calm under pressure in a fast-moving environment
Results-oriented and tenacious
Additional Information
WHAT WE OFFER
️Private Medical Insurance
Mental Healthcare: An Employee Assistance Programme to support you on those days when you are feeling blue.
Unlimited Holidays/PTO.
Company pension scheme
Up to 3 volunteer days annually to help give back to society whilst working on issues you feel passionate about.
Cycle to Work Scheme.
Modern and friendly co-working environment in London with a fun and ambitious team for those days when you may want to work from an office.
- ️ Work from anywhere in the UK flexibly.
Access to some of the greatest Influencers and pioneers in the World.
2 Annual tickets to the Greatest HR Shows on Earth (Las Vegas and Paris!).
Paid Sick Leave.
Life Assurance Scheme (x4 Salary).
Compassionate Leave — up to 10 days' time off if you lose a loved one.
6 Months Enhanced Maternity Pay.
Employee Referral Scheme.
A great opportunity to gain relevant experience and inspiring challenges in an international environment.
- Long Service Award - Sabbatical.
An Adventure.
Research shows that some people are less likely to apply for a role unless they are 100% qualified. Your experience, skills and passion will set you apart so tell us about your achievements, irrespective of whether they are personal or work-related, tell us about your journey, and about what you learnt. So, if this role excites you, don't let our role description hold you back, get applying!
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
At Unleash, we're committed to cultivating an environment that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. We are a global community, and we believe our unique qualities should be celebrated as they are critical to our innovation. It's essential to us that you bring your authentic self to work every single day, no matter your age, ethnicity, religion, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, caring responsibilities, neurodiversity, or otherwise. Inclusion isn't just an initiative at Unleash.
