Head of Sales

PHS Group Ltd.

Role: Head of Sales – Teacrate

Reports to: Managing Director

Direct reports: Internal & external sales teams

Location: Nationwide

Purpose of the role

Lead, manage, and deliver all sales activities in the business. Proactively contribute to all aspects of business strategy and delivery as a member of the senior leadership team.

Key Accountabilities

1. Sales – Grow profitable revenue year on year.
2. Create and maintain the right sales structure aligned to the business’s strategy and plan.
3. Set and implement the sales strategy and annual sales plans for key sectors in the business.
4. Lead, manage, motivate, and develop the sales team using (if used) and the appropriate metrics, KPIs, training and development, and performance regime to drive performance and profitable growth.
5. Implement and maintain effective Account Management Plans to maximise share of wallet.
6. Own the Sales Pipeline and drive sales growth through growing existing contracts and delivering significant contracts.
7. Personally lead large bids on behalf of the business.
8. Identify cross sell and upsell activities both within the business and across phs as a whole.
9. Sales Support – Ensure effective sales support functions are in place to support the business, including bid management, telesales, customer services, and sales administration as appropriate and as required.
10. Client retention – Ensure that customer retention is optimised through excellent account management practice and first-class customer service. Ensure issues are identified and resolved promptly.
11. Forecasting – Project expected sales volumes for existing and new products, taking action to maintain performance against agreed plans.
12. Pricing – Optimise pricing to maximise profitability. With the Managing Director and Finance Business Partner, set and enforce pricing and discounting policy and authority levels. Ensure compliance with authority levels and review pricing policy regularly.
13. Contracts – Ensure sales strategy is de-risked and that customers sign up to appropriate commercial contracts which offer adequate protection to phs and optimise revenue.
14. Targets and Incentive Payments – Set sales bonus/targets and commission schemes that align to driving profitable sales growth.
15. Customer Satisfaction – Lead the customer satisfaction activity for the business. Measure and improve customer satisfaction levels through Net Promoter Score (NPS).
16. Product Development – Ensure that existing products are reviewed and upgraded or retired, and that relevant and profitable new products are developed and introduced to the market.
17. Marketing – Work effectively with phs Marketing to create and implement effective and efficient Product Marketing and Marketing Communications which drive profitable sales growth at minimal cost.
18. Digital – Set and implement an appropriate digital strategy and plan to drive profitable sales growth and effective customer service.
19. Competitors and the market – Develop a deep understanding of competitors and the industry, its products and services, opportunities, and challenges. Develop plans to beat competitors.

Other Responsibilities

1. Drive employee engagement.
2. Work with colleagues to minimise and collect overdue customer debt.
3. Produce regular and ad hoc reports as required to demonstrate business performance, opportunities, and challenges.
4. Build personal capital and contribute to phs reputation through participation in industry forums and wider networking.
5. Build strong peer relationships across phs’s businesses.

Skills and Experience

1. Proven track record setting and delivering a successful sales strategy and plan.
2. Significant experience in the business services market in a senior sales leadership role.
3. Proven track record of driving profitable sales growth.
4. Prior experience of setting and managing an effective commercial strategy.
5. Proven experience managing sales teams and driving performance using KPIs.
6. Experience of personally leading bids and sales processes.
7. Strong negotiating and commercial skills – a proven ability to accurately price business opportunities and develop bids.
8. Excellent skills in developing client relationships at a senior level and experience of managing sales and customer relations.

Key KPIs

1. Profitable sales growth year on year (£ revenue and gross margin).
2. Customer retention (% and £).
3. Customer satisfaction (NPS).
4. Commercially appropriate pricing and rate cards which are regularly reviewed and changed to optimise profitable growth (£ gross margin).
5. Compliant commercial contracts which are signed and do not expose phs to inappropriate risk.

Personal Characteristics

1. Strong team leader and team player able to lead their own team and contribute to the wider Management Team.
2. Does the right thing, not the easy thing.
3. Works hard to deliver results personally, and through teams.
4. Maintains and develops their own expertise, and the skills and knowledge of others.
5. Works to continually improve phs products and services. Identifies and implements ways of doing things better.
6. Takes responsibility.
7. Highly numerate and literate but uses both data and “gut” to drive decision making.