Senior Sales Manager
Chiltern Recruitment
Our Client is recruiting a Senior Sales Manager for a permanent, full-time position in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. This office-based role will lead an established sales team, with responsibility for commercial performance, pipeline development, process discipline and individual development.
The position will suit an experienced sales leader who takes a structured, hands-on approach to coaching, KPI management and improving results.
The salary is negotiable. Travel to London once per week is required for customer and commercial meetings, with scope to shape team performance and influence the development of the sales operation.
Responsibilities:
- Lead, manage, motivate and develop the sales team, promoting accountability, consistency, urgency and continuous improvement.
- Set individual and team objectives aligned with sales targets, and manage performance against clearly defined KPIs.
- Conduct regular one-to-ones, pipeline reviews, coaching sessions and performance reviews, identifying performance gaps and implementing improvement plans where required.
- Support recruitment, onboarding, training and ongoing development as the team grows, while using coaching to improve individual and team performance.
- Take an active role in important opportunities, customer discussions and negotiations when required.
- Own and analyse sales KPIs covering activity, prospecting, conversations, contacts, meetings, opportunities, pipeline value, quotations, conversion, follow-up, sales-cycle progression, revenue, gross profit, new account wins and existing account growth.
- Analyse sales performance and use evidence and sales data to take prompt corrective action when results fall below expectations.
- Ensure consistent use of the agreed sales approach, internal systems and structured sales processes, auditing activity to identify gaps and implementing agreed improvements.
- Maintain accurate CRM records and ensure sales activity, leads and opportunities are consistently recorded, qualified, categorised, progressed and followed up to prevent potential business from stalling.
- Monitor the quality, relevance, timing and frequency of customer contact, adapting communication for different customer groups rather than focusing solely on volume.
- Produce clear management reports covering activity, pipeline health, conversion and results, using data to guide performance decisions and improve accountability.
- Oversee coordinated outbound business development through telephone prospecting, professional networking platforms, email campaigns, messaging, direct follow-up and face-to-face meetings.
- Develop opportunities and relationships with design professionals and practices, design-and-build businesses, trade and channel partners, consultants, professional advisers, commercial contacts and facilities-management organisations.
- Help the team build relationships with decision-makers and influencers, progressing opportunities from initial contact through specification, quotation and order.
- During the first 30 days, develop a clear understanding of the team, customers, markets, processes, systems, pipeline, KPIs and current performance.
- During days 30–60, establish regular management routines, improve pipeline visibility, coach team members and strengthen accountability.
- During days 60–90, deliver measurable improvements and recommend further development of the sales operation.
Experience Required:
- Bring approximately 5–7 years of relevant sales experience, including proven experience managing a sales team and leading a sales function.
- Demonstrate strong CRM, pipeline management, structured sales-process and outbound business-development experience, including telephone prospecting, professional networking and email campaigns.
- Demonstrate excellent coaching, people-management and communication skills, with confidence addressing poor performance and holding team members accountable.
- Demonstrate strong analytical ability and confidence using sales data to inform decisions, combined with a disciplined, process-led approach and sound commercial judgement.
- Experience in relationship-led, specification-led or project-led sales is highly advantageous, particularly selling to professional advisers, trade partners, consultants or facilities-management organisations.
- Be able to provide factual examples covering team size, performance change, revenue or gross profit growth, conversion improvements, activity and productivity gains, pipeline growth, process changes, management of underperformance, KPI and reporting improvements, coaching impact, and CRM or sales-system improvements.
Application opens at the source listing. Free for jobseekers.