Sales Manager

The Victory Services Club in London is a successful and prestigious private members club exclusively for serving and retired members of all ranks of the UK Armed Forces (and their allies), and their immediate families. The Club was established in 1907 as a charity with two primary objectives: to promote military efficiency and esprit de corps, and to relieve need, hardship or distress amongst serving personnel and their dependants. The Club is located adjacent to Marble Arch and provides 200 bedrooms, 7 Conference Rooms and impressive dining facilities. Club membership now totals over 62,000.

We are looking for a dynamic and motivated Sales Manager who can roll their sleeves up and be passionate about the business’s growth, who understands the dynamics of running a sales team within the hospitality industry. The Sales Manager’s main objective is to generate income from events and conference hire of VSC Events space to support the Club’s charitable objectives. The Sales Manager will play a crucial role in leading the team to achieve monthly sales targets. Having a passion for the events industry and have a strong track record in sales. You will be proactive, hardworking and able to work under your own initiative. With a strong commercial mind, you must be able to identify opportunities for revenue growth and then strategically plan to deliver on these opportunities involving sales strategy, financial planning and forecasting, supporting marketing and communications and operational delivery. Putting in place a working environment that is pro-active in finding new business, responsible for creating a “deal closure” culture, while never losing sight of the Club and members needs.

The purpose of the Sales Manager role is to prospect for new clients for VSC Events. This will involve a proactive approach, arranging meetings with potential clients, networking or other means of generating event business from potential clients.

The successful candidate should be energetic and inspirational and must understand the culture, strategy and ambition of VSC as well as understanding the market demand, identify, qualify and convert opportunities into contracts. They are also required to grow and retain existing accounts and identify new clients by presenting new solutions and services to clients as well as having the ability to show an understanding of the challenges facing the industry at present and illustrate a knowledge of the operational attention to detail that will be required to succeed in the role.

Strategic planning is a key part of this role as it is the Sales Manager’s responsibility to develop the pipeline of new business coming in to the company. This requires a thorough knowledge of the market, the solutions/services the company can provide, and of the company’s competitors. The main duties of the Sales Manager can be summarised as follows:

New Business Development

• Prospect for potential new clients and turn this into confirmed business.
• Be proactive to ensure a robust pipeline of opportunities.
• Meet potential clients by growing, maintaining, and leveraging your network.
• Identify potential clients, and the decision makers within the client organization.
• Research and build relationships with new clients.
• Work with the relevant department heads to develop proposals that speaks to the client’s needs, concerns, and objectives.
• Participate in pricing the solution/service.
• Handle objections by clarifying, emphasizing agreements and working through differences to a positive conclusion.

Client Retention and Member Events

• Manage, plan and deliver all Club events to operational stage.
• Present new products and services as and when they arise, keep open and regular communications and enhance existing relationships.
• Arrange and participate in internal and external client debriefs.

Future Planning

• Attend relevant industry functions, such as association events and conferences, and provide feedback and information on market and creative trends to VSC Senior Management.
• Present to and consult with VSC Senior management on business trends with a view to developing new services, products, and distribution channels where appropriate.
• Using knowledge of the market and competitors, identify and develop the company’s unique selling propositions and differentiators.

Management and Research

• Submit weekly progress reports and ensure data is accurate.
• Ensure that data is accurately recoded within the company’s financial reports.
• Forecast sales targets and monitor on progress.
• Understand the company’s goal and purpose so that will continual to enhance the company’s performance.
• Manage the events team.

Experience Required

• Proven Sales Manager who is used to working to targets.
• Proven track record in sales, business development and winning new business.
• Proven track record of increasing revenue through generation of leads.
• Operational attention to detail that will be required to succeed within the Role.
• Experience with PMS and CRM systems and associated IT software.

Your team management responsibilities will include performance evaluations and ensuring that you are applying policies and procedures fairly. You will be required to motivate your team and foster a culture of wellbeing, high performance, high quality customer service while driving sales growth.

You will have ultimate responsibility for staff recruitment, training and development of the team and will have accountability for engagement in your department. The Club is open throughout the year and never closes.

We are looking for a Sales Manager who can achieve market leading results using innovation and entrepreneurial flair, who has a passion for excellence that will inspire their team and drive revenue growth while delivering Value, Service & Courtesy to our members and guests.

Armed Forces and some charity knowledge would be beneficial to this role.

Just some of the benefits you will enjoy as Sales Manager

• Excellent salary, bonus, 25 days’ annual leave, plus bank holiday
• Company pension scheme
• Your Birthday off
• Through career recognition scheme
• Free meals on duty
• Flexible working

Please apply with an up to date CV and covering letter (no more than 1 side of A4) detailing your experience in relation to this role. Mark Field, General Manager mark.field@vsc.co.uk

Due to the high number of applications for this role, we regret only short-listed candidates will be contacted.