Global Head of Sales Performance and Programmes

Travelopia was sold by TUI to KKR, a global private equity firm, in Spring 2017 and is the world’s largest collection of specialist, experiential travel brands. Operating across the globe including Europe, Australia, North America and Canada, we pride ourselves on the unique and diverse range of holiday experiences we offer our customers. We are now organised into 7 strategic business units. Strategically, the organisation is transforming from these businesses operating as wholly independent (siloed) units to taking a ‘best of brand, best of group’ approach. As part of this transition, a Chief Customer Officer for the group was appointed in 2018 and a matrix team of 7 Sales Directors from the business units was formed. This team has designed a Customer Vision and is responsible for identifying and executing opportunities to deliver against this, either through increasing efficiency and/or improving Sales capability across the group. This new role will help to drive the agenda, working for the CCO and with the Sales Directors/VPs in each of the lead brands. The location is flexible and can be UK or US based (Crawley, Surbiton, Toronto or Clearwater)

What you will be doing: Create a framework for information, best practice & tool sharing across brands

• Build strong relationships with the Sales Directors/VPs and their teams to foster an environment of mutual collaboration
• Ensure best practice is shared across the group and common opportunities seized
• Celebrate successes across the brands/markets and create case histories
• Help drive innovation in our sales and sales approach across the group, working with external partners where relevant

Ensure all brands “Sales Frameworks” are finessed and embedded

• Work with external agency (SBR) in 2020 to finesse the brands’ Sales Frameworks, including clear process documentation and templates
• Work with each Sales Director to ensure that the Framework is operationalised: that Sales Managers coach consultants to use and measure against it
• Construct feedback/improvement loops so that the process is enhanced over time

Be responsible for the L&D agenda for sales capability – definition and execution

• Define the L&D requirements to build agreed sales capabilities (starting in 2020 with defined gaps as identified in Flock/SBR capability review) and plan the execution in collaboration with the Sales Directors
• Deliver the programme as required. This will be a combination of direct training, mentoring and coaching of Sales managers and consultants, as well as overseeing other internal resource and working with external partners. This element of the role will be 50%+ of time.
• Organise Mystery Shopping to track progress
• Work closely on the above with the L&D team to ensure alignment

Help deliver a world class Sales recruitment and induction process

Work closely with the Global Resourcing Director to:

• Define the optimum Sales Consultant and Sales Manager Role Profile and create a consistent method for recruitment
• Create a comprehensive and consistent Induction Programme and embed in each brand

Lead on relationship with External Sales partners used across the group

• Be single point of contact for Sales agencies/consultants which are shared across the group by more than 2 brands
• Ensure the smooth operation of the ecosystem, best practices are shared and that any issues are resolved promptly
• Lead on any future pitch processes, co-ordinating requirements and ensuring brands are engaged and involved as required

Lead and Develop a Sales Development Executive

• Create clear and SMART objectives and perform quarterly performance review
• Work together to design and deliver sales training to identified sales staff to ensure performance is achieved and maintained, including coaching, training and mentoring Sales Managers and Consultants to increase their overall sales effectiveness
• Schedule quarterly/annual programme to ensure all brands receive internal sales development support

Programme and budget management

• Track overall CCO Sales programme/workstreams to ensure work is sequenced appropriately and for maximum business impact
• Responsible for CCO Sales group planning, including budget planning and management
• Lead running the monthly skype meetings and quarterly global face to face meetings (run in various global locations), working with the Sales Directors to ensure delivery of content for meetings and setting agendas and key discussion points
• Own the creation of any reports/updates on CCO Sales activity for the Travelopia ELT and KKR board to ensure they are clear on progress/opportunities/blockers

Requirements: (Competencies, knowledge & qualifications that will be looked for when assessing applications)

• Significant sales experience, with an extensive understanding of the sales cycle for B2C and B2B ideally from the luxury services sector, able to bring new ideas and methods to help deliver our ambitions
• Significant experience of developing training programmes for Sales teams, as well as delivery of them, in addition to coaching and mentoring Sales managers and consultants
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Prepared to ‘be up on your feet’ on a regular basis
• Experience of working with international markets/networks – you will be required to travel regularly, within the UK and internationally
• Exceptional leadership (especially matrix) and influencing skills, with a demonstrable ability to work effectively cross international teams and with external partners, customers, agencies, and collaborators
• Highly organised with a keen eye for detail
• A strong operational mindset, with the ability to create efficient and effective processes
• Critical thinker and clear communicator, able to build trust and senior level relationships
• Commercially orientated

Core Criteria: (What are the personality traits which will be important in this role, leadership style, expected role in the organisation)

• Curious and resilient change agent – great at working with other people able to build strong relationships with people of varying degrees of sales expertise & experience
• Diplomatic leader – proven track record of getting things done through persuasion and influence rather than command and control
• Enthusiastic, self-motivated and able to work autonomously with a strong work ethic
• A galvanizing, grown-up trailblazer, not afraid to get involved in the task at hand
• A collaborator and skilled relationship builder, both internally and externally, with high emotional intelligence – you care about teams and inspire trust, loyalty, and respect
• Embraces new ideas/ experimentation; naturally curious, you are energised by ambiguity and not afraid to fail
• A dedicated team builder able to develop and grow the overall team across multiple levels
• You take personal accountability to make things happen and to ensure results / strategy/ service levels are achieved
• Highly flexible and resilient, you can bounce back from setbacks and have a ‘positive’ attitude to life

Relationships & Interface (The key people, departments and companies this role will need to interact with)

• CCO and CCO Sales and Marketing Forums
• Sales teams from each brand
• Key agency/consultant partners
• Responsible for leading Sales Development Executive

Join us and in return you’ll be rewarded with:

Competitive salary, various employee discounts and offers, cycle to work scheme and Contributory Pension scheme

Job Types: Full-time, Contract