Sales Director, Events

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Company Description

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets.

Fastmarkets’ data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond.

Job Description

The Role

We are seeking a dynamic and results-oriented Sales Director to lead and develop our Event Sales team. The candidate must be a seasoned sales leader with experience in driving high impact sales strategies and change management. To drive this change they must be able to work collaboratively with key departments to drive revenue growth gaining support and buy-in for innovative and ambitious commercial strategies. The successful candidate will be responsible for crafting and executing an ambitious sales strategy supported by a robust commercial plan that aligns with our growth targets, leading a high-performing team, and fostering relationships with key partners and stakeholders. The ideal candidate will possess a strong track record in B2B sales leadership and a strategic mindset.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Sales Strategy Development and Execution:

1. Design and implement a comprehensive sales strategy at a business and event by event level aligned with company objectives to drive revenue growth and market expansion.
2. Lead team in designing future proofed sales inventories and continuous innovative approaches to driving accelerated and sustainable growth.
3. Analyse market trends, competitor activity, and emerging opportunities to continuously adapt and refine the sales approach and brand presence.
4. Collaborate with the executive team to set ambitious targets, design scalable processes, and optimize sales operations.
5. Partner with MD to provide recommendations on pricing strategy.

Transformative Leadership:

1. Lead the transformation of the sales function to support rapid growth, operational efficiency, and customer-centric approaches.
2. Identify and implement key initiatives to modernize and enhance sales practices, tools, and technologies.
3. Partner with cross-functional teams to align sales efforts with marketing, product, and customer success.

Sales Team Leadership:

1. Provide a detailed strategic vision to drive accelerated growth of sponsorship revenues while fostering a high-performing, inclusive, and highly collaborative sales team culture.
2. Mentor and develop sales professionals, encouraging sales skills growth, career advancement, and cross-departmental collaboration.
3. Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion, embedding value-driven sales practices and celebrating diverse perspectives.

Market & Relationship Management:

1. Build a deep understanding of the markets we serve, trends, competitive landscape and the needs of our clients. Ensuring the sales team has a similar forensic understanding and uses this to drive their activities.
2. Establish and nurture relationships with key exhibitors, partners, and associations to support event success.
3. Collaborate with partners and internal colleagues to drive innovative sales strategies/ inventories and global sales efforts and manage indirect channels.

Performance & Revenue Management:

1. Set ambitious sales targets and continually monitor team performance to maximize revenues ensuring that all targets are met.
2. Ensure accurate pipeline management and data-driven forecasting to provide clear visibility of revenue projections.
3. Take proactive measures to address underperformance and optimize team resources to meet growth objectives.
4. Overhaul legacy sales inventories to accelerate revenue growth and future-proof the events business model.

Operational Excellence:

1. Embed best in class sales methodologies based on a consistent customer focused value-driven sales approach.
2. Ensure sales team follows consistent CRM processes, sponsorship package guidelines, and provides clear briefings to delivery departments.
3. Drive new business development through data-driven strategies and accountability, while securing repeat revenues via rebooking programs.
4. Provide regular performance reports to the executive team, offering insights, challenges, and strategic recommendations.

Qualifications

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world’s leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.

If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on…

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and have a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

Qualifications:

1. Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, or related field; MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred.
2. 10+ years of experience in sales leadership roles, ideally B2B events, with a proven track record of strategic and transformational success.
3. Strong background in developing and executing sales strategies, with the ability to drive change in a dynamic environment.
4. Proven experience in building and leading high-performing sales teams, with a focus on people development and cultural excellence.
5. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence at all organizational levels.
6. Proficiency in CRM software, sales analytics, and forecasting tools.

Key Competencies:

1. Strategic Vision: Ability to see the big picture, anticipate challenges, and create plans for long-term success.
2. Transformational Leadership: Skilled in guiding teams through change and motivating others to embrace new initiatives.
3. Cultural Leadership: Passionate about fostering a positive, inclusive work environment that promotes growth and engagement.
4. Results Orientation: Demonstrated ability to meet and exceed revenue targets and other performance metrics.

If you’re excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don’t perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Additional Information

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they’re embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

1. METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance.
2. ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done.
3. GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency.
4. INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
5. CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do.
6. COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalize on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you!

If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day.

It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great.

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