Senior Associate Director, Sales

Senior Associate Director, Sales

Salary: £60,000k base

Location: London (Hybrid)

Process: CV and Cover Letter

About the CBI

Founded 60 years ago and representing some of the biggest names in business, household brands and globally traded corporations that employ people in all sectors and across every region and nation of the UK, the CBI is the voice of business. The CBI represents 850 members who themselves comprise 1,100 separate registered companies and 150,000 trade association members.

The CBI is committed to ensuring a safe, supportive and inclusive people centric culture where our people can excel to achieve their full potential and be their best authentic selves in an environment where ethical values and respectful behaviours are at the very heart of who we are in our everyday interactions.

Role Summary

We have a great opportunity for an experienced sales professional to join UK’s most influential business organisation, in a role which provides an opportunity to have impact in a frontline role liaising with businesses across the UK.

This is a critical time for the UK, economically, politically, and for business. With so much on the line, the need for the strongest possible business voice has never been more important. At the CBI, we are here to help to raise the voice of business, cut through the noise, and shape the UK’s future success.

Our new strategy is built around sustainable growth, and through our policy work we’re focusing on the four big transitions the UK economy needs to achieve to deliver that growth:

• To lead the global race to net zero and help the UK’s economy to decarbonise.
• To respond to the changing nature of the future of work and skills.
• To manage the transformation being driven by the technological & innovation revolution.
• To equip the UK – its nations and regions − to be a globally competitive business environment.

Based at our head office in central London, or at one of our national offices with regular travel to London, the Senior Associate Director Sales will be responsible for selling CBI membership to some of the UK’s largest companies, with a focus on London and national accounts.

Reporting into the Commercial Operations Director, the Senior Associate Director Sales will play a crucial role in driving sales, expanding our membership base, and infusing a strong commercial focus into the role. This includes developing and executing strategies to attract members and identifying opportunities for revenue growth through innovative sales approaches and commercial initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead on the recruitment of large members primarily based in London, but also responsible for the recruitment of large national members.
• Manage an end-to-end sales pipeline, including the generation and qualification of prospect leads, creation of bespoke sales pitches and proposals, and negotiating fee levels.
• Own a sales pipeline, with a clear strategy for how they can successfully sell membership to an agreed target.
• Update the CRM with daily engagement activities, including emails, meeting notes, opportunities, and contacts.
• Consistently meet weekly and monthly key performance metrics around targeting, meetings and proposals sent and manage the sales pipeline within agreed timeframe.
• Secure and host meetings with new target companies to explore membership, bringing in subject matter experts where needed.
• Manage inbound leads, including responding to enquiries, hosting exploratory meetings, and facilitating introductions to relevant colleagues.
• Prepare and deliver comprehensive briefings for the executive committee, ensuring they are well-informed on key issues and developments.
• Write high-quality proposals and pitches that effectively communicate the value proposition of the CBI’s services to potential clients.
• Contribute to business development activities and target outreach.
• Develop and run creative recruitment campaigns to reach new audiences.
• Work with colleagues across the organisation to refine the member proposition and identify and deploy commercial opportunities within our programme of work.
• Embed commercial thinking and the value of the proposition across the organisation to drive membership sales opportunities in all our activities
• .Represent the CBI at external business events.
• Lead on one or more target-focused events throughout the year.
• Support with the coaching of new sales colleagues.
• Work closely with account managers to successfully onboard companies to ensure long-term retention.
• Attend stakeholder events, for example external events or internal CBI working groups and committees.

Knowledge & Experience

• Proven track record of sales success in a B2B context and ability to independently drive the sales process from plan to close.
• Experience building relationships and working confidently with senior business leaders, including c-level executives.
• Knowledge of the UK business landscape and a good understanding of business operations and needs.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills – ability to listen, analyse, persuade and negotiate.
• Strong approach and proposal writing skills, ability to effectively communicating value propositions to potential members.
• Ability to operate effectively and responsively in both a line and matrix structure.
• Experience working with CRM and other sales applications to ensure a robust sales process.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Sales experience in a professional services environment, membership organisation, or not-for-profit organisation of a similar size to the CBI (annual income £20m+).
• Experience with innovative and consultative sales.

Diversity & Inclusion

At the CBI, we are committed to attracting diverse talent that represents the society we live in.

We encourage applications from all, regardless of age, sexuality, socio-economic background, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion, or beliefs.We are committed to building a culture of belonging and inclusion and this is reflected in our policies, practices, and internal employee-led networks and supported by our executive leadership team.

We are a family friendly organisation, and we encourage flexible working as we want our employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Currently our employees are hybrid working, but we encourage colleagues to collaborate and innovate, by working together in regional and national offices.

Our employee-led networks are: REE Network, LGBT, HAND, Women’s and Working Families and we have qualified Mental Health First Aiders who support our employees in having good mental health.