Sales Manager - Specialised Cargo in Liverpool

The CMA CGM Group is a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, true to its corporate Purpose: We imagine better ways to serve a world in motion. Present in 177 countries, it employs 160,000 people, including nearly 6,000 in Marseille. As the world's third-largest shipping company, CMA CGM serves over 420 ports with a fleet of over 700 vessels.

The Specialised Cargo Sales Manager will lead, implement and drive commercial strategy for the growth and development of our Specialised Cargo vertical within the UK market, including Reefer, Project, Breakbulk, OOG, Military and Class 1 cargo. You will lead the Specialised Cargo Sales team to deliver budget targets while retaining direct hands-on responsibility for generating business, developing relationships and driving growth.

The role is accountable for delivering sales performance across the Specialised Cargo customer portfolio, maximising opportunities and ensuring the team operates in line with commercial strategy, customer segmentation and performance expectations. You will contribute to commercial planning, performance reviews, market intelligence and continuous improvement activity, acting as a bridge between frontline specialised cargo sales activity, customer needs and wider business priorities, ensuring that sales opportunities are identified, pursued and converted effectively.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Lead a team of Specialised Cargo Sales colleagues, setting objectives, monitoring activity and supporting delivery against targets.
• Manage a portfolio of Specialised Cargo customers through proactive calls, customer meetings and follow-up activity.
• Drive the full opportunity lifecycle, ensuring leads are identified, qualified and converted in line with commercial priorities.
• Lead the team in generating new business and developing existing customer relationships through proactive sales activity and consultative customer engagement.
• Ensure agency sales segmentation is understood and applied to prioritise customer contact, sales campaigns and resource allocation.
• Promote CMA CGM Group Services and non-maritime products, ensuring the team proactively identifies cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
• Monitor all leads received, ensuring clear ownership, timely follow-up and recording outcomes.
• Ensure customer interactions, opportunities, leads and data are accurately maintained in CRM to support visibility, reporting and decision-making.
• Review sales activity and performance data to identify trends, gaps and opportunities, using insight to coach the team and recommend actions to improve results.
• Support team members through regular one-to-ones, coaching, call reviews and performance discussions, ensuring a high-performance and customer-focused culture.
• Provide intelligence and customer insight to support commercial decision-making.
• Work collaboratively with wider commercial teams to ensure customer requests are handled effectively.
• Manage customer escalations with a solutions-focused approach, addressing root causes.
• Support the implementation of commercial campaigns and process improvements, ensuring the team understands priorities and executes actions consistently.
• Act as a key member of the wider management team, contributing to planning, reporting, communication, employee engagement and the development of best practice across the sales function.

What Are We Looking For | Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Extensive sales management or business development experience within shipping and logistics, ideally Specialised Cargo.
• Exceptional customer engagement skills, able to effectively manage customer relationships directly whilst supporting the team in complex commercial discussions.
• Proven ability to lead a sales team, set clear expectations, provide regular feedback and build capability through effective one-to-ones, call coaching, performance reviews and practical support.
• Experience driving sales performance through structured activity management, pipeline review, opportunity conversion, lead follow-up and use of clear performance measures.
• A collaborative leadership style, confident to support continuous improvement, employee engagement and best-practice sharing.
• Strong knowledge of the shipping and logistics market, sales channels, customer segmentation, commercial processes, services and products and value-added services.
• Strong customer-facing capability, with the confidence to engage specialised cargo customers and prospects through calls, meetings, presentations and negotiations, while role-modelling high-quality customer ownership for the team.
• Commercially astute and results focused, able to identify opportunities, prioritise activity, challenge performance and translate market insight into practical actions that support revenue, volume and digital adoption targets.
• Strong analytical skills, able to interpret sales data, customer insight, campaign performance and market information, to recommend corrective actions/improvement plans.
• Effective stakeholder management skills, able to work transversally to resolve issues and deliver customer-focused outcomes.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to articulate commercial priorities to key stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills and resilience, with the ability to manage competing priorities and support the team through challenging situations.
• Confident working with CRM and sales systems to support visibility, governance and decision-making.

What Do We Offer:

• Competitive salary and a generous benefits package including 25 days annual leave (plus public holidays) increasing with length of service plus additional day over Christmas period and the opportunity to buy/sell annual leave.
• Discretionary annual bonus.
• Car Allowance.
• Enhanced pension scheme up to 15% total contribution.
• Life assurance x4.
• Private healthcare (BUPA), BUPA Dental Plan + Healthcare Cash plan, including an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Local and global development opportunities across 160 countries within the CMA CGM Group, including Marseille Head Office opportunities.
• Hybrid Working.
• Cycle to work scheme / season ticket loans.
• Enhanced family leave policies.

CMA CGM Group is proud to define itself as a family business built on strong human values: Excellence, Exemplarity, Imagination, Boldness. CMA CGM values diversity in all forms. We seek to avoid discrimination and are committed to equal opportunities for all our employees. Our long-held inclusive policy improves performance, creates growth opportunities for all, aligns with our customer's values and enhances employee engagement. At CMA CGM Group, we Rise in Motion. Join a global team shaping the future of trade while building a career with purpose, growth and opportunity.