Head of New Sales - Cyber in Birmingham

LRQA’s mission is to be the leading digitally enabled assurance provider, helping our clients navigate a changing risk landscape. We will achieve this by being the leading assurance provider in key sectors such as food, cybersecurity and ESG, making it easier for clients to do business with us through our digital transformation, and ultimately delivering a portfolio of services which make the world a cleaner, more sustainable and safer place.

The Head of New Business role in the cybersecurity for LRQA is a senior sales leadership position responsible for driving revenue growth by securing new clients and building high-performing sales teams. The position requires a blend of strategic thinking, sales expertise in IT/cyber services, and strong people management skills as well delivering an individual sales quota.

Reporting into the Regional Sales Director, the purpose of the role is Head of Sales (UKI) – Cyber New Business Sales is to:

• Strategic Planning & Vision: Develop and execute the new business sales strategy to drive revenue and market share growth within the UK commercial or public sectors. Analyse market trends, client needs, and competitor activities to identify new opportunities.
• Team Leadership & Management: Build, lead, mentor, and coach a high-performing team of new business specialists/business development managers to achieve and exceed sales targets and KPIs. This includes involvement in recruitment, performance evaluations, and fostering a culture of excellence. Manage and lead a team of sales heads to deliver full sales quota.
• Client Acquisition & Relationship Management: Identify, engage, and secure new business opportunities, building strong, long-lasting relationships with C-level decision-makers and key stakeholders.
• Sales Process Oversight: Manage the entire sales pipeline from lead generation and qualification through to contract negotiation and closure, ensuring a smooth handover to delivery/account management teams.
• Deliver own sales quota: Develop, manage and close individual sales target, leading by example how to exceed sales target balancing opportunities to ensure team target is delivered as well as own sales quota.
• Commercial & Financial Acumen: Provide commercial insight on pricing, margin, and competitive positioning. Manage budgets, track performance metrics (KPIs), and produce reports for senior leadership or board members.
• Cybersecurity Expertise & Solutions: Possess a strong understanding of the cybersecurity landscape, including current threats, solutions (e.g., cloud security, endpoint protection, incident response, GRC), and industry standards (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST, GDPR).
• Collaboration & Representation: Work closely with marketing, technical, and service delivery teams to ensure seamless client engagement and the development of tailored, value-driven solutions. Represent the company at industry events, trade shows, and networking opportunities.
• Researching, analysing and setting price points: Maximise sales and maintain healthy profit margins. Identify opportunities by keeping track of competitor activity. Use industry knowledge to identify potential new markets and increase the market share. Ensure technology is utilised fully and clear reporting of outcomes to improve future performance.
• Deputise for the Regional Sales Director: As required.

Key Responsibilities:

• You will run a team of sales professionals who will be expected to deliver to target or better, in each financial year. Your targets will be agreed each year in advance, depending on team location, strategy and focus. You will be responsible for creating and delivering the plans to achieve and exceed the targets set, with your team.
• Analytical and process-driven: You will be dealing with information from very many sources and will be required to analyse the information in a detailed way to gain insight into performance challenges and should be able to use the insight to decide on appropriate actions to ensure your team members achieve their KPI’s, sales forecast and work plans. This will include agreeing actions with other relevant departments to close any gaps and maximise any sales and revenue opportunities.
• You will need to manage your team’s strategic pipeline to ensure that it is sufficient to meet the relevant targets, is moving at the right pace and is accurate in terms of sales stage, dates of actions and likely closure. Where the pipeline is not in the right shape, you will take action to correct this and ensure it gets back on track in a timely manner. Your pipeline will be an accurate reflection of your sales forecast at any given time.
• Coaching adaptability: You understand that there is a diverse range of selling styles by which salespeople can achieve success and will be responsible for adapting your development and coaching styles to suit each individual team member. You will be responsible for following individual coaching and development plans to ensure your team are able to deliver the right results and to motivate your team members to continually improve and strive for better results.
• Following Company processes: At all stages of the sales journey, from lead to contract, there are clearly documented processes, to ensure global consistency in how we do business with our clients. You are responsible for ensuring these are followed by every member of your team, including the correct use of CRM systems, proposal documents and the tools and systems provided to enable your team to operate effectively.
• Proactive lead generation and management: You will be responsible for ensuring the right quality and volume of lead generation is delivered by your team, to support the marketing leads being provided, to drive the right level of pipeline at each stage, sales value and new logo wins for your area of responsibility, through close liaison with the marketing team and outbound sales activity of you and your team members.
• Preparation and delivery of account plans: You will ensure that any strategic account under the management of your team, has an up to date, viable account plan, which is driving the strategic growth initiatives for the account and which can be clearly articulated by the relevant sales person, at any time. You will use account plans to prioritise opportunities, marketing support and team efforts to drive the growth you are tasked with delivering each financial period.
• Performance Management: Ongoing monitoring of KPI’s, pipeline progression and sales rep activity, may result in the need for corrective actions and support from you, ultimately resulting in performance management from time to time. You will be responsible for managing performance through clear development plans & PIP’s, including documented meetings and agreed outcomes, with firm and decisive actions being taken to address poor performance in any team member.
• Sales Meetings and Performance summaries: From sales management meetings to leadership team meetings, you will be responsible for the production of sales and pipeline reports, performance summaries and updates on specific project actions, ensuring they are accurate and delivered in a timely manner.
• Strategic Alignment: Your sales team’s goals must be aligned with the company’s growth strategy so that it’s easier to achieve its objectives. You will be responsible for visualizing your team’s success together with the company’s growth model, seeking out new and innovative ways to achieve maximum results through efficient methods and by using less resources, sharing of best practice and critically, ensuring forward planning to deliver Year on Year targets in a proactive way.

Key Health & Safety Responsibilities:

• Eliminate or minimise employee's exposure to risks by reviewing, regularly, the health and safety risk register, applying appropriate controls, communicating results of risk assessment and ensuring health and safety is considered in the planning and execution of all LRQA activities.
• Manage your own and your team’s compliance with health and safety rules, instructions, systems and legal requirements, ensuring employees are suitably trained and adequate resources are available to work safely.

Pre-Employment Checks: If you are successful in securing a role with us, we will carry out pre-employment checks in accordance with what is allowed under local law. These checks will include, (as permitted): right to work, identification, verification of employment history, education, and criminal records. We may involve the third-party supplier to run the background checks as needed and your data will be retained for a period as needed for the purpose of employing you. Your data will be stored in accordance with all relevant privacy legislation. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Diversity and Inclusion at LRQA: We are on a mission to be the place where we all want to work and we are passionate about embracing different perspectives because we understand the value this brings to our business, our clients and each other. We are all about creating a safer and more sustainable future and our inclusive culture is right at the heart of our business. Together our employees make our communities better and we want you to be part of our diverse team!

LRQA is a leading global assurance provider. The integrity and expertise we bring to our partnership with clients support their journey to a safer, more secure and more sustainable future.