Pre-Contract Manager in Bassingbourn

As Pre-Contract Manager, you are the driving force turning high-potential opportunities into profitable, well-secured orders that shape Nicholson’s growth and reputation. You own the pre-contract journey—taking each serious enquiry from first contact through to “closed won”—ensuring our technical solutions are spot-on, commercial terms are robust, and every client feels absolute confidence choosing Nicholson as their trusted partner. You’ll blend commercial sharpness with technical rigour, collaborating across teams and building trust with contractors and buyers. Your work directly fuels our success, turning complex projects into lasting business relationships and real revenue. This is your chance to make a visible impact, build your legacy, and be at the heart of Nicholson’s continued market leadership.

Over your first six months you will build deep knowledge of Nicholson’s products, systems and typical project types, working closely with Technical Sales Advisers and Estimators, before taking full responsibility for your own portfolio of opportunities.

Top Three Goals for Year One

• Pass initial training
• Achieve the agreed accuracy and OTIF targets
• Achieve the agreed Client Satisfaction target

Deal Progression & Closing

• Take ownership of live opportunities in the CRM and drive them through the pre‑contract pipeline to closed won.
• Proactively engage with customers (phone, Teams, email) to move opportunities forward, clarify requirements and address concerns.
• Negotiate commercial terms (within agreed parameters) to secure orders whilst protecting margin.
• Identify “stuck” opportunities and lead internal discussions to unblock them.
• Apply agreed “kill criteria” to disqualify unviable deals and maintain a healthy, realistic pipeline.

Technical & Commercial Assurance

• Work closely with Technical Sales Advisers and Estimators to ensure detailing is correct and solutions are fully compliant with project requirements.
• Review drawings, specifications and quotations to ensure alignment between what has been proposed and what will be supplied.
• Provide technical clarification to customers where required, drawing on internal technical expertise.
• Identify and propose up‑sell and cross‑sell opportunities where a wider product range adds value.

Pipeline Management & CRM Discipline

• Keep the CRM (e.g. HubSpot) updated with activities, stage movements, values and probabilities.
• Monitor pipeline health, ensuring progression in line with agreed timescales and stages.
• Prepare regular reports on conversion rates, order values and key movements for review.

Continuous Improvement & “Win‑Map” Development

• Contribute to the ongoing development of Nicholson’s “win‑map” – a systematic, repeatable approach to winning work.
• Analyse closed‑lost opportunities to understand why they were not won and recommend improvements to pricing, positioning, process or solution.
• Share customer and market feedback with Sales, Technical and Product teams to inform future product development and sales strategies.

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with Technical Sales Advisers, Estimators, External Sales, Operations and Finance to ensure a smooth handover from pre‑contract to order.
• Participate in internal project reviews where required to ensure that what has been sold can be delivered safely, profitably and on time.

Key Performance Indicators

• Percentage of qualified opportunities converted to orders.
• Number and value of opportunities moved forward through the pipeline stages each week.
• Meaningful sales interactions (calls, meetings, technical clarifications) recorded in CRM.

Background & Experience

Essential

• O Level, G.C.S.E or the equivalent in Maths.
• Experience in a construction product environment, ideally roofing, building envelope, fixings, or related specialist systems.
• Proven background in estimating OR technical / internal sales where you have worked from drawings, specifications and bills of quantities.
• Experience pricing and supporting projects for main contractors, specialist subcontractors, or Tier 1 suppliers.
• Demonstrable track record of progressing opportunities and closing orders.

Desirable

• Experience with roofing, waterproofing, or building envelope.
• Or experience in Mechanical & Electrical environment.
• Previous use of a CRM system (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce, Dynamics) to manage opportunities.
• Exposure to pre‑contract / commercial discussions (terms, variations, value engineering).
• Experience with or willingness to conduct site surveys.

Skills & Competencies

Commercial & Sales Skills

• Strong closing ability – able to ask for the order confidently and professionally.
• Good negotiation skills, balancing customer needs with commercial realities.
• Comfortable discussing price, value and risk with contractors and buyers.
• Able to spot up‑sell and cross‑sell.

Technical & Analytical Skills

• Comfortable reading, interpreting and questioning technical drawings, specifications and schedules.
• Structured approach to checking that proposed solutions match project requirements.
• Good numerical skills for pricing, margins and basic commercial calculations.

Process & Organisation

• Highly organised, able to manage multiple live opportunities at different stages.
• Disciplined in keeping CRM and records up to date in real time.
• Comfortable working to targets and deadlines.

Communication & Relationship Building

• Clear, professional communicator (written and verbal) with all internal and external stakeholders.
• Able to build trust quickly with repeat customers and new contacts.
• Confident running calls/Teams meetings to move opportunities forward.

Training & Onboarding

During your first six months there will be a structured onboarding plan, including:

• Shadowing Technical Sales Advisers and Estimators on live projects.
• Product and system training across the Nicholson range.
• Guided use of our CRM and “win‑map” process.
• Regular check‑ins with your line manager to review progress and aid your development.

By the end of your first six months, you will be fully equipped to own and close your own pipeline of opportunities. You can expect a planned purposeful learning curve to ensure you have the best opportunity to succeed in your new role.

Personal Attributes

You are a commercially minded, detail-aware persistent and resilient professional who enjoys taking full responsibility for turning opportunities into firm orders. You work best in a structured technical team environment, following clear processes, while you’re flexible enough to adapt when projects change. You’re comfortable talking money, value and risk, and you like seeing a pipeline move forward and deals close. You pay attention to drawings, specifications and small details without getting bogged down, and you take pride in getting things right before contract. You communicate clearly, can push back when needed, and are confident negotiating with contractors and buyers. You prefer practical, workable solutions over theory, and you’re happiest when you’re solving problems and progressing live opportunities, working with other teams to get the job done while retaining a sense of ownership because seeing your efforts translate into real revenue is a major motivator for you. You are also curious and willing to learn and prepared to invest the first six months in this new role building deep product and system knowledge to underpin your future success.

Nicholson STS Ltd is an innovative and fast-growing company which designs, manufactures and supplies specialist roofing systems. We supply Tier 1 construction companies, roofing contractors and the solar industry with unique products to help solve specific challenges in the industry, such as waterproofing riser penetrations, and fixing to the structure in a 100% waterproof way. We aim to be involved in sales projects at the earliest opportunity, so target specifiers and architects. The company was started by two brothers, Paul Boyt and Alan Boyt in 2000. Before this, they were roofing contractors, but quickly realised that there were not the products on the market to solve challenges they were facing, so they began to design and manufacture products. These became the basis of the Nicholson product range, and we’re still innovating today. We are proud of our staff retention, so only serious applications please!