At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and develop branches to achieve sales targets and exceptional customer service.
- Company: Join a progressive building society with a commitment to community engagement.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, career development, and a supportive work environment.
- Other info: Opportunities for growth and leadership development across multiple locations.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in your community while driving sales and team success.
- Qualifications: 3+ years management experience in a regulated sales or customer-service environment.
The predicted salary is between 49050 - 59950 £ per year.
We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for an Area Manager position in our Southern Region. The Greater Belfast region will comprise branches in Enniskillen, Lisburn, Omagh and Portadown. The Area Manager is accountable for leading and developing a group of branches to deliver sustainable, strong sales performance, exceptional customer outcomes and effective community engagement.
The Area Manager will be expected to:
- Support the Senior Manager Direct Sales and Society's Senior Leadership Team in achieving the Society's strategic objectives, including involvement in strategic projects and working groups.
- Lead, manage, coach and support the Managers of the branches within the region to deliver performance, recruitment support, onboarding, capability development and succession planning.
- Lead and manage sales performance across all branches within the region, with responsibility for achieving mortgage and savings sales targets, identifying and executing opportunities for existing and new direct sales business.
- Drive direct mortgage growth by ensuring branches identify customer opportunities, generate quality referrals and support clear routes from enquiry to appointment, application and completed business.
- Deliver area savings and funding plans through maturity management, retention contact, withdrawal insight, product campaign activity and conversion of customer conversations into measurable funding outcomes.
- Develop and maintain relationships with key employers, businesses, community organisations and professional connections within the region to create mortgage and savings sales opportunities and increase awareness of the Society.
- Monitor sales and branch performance, pipeline activity, KPIs, conversion metrics and follow-up standards, taking timely and effective action where performance is below expectation.
- Lead regular sales reviews, branch visits and sales meetings across the region, making sure actions are followed up and branches are clear on what they need to deliver for mortgages, savings and business development.
- Support Society-led sales campaigns and customer contact activity across mortgages, savings and business accounts, ensuring branch execution is aligned to priority products, retention opportunities and approved communication controls.
- Ensure adequate resourcing across branches, reviewing workloads, capacity, and skill mix to maintain high-quality service levels and sales effectiveness.
- Actively promote a strong customer first culture, ensuring excellent customer outcomes and service standards are consistently achieved.
- Identify high-potential colleagues and support the development of future managers and leaders across the region.
- Use area MI, customer data, sales analytics and competitor insight to identify opportunities, trends and performance gaps, and prepare targeted sales action plans.
- Prepare and maintain area sales plans covering branch objectives, prospecting, referrals, retention, community engagement, coaching, campaign delivery and reporting cadence.
- Work collaboratively with Head Office teams to support campaign delivery, product visibility, customer journey improvements and proposition development.
- Champion digital adoption and customer journey improvements across the region, using branch feedback to support online savings, business account opening, appointment booking and direct mortgage enquiry improvements.
- Oversee community engagement activity across the area, ensuring each branch has a clear plan that supports brand presence, relationship building and business generation.
- Identify, document, manage and maintain operational/branch/sales risks and controls within the area, escalating issues as appropriate.
- Identify inefficiencies and improve branch processes, escalating issues to the Senior Manager Direct Sales and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
- Maintain a strong working knowledge of the Society's lending and savings policies, procedures, products, online products and functionality, ensuring consistent application and processes across branches.
- Ensure compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements, including FCA/PRA rules, MCOB, Consumer Duty, Conduct Rules, and the Society's policies and procedures.
- Provide regular updates to the Senior Manager Direct Sales on area performance, risks, people, campaign activity and leading indicators across mortgages, savings, business accounts and customer outcomes.
Required Criteria:
- A minimum of three years management experience in a regulated sales or customer-service environment, ideally within financial services.
- Proven experience of delivering sustainable sales growth, strong customer outcomes and service standards against agreed targets and measures.
- Demonstrable experience of leading, coaching and performance-managing managers or sales teams, including addressing underperformance and developing capability.
- Experience of leading across multiple teams or locations, or managing a complex business unit with responsibilities transferable to a multi-site leadership role.
- Strong experience of operating within a regulated framework, including oversight of conduct risk, operational controls, responsible selling, vulnerable customers and Consumer Duty.
- Experience of business and resource planning, leading change and translating strategic objectives into measurable action plans and improved business outcomes.
Desired Criteria:
- CeMAP or another relevant financial-services qualification.
- Experience within a branch-based bank, building society or comparable customer-facing financial-services organisation.
- Knowledge of mortgage and savings products, policies, processes, regulation and customer journeys.
- Previous multi-site or area management experience, including developing managers and supporting succession planning.
- Experience of local business development, community engagement, strategic projects or third-party relationships.
To apply for this role, please submit your CV as an expression of interest. Your CV should set out how you meet the requirements of the role and should be no more than 3 pages long. Please note that, as part of your application, you will be asked to rank the three regional locations in order of preference. Please indicate your preferred region as 1, your second choice as 2, and your third choice as 3. Regions will be allocated in order of merit following the selection process. While every effort will be made to accommodate individual preferences, it may not be possible to allocate all successful applicants to their first-choice region. Progressive Building Society is committed to providing equal opportunities for all.
Area Manager (Enniskillen, Lisburn, Omagh and Portadown) in Craigavon employer: Progressive Building Society
Progressive Building Society is an exceptional employer, offering a supportive work culture that values employee well-being and professional growth. With a hybrid working model based in Belfast, employees enjoy competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits including a pension scheme and annual bonuses, as well as generous holiday allowances, making it a rewarding place to advance your career in mortgage underwriting.
Contact Details:
Progressive Building Society Recruitment Team
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We think this is how you could land Area Manager (Enniskillen, Lisburn, Omagh and Portadown) in Craigavon
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We think you need these skills to ace Area Manager (Enniskillen, Lisburn, Omagh and Portadown) in Craigavon
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