Senior Sales Manager in Cheltenham

Location: Hybrid, with an expectation of attending the Cornwall or Cheltenham office once a week, or a minimum of twice a month depending on location.

A rare opportunity for an established property finance sales leader to take ownership of business development and help shape the next phase of growth for an ambitious specialist lender.

An established specialist lender is entering an exciting period of growth, with significant funding capacity to deploy and several new lending products being brought to market.

The business is now looking for an experienced Senior Sales Manager with a strong background in property-backed lending to drive sales forward, develop an ambitious and disciplined business development strategy, and maximise the opportunity within its intermediary network.

This is a role for someone who wants to do more than manage an existing sales team. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to shape how the business goes to market, develop new opportunities and influence the evolution of the product offering through direct feedback from brokers and introducers.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Head of Commercial, the Senior Sales Manager will lead sales and business development activity across the organisation.

There is already an experienced Relationship Management team and an established network of brokers and introducers. The opportunity is to build on these foundations and create a more extensive, structured and highly disciplined business development strategy capable of supporting the organisation's growth ambitions.

A key part of the role will be understanding what brokers and introducers want from a specialist lender — where the gaps in the market are, what products they need and where opportunities exist — and using those insights to help shape the organisation's future product offering.

With substantial lending capacity available and a number of new products being launched, the successful candidate will play a central role in turning that capacity into quality lending opportunities and sustainable revenue growth.

What you'll be doing

• Lead, motivate and develop an experienced team of Relationship Managers
• Take ownership of the sales and business development strategy
• Build a comprehensive and disciplined approach to business development and deal origination
• Drive new lending opportunities and maximise the organisation's available funding capacity
• Develop and strengthen relationships with brokers, introducers and professional intermediaries
• Identify new intermediary relationships and opportunities to expand market reach
• Establish clear pipeline, activity and conversion targets and ensure they are consistently managed
• Use sales MI and market data to identify opportunities, address underperformance and improve conversion
• Gather structured feedback from brokers and introducers to understand market demand and emerging opportunities
• Translate intermediary and market insight into recommendations for future products and propositions
• Support the successful launch and commercial development of new lending products
• Coach and develop Relationship Managers to improve business generation and sales effectiveness
• Work closely with underwriting, credit, completions and marketing to ensure the customer journey supports growth
• Represent the organisation at industry events, conferences and networking opportunities
• Provide market intelligence and commercial insight to the senior leadership team

Who they're looking for

The organisation is looking for an established Sales Manager or senior business development professional with a proven background in property-backed lending.

This could include experience across:

• Property finance
• Commercial mortgages
• Development finance
• Bridging finance
• Secured lending
• SME property lending

The key requirement is a strong understanding of property-backed lending and the intermediary market, combined with the commercial drive and leadership capability to take sales performance to the next level.

The successful candidate will bring:

• Proven experience managing and developing sales or relationship management teams
• A strong track record in property-backed or specialist lending
• Established relationships with commercial finance brokers and introducers
• A demonstrable ability to generate and convert new business
• Experience developing and implementing structured business development strategies
• A disciplined approach to pipeline management, sales activity and performance measurement
• Strong commercial awareness and an understanding of credit and lending
• Excellent relationship-building and influencing skills
• The ability to listen to the market and turn broker insight into commercial opportunities
• The energy and entrepreneurial mindset to drive growth in an evolving business

Why this role?

The opportunity is significant.

The business has the funding capacity to lend, an experienced Relationship Management team and new products coming to market. What it now needs is an ambitious sales leader who can bring greater structure, focus and momentum to its business development activity.

The successful candidate will have genuine influence over how the organisation grows, who it does business with and ultimately what it offers to the market.

For an experienced property finance sales professional who enjoys building relationships, developing people and creating new opportunities, this is an opportunity to have a real commercial impact on a growing specialist lender.