Sales Representative for Turkey & MENA in Brighton

Company profile

The first St Giles College was founded in central London in 1955 by Paul and Diana Lindsay as an English Language training centre. We have now become a successful medium sized business and currently employ over 100 people annually, a number which increases substantially during the summer. St Giles has been shortlisted as a “Star Chain School” in our industry awards (the Study Travel Magazine Star Awards) most years since the awards’inception. In 2014, St Giles International was listed in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 as one of Britain’s fastest growing overseas sales exporters. In 2015 St Giles International was given a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for achieving 6 years of growth (2009-2014).

We are one of the best known, large and most successful privately owned English language training organisations founded in the UK. We are still a family-owned business, which is quite unusual for our size. This represents a key selling point for many of our partners, who like to see consistent long-term leadership and want to build lasting relationships with us. We have a very proud reputation within the industry for our quality and professionalism. This comes from our belief in serving our clients (whether they are students or the Overseas Partners (‘agents’) who send us students) to the highest standard – they are our customers, and they expect friendliness, flexibility, efficiency, reliability, high teaching standards and the latest technology from us.

The St Giles Group now comprises of five year-round centres in the UK: Brighton, Cambridge, Eastbourne, London Central and London Highgate. We also run a thriving Summercourse operation, with residential camps for Juniors aged 8-17 years in the UK and Family courses for parents and children in Brighton, Cambridge and London. The ages we deal with across all courses range from as young as 5 to over 70 years.

Our Team

The St Giles Sales team forms a small, tightly knit but high-powered team, who are part of our Head Office. It is one of our centralised functions – Marketing, Group Admissions and Accounts being the other functions. The Head Office is led by Hannah Lindsay-Cornish (CEO).

The Sales team work closely with our Marketing Team to ensure that appropriate collateral is produced to aid their Sales efforts. They also work closely with our Group Admissions Team, who process our bookings and liaise with direct students and Overseas Partners whilst doing so.

Our ethos

We are proud to have a sociable, vibrant and multicultural working environment where there are regular opportunities to consult, report and partner with colleagues. We are a hard-working team who are happy to pitch in and help each other when needed. We encourage the team to take an interest in other markets aside from their own and to help manage these regions when required.

Place of work

The successful applicant will be based in either the UK (within commuting distance to Brighton or London) or remotely in market. They will be part of the Sales Team and will report to the Sales Manager, as well as working closely with our Deputy Sales Manager.

If they are based in the UK, we envisage that they will often work from home but will also travel frequently, both to our centres for internal and external meetings and overseas to meet with current & New Overseas Partners for the company.

The successful applicant should be available to travel to any of our centres when required, to meet with agents in order to show them our facilities and discuss further collaboration with them.

The Principals and staff of the individual centres play an important PR role in our promotions and work hard to support the Sales and Marketing teams.

Your responsibilities

As a Sales Executive, you will be expected to work independently with the ability to take initiative and ownership of your market.

Key tasks include:

• Regional account management for our Turkish & Middle Eastern Overseas Partners (\’agents’). This involves responding to a high level of enquiries, providing customer service assistance and relationship building. There will be a mix of development work with current partners for the company and nurturing of new partner relationships so as to ensure that St Giles is as well positioned as possible
• Negotiation with partners to maximise our returns in the long and short term, using a variety of different sales incentivisation techniques, including targets and bonuses
• To discuss joint promotional schemes with Partners in order to collaboratively work to increase Sales
• Assisting in the recruitment of new partners and contracts for the company
• Use of CRM, Sales and Marketing automation software to maximise our Sales efforts
• Use of AI to assist with our Sales efforts
• Creation of an annual regional sales plan including carefully considered sales targets per market, which the successful candidate would then work to meet or exceed
• To put together overseas travel plans, sticking to our travel budgets
• Regular monitoring of partnerships to ensure that our partners are given the best customer service and wider support required to meet targets
• Complaints handling as part of account management
• Formulation of our promotional strategy and regular assessment of the effectiveness of our promotional efforts
• Sales administration, such as following up after meetings with Partners
• Creation of group quotes and carrying out follow up on these quotes to ensure of as high a rate of conversion as possible
• Delivering rigorous market analysis and monthly reporting for senior management
• Offering market analysis to assist, when needed, with our Marketing efforts
• Proactively creating Marketing materials to help your markets, such as presentations, FAQ documents etc.
• Producing statistical data on students and partners of the company
• Organising and attending promotional trips within budget, overseas on behalf of the company. Trips usually involve attending trade fairs for either partners or students, visiting partners at their offices, and/or recruiting and training new partners. These trips may involve evening and weekend work. We estimate that the successful candidate will need to travel overseas for up to 12 weeks per year
• Confidently offering sales presentations to current and potential partners, both in person & online
• Contributing to monthly Sales Team training presentations to share your knowledge and experience with the rest of the team

Required Skills

We are looking for the very best candidate to join our team and develop with us. Applicants should have:

• 1+ years’ experience in Sales, preferably in Account Management within the language travel (or an adjacent) industry
• A track record of success in sales: the ability to create ‘new leads’ and nurture existing relationships for the company, thereby maximising growth in your market
• Fluency in Turkish and/or Arabic. Partners in this region often prefer to communicate in their mother tongue; therefore, we are seeking a candidate with fluency in one, or preferably both, of those languages.
• Commercial acumen, negotiation skills, and a tenacious approach to getting the best deal
• A Bachelor’s degree
• Enthusiasm for both St Giles and the industry
• A charming and outgoing personality with an ability to form relationships quickly
• An excellent work ethic
• The ability to work independently and take initiative
• A suitable working from home environment including a good internet connection. A laptop & a company phone will be provided
• The ability to learn complex elements quickly and retain information
• Willingness to learn and be self-reflective
• High standard of numeracy and literacy
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and presentation skills
• A dedicated, customer focused approach
• Experience of overseas travel and an international mindset with the ability to communicate with people from an array of different backgrounds and culture
• Ability to deliver rigorous market analysis to inform sales, product development and strategic goals
• Creative and imaginative problem-solving skills
• Excellent organisational skills
• To be comfortable in using Sales Automation and AI
• Permission to work in the country you are based in (either the UK or in market)

Training

We are pleased to offer a comprehensive training schedule within the first month of employment, including online and in person training

Moreover, we encourage candidates to take external sponsored training with us (terms and conditions will apply)

Our rewards package

We are searching for the very best candidates and as well as providing the exciting opportunity above, we are pleased to offer the following package including:

• £28,000 per annum (basic)
• Profit-Related Pay (PRP) (Further details can be supplied upon request)
• Annual Sales bonus
• Holidays include 4 weeks/20 working days, not including statutory holidays, plus 1 extra day for every year of service, up to a maximum of 5 days.
• Days in lieu offered for extra days worked at weekends and bank holidays (excluding non-working days)

Additional perks

We offer some opportunities for international travel and providing compliance with wider team arrangements, we are very happy for you to take time out before or after your trip allowing you time to explore the great places in which you’d do business.

You will be invited to attend our yearly global team conference. It’s a great chance to meet the members of the team from around the UK, learn more about St Giles and also, enjoy some great social activities.

Terms

• This is a permanent position, and we have a probationary period of employment of 6 months.
• Working hours are from 9:00 to 17:30, from Monday to Friday (occasional evenings or weekends – this is mostly whilst travelling on behalf of the organisation). This schedule may be adjusted according to the demands of the role.
• Flexibility to work evenings and weekends required and time in lieu will be offered accordingly.

Starting Date: ASAP

To apply, please send a cover letter and CV to vbird@stgiles.co.uk