Senior Sales & Events Executive in London

The Royal Society's mission is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. To support its mission, the Society hosts and organises a number of scientific, policy and other meetings and public events at its head office location at Carlton House Terrace in central London. The Society also operates a conferencing business managed by the Head of Conferencing which allows third parties to book events at the Royal Society.

The Senior Sales Executive is a member of the Conferencing team, and their role is to handle the sales process for external events taking place at the Royal Society. This involves answering all enquiries, providing proposals and quotations, logging all enquiries and following up with clients, carrying out site visits and issuing contracts and invoices. The objective of the role is to maximise sales while providing excellent customer service at all times.

Reports to: Sales Manager

Pay band: C

Salary: £41,000 pa

Contract type: 14 months FTC

Hours: 35 with rota system in place to meet events schedule

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG plus the option for some hybrid remote working

Key Responsibilities and Tasks

• To be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the Royal Society as a venue and to share that knowledge and enthusiasm with clients.
• To respond to all sales enquiries in a timely and professional manner.
• To log and follow up event enquiries as per the set standards.
• To build effective relationships with clients.
• To carry out site visits with clients in a professional and effective manner.
• To proactively come up with sales ideas to develop the Conference Services business.
• To assist the Sales Manager in the marketing campaigns for the venue, including Kx client data import into the CRM, newsletters, online listings and by attending trade shows and showcases.
• To work positively and enthusiastically with colleagues from all departments across the Royal Society.
• Ensure standards of service are per Standard Operating Procedures and Service Level Agreements.
• To work as part of a team and to support other members of the team with tasks as requested by the Head of Conferencing.
• Be familiar with the health and safety of the premises including fire procedures.

Education / Qualifications / Knowledge / Interests

• Educated to 'A' level or equivalent, or vocational diploma - Essential
• Passion for or interest in science - Desirable

Experience

• Sales and Events Coordinator/Executive roles in a hotel or conference venue - Essential
• Assisted with implementing conferencing sales campaigns - Desirable
• Assisted with ideas for marketing campaigns - Desirable

Skills

• Sales training and experience - Essential
• Use of IT systems for management information - Essential
• Presentation skills - Essential
• Knowledge of KxCatering Software - Desirable

Abilities

• Able to meet deadlines under pressure, often balancing conflicting priorities - Essential
• Able to deal confidently with high profile clients - Desirable

Personal Qualities

• Professional personal presentation - Essential
• Distinctive and professional with a warm personality - Essential
• Sales focus - motivated by achieving targets - Essential
• Demonstrates pride and attention to detail in their work - Essential

Circumstances

• Able to work in a non-smoking environment - Essential
• Able to be flexible about working hours, including working evenings and weekends on occasion and travel between Royal Society premises - Essential

Pay Band C - Role Descriptor and Competencies

• Self-management: Works unsupervised and can motivate self, produces results under pressure, can manage in stressful situations, pushes for the best results.
• Working with others: Contributes ideas and identifies opportunities to work with others both within the team and across the organisation, willing to provide feedback to sectional colleagues when requested, produces succinct presentations and papers for senior colleagues, understands when to seek senior advice on potentially delicate negotiations.
• Resource management: Makes the best of internal/external resources and coordinates well with external partners to best meet the needs of the Society, builds contingency into projects taking into account possible outside factors, sets and monitors performance against quality and results orientated targets, focuses on both short and long-term goals.
• Critical thinking: Determines and clarifies the exact requirements of any situation, checks information for accuracy and raises concerns if information is inaccurate, extracts the key points succinctly, clearly and accurately, puts forward suggestions for improvement concerning current processes or systems, tries different ways of doing things to get the best results.
• Adaptability: Overcomes obstacles and is not deterred by setbacks; checks assumptions and first principles and works out alternative approaches, reacts proactively to new challenges and works in a flexible manner to produce solutions, provides feedback and participates in discussions surrounding new ideas approaches or projects.
• Managing people and relationships: Delegates effectively, setting clear expectations and authority, monitors results and feedbacks to team on a regular basis, recognises others' contributions and acknowledges their limits, helps others to identify ways to improve their performance, prioritises supervisory responsibilities and carries them out in a timely fashion, understands and can identify client/stakeholder/staff needs and looks for opportunities to improve their experiences.