Internal Sales Officer

Role : Internal Sales Officer Department : Sales & Marketing | Full-time Reports to : Business Development Manager Build your career from Internal Sales to customer and opportunity ownership Touchstar is looking for an ambitious, commercially minded person to join our Sales & Marketing team as an Internal Sales Officer. This is not simply a sales administration or appointment-setting role. We are looking for someone who wants to develop into a capable sales professional: initially working alongside experienced Account Managers, generating opportunities and helping them progress business, before increasingly taking ownership of sales opportunities and customer relationships in their own right. For the right person, the role provides a clear development pathway towards Account Management and wider commercial responsibility. About Touchstar Touchstar provides technology that secures and manages the movement of people and products through complex operational environments. We work with customers across the UK and internationally, providing software, technology and associated services that support their day-to-day operations. Our Sales team works across a range of customers, technologies and markets, giving the successful candidate the opportunity to develop both commercial and technical knowledge. What you'll be doing You'll work closely with our Account Managers and wider commercial team to generate opportunities, respond quickly to customers and help move opportunities from initial interest through to order. Your responsibilities will include: · Proactively identifying and researching prospective customers. · Generating new sales opportunities through telephone, email, campaigns, networking and other appropriate channels. · Qualifying opportunities to understand the customer's requirement, commercial potential, timescale and next steps. · Securing appointments and qualified opportunities for Account Managers. · Preparing accurate quotations and straightforward customer proposals. · Following up quotations and customer actions rather than allowing opportunities to stall. · Maintaining communication with customers between Account Manager meetings. · Coordinating with colleagues across the business to obtain technical, product and commercial information. · Keeping customer, quotation, pipeline and expected-order information accurate and current. · Identifying additional requirements and sales opportunities through customer conversations. · Reviewing won and lost opportunities to understand what influenced the outcome and help improve our sales approach. · Progressively managing suitable opportunities yourself as your knowledge and capability develop. · Take ownership of relevant sales collateral, ensuring the information needed to support customer conversations, quotations and proposals is current, accurate and readily available. We expect our Internal Sales Officers to actively create opportunities rather than rely solely on Marketing or inbound enquiries. Working alongside our Account Managers A major part of the role is helping our Account Managers spend more time in front of customers. For example, an Account Manager might leave a successful customer meeting and call you with the requirements for a relatively straightforward opportunity. Rather than waiting for them to return to the office, you could obtain the required information, prepare the quotation, complete the appropriate checks and issue it to the customer while the Account Manager travels to their next appointment. You would then help progress that opportunity through the appropriate follow-up. That combination of **pace, ownership and commercial follow-through** is central to this role. Your development We have deliberately designed this as a progression role. Learn and Support Initially, you'll concentrate on learning our products, customers and sales processes while developing your skills in prospecting, quotations, customer communication and Account Manager support. Own Opportunities As your knowledge and confidence develop, you'll increasingly qualify opportunities yourself, hold customer conversations, prepare and present quotations and manage suitable opportunities from qualification through to close. Every qualified opportunity at Touchstar has one accountable owner. Initially, you will support opportunities owned by an Account Manager. As your capability develops, you will increasingly become the accountable owner of suitable opportunities yourself. Own Customers Our objective is to develop successful Internal Sales Officers towards ownership of suitable customer accounts, their own sales pipeline and increasing commercial responsibility. Progression is based on demonstrated capability and performance rather than simply length of service. For someone who performs well, this can provide a genuine pathway towards an Account Manager or other senior commercial position. What we're looking for We're interested in your commercial potential as well as your previous job title. You should be someone who: · Enjoys speaking with customers and building professional relationships. · Has strong commercial instincts and wants to develop a career in sales. · Is comfortable picking up the telephone and creating new conversations. · Communicates confidently by telephone, email and in person. · Takes responsibility and follows things through rather than waiting to be chased. · Can work quickly while maintaining accuracy. · Is organised and comfortable managing several opportunities and priorities. · Can understand a customer's requirement and turn it into clear commercial actions. · Is comfortable working with sales systems, customer data and commercial information. · Wants to develop technical and product knowledge. · Works well with colleagues across Sales, Marketing, Support and Engineering. · Is motivated by developing towards independent sales and customer ownership. Previous B2B sales, internal sales, customer service, account support or other customer-facing commercial experience would be beneficial, but we're equally interested in candidates who can demonstrate the attitude, communication skills and commercial ability to develop successfully in the role. What success looks like From the outset, you'll have clear objectives around opportunity generation, customer responsiveness, quotation activity, Account Manager support and pipeline development. As you develop, success will increasingly include your ability to: · Generate qualified opportunities. · Create and progress a credible sales pipeline. · Turn quotations into orders. · Respond quickly and professionally to customers. · Maintain accurate sales and forecast information. · Manage opportunities independently. · Build trusted customer relationships. · Contribute directly to the performance of the wider Sales team. Ultimately, we're looking for someone who wants to progress from supporting sales to owning sales . If you are commercially ambitious, enjoy dealing with customers and want a role where increased capability leads to increased responsibility, we'd like to hear from you. TPBN1_UKTJ