Sales Manager – Sale Sharks

Born in Manchester and proud of our roots, Sale Sharks is the only Premiership Rugby Union team in the North-West, playing top-flight rugby in the Gallagher Premiership and European Champions Cup, with an emerging Women’s team competing in the Allianz Premier 15s.  Our club philosophy is to be a better person, our Shark blood of Togetherness, Fearlessness, Pride, Passion and Humility running through the club make us who we are.  A family woven together by the Fabric of the North.

Based at our high-performance training centre, we are looking for a down-to-earth Sales Manager to join the Sharks family.  The ideal candidate comes from a sports brand/agency or professional club background, has an excellent record of sales success and relationship management. A good knowledge of rugby union (or a willingness to learn), an entrepreneurial attitude and optimistic outlook are essential.

Responsibilities (including but not limited to):

  • Work with the Sales and Marketing Director to build a 3-5 year strategic roadmap for the sales team outlining short and long terms goals and targets to maximise revenue opportunities
  • Plan and execute the sales strategy for the Club to drive long term business growth, working collaboratively with marketing and operations to ensure an integrated approach to business
  • Tracking and analysis of commercial performance to provide regular reports to Club stakeholders including LYs comparison, forecast v actuals tracking, rights delivery performance and value, seasonal hospitality, and match day hospitality
  • Understanding of the existing sports sponsorship landscape to identify new business opportunities that are a strong brand fit to Sale Sharks and align to the Clubs’ brand values and strategic direction
  • Build good relationships to establish sales prospects, drive new business and explore initiatives outside of traditional routes, build and manage those relationships directly and through the broader Sales team
  • Lead new contract and renewal negotiations, manage existing partnership relationships, oversee the rights activation for all contracts to maximise value for club and sponsor
  • Support the sales team to evolve the match day hospitality experience providing insights and recommendations, help increase Seasonal and Match-By-Match sales and YOY retention, support Player Sponsorship negotiations and new business prospecting
  • Promote the philosophy of Learn, Care, Develop through setting team goals, individual performance goals and reviews, identify training needs, coaching and development

Qualifications & Experience:

Essential

  • Minimum 10 years experience working at a sports brand or in a professional club environment
  • Demonstrable track record of sales success
  • Experience of leading and developing a high performing sales team
  • Excellent communication skills with a high attention to detail
  • Excellent numeracy and excel skills
  • Ability to build strong relationships
  • Experience working in a fast-paced environment
  • Experience in business development

Desirable

  • Knowledge of the sports sponsorship marketplace
  • Experience of managing a portfolio of sponsorships
  • Experience with contract negotiations

Department: Commercial

Hours of work: 37.5 hours per week including all home fixtures

Salary: £DOE

Send your CV to:claire.butters@salesharks.com

Senior Partnership Sales Manager – NBA (EME)

About the job

The NBA are actively seeking a Senior Partnership Development Manager who will take a key role in the sponsorship sales process across EME at both a regional multi-market and national single market level.

The focus for the successful candidate will be on prospecting, pitching, negotiating and securing new marketing partners. The role is London based, with a hybrid working pattern, and likely to involve around three days in office each week and there will be regular European travel too.

The role would ideally suit someone from a Business Development, Partnership Sales background, ideally working in a major rightsholder / team / brand delivering forward thinking partnership deals.

Major Responsibilities

  • Develop and implement a sales strategy for the NBA Europe Game as part of the overall EME new business strategy and ownership of the new business revenue targets associated with the event.
  • Develop and implement a sales strategy for regional sales categories and ownership of the revenue targets associated with these.
  • Prospect, target and sell tailored NBA partnerships to multinational and national companies in relation to the above, utilizing data and research as well as an extensive external personal network.
  • Consult with both multinational and national companies to determine their sales and marketing objectives as well as the strategic direction of their business, markets and competitors and create integrated marketing partnerships/programmes that will meet these objectives.
  • Creatively develop new commercial opportunities and initiatives that can be successfully taken to market which will include IP, media, promotional, and event-based assets
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders and senior decision makers at potential partners and agencies in the region
  • Work collaboratively with other internal NBA functions, both in this region and globally, to help develop rights packages that can successfully be taken to market.
  • Work with the other members of the EME Business Development team on shaping the regional strategy and proactively contribute to sales efforts in other EME markets as required.

Required Skills/Knowledge

  • Successful track record in international sales (preferably within the sports sector)
  • Strong understanding of the sponsorship market and a network of relationships across all sectors of the sponsorship landscape
  • A track record of securing sponsorship contracts for rights holders
  • Ability to develop creative solutions which will meet the objectives of prospective marketing partners
  • Strategic thinker – able to shape, develop and execute the strategy for a diverse region
  • Strong persuasive and negotiation skills
  • A credible communicator, adept at operating at Board/Senior Executive level and with excellent presentation skills
  • Commercially minded and results driven – ability to meet and exceed sales targets
  • Ability to work well within a matrix organization
  • Fluency in English. Additional languages such as French / Spanish would be helpful but not essential.

The Executives in Sport Group are retained on behalf of the NBA to appoint a New Business Development Manager. All direct applications and CV’s will be forwarded to The Executives in Sport Group.