Sales Manager / Sales Director

What We’re Looking For

• A strong new-business hunter, not primarily an account manager or relationship manager.

• Proven experience in a high-activity, short and repeatable sales cycle.

• Demonstrable track record of personally closing new-business deals.

• Ability to provide specific, quantifiable sales results.

• Comfortable prospecting, managing pipeline, negotiating and closing independently.

• Strong resilience, self-management and ability to consistently work toward targets.

• Excellent spoken and written English, with the ability to sell to senior stakeholders across the US and Europe.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and target new business opportunities.

• Generate and manage a consistent sales pipeline.

• Conduct outbound prospecting and sales activity.

• Qualify prospects and identify decision-makers.

• Lead sales conversations, presentations and negotiations.

• Manage opportunities through the full sales cycle, from first contact through to close.

• Personally close new-business deals.

• Consistently achieve or exceed agreed sales targets.

• Maintain accurate pipeline and forecasting information.

• Build a repeatable and disciplined sales process.

• Manage activity and priorities independently in a remote environment.

Target Candidate Backgrounds

B2B Data, Intelligence & Market Research

• Subscription research and insight platforms.

• B2B data and analytics.

• Market intelligence.

• Examples include:

  • Gartner

  • GlobalData

  • Forrester

  • IDC

  • S&P Global Market Intelligence

Conferences, Events & B2B Media

• Sponsorship sales.

• Exhibitor sales.

• Delegate/ticket sales.

• Webinar and virtual-event sponsorship.

• Lead-generation sales.

• B2B media advertising and subscription sales.

Short-Cycle SaaS

Prioritise candidates from:

• HR Tech / Recruitment Tech – ATS, HRIS, payroll platforms.

• Sales engagement and sales enablement.

• Martech / Adtech.

• Fintech, payments and invoice-finance SaaS.

• SMB-focused cybersecurity.

• E-commerce enablement.

• Workflow and productivity SaaS.

Recruitment / Staffing Sales

• IT / technology contract staffing.

• Finance and accountancy recruitment.

• Temp/perm generalist staffing.

• Engineering and construction recruitment.

• Candidates with strong commission-driven, high-activity sales backgrounds.

Insurance & Financial Services Sales

• SME / commercial insurance broking.

• Merchant services and payment processing.

• Invoice and asset finance.

• Workplace pensions.

• Employee benefits.

Sales-Academy Companies

Candidates from structured sales organisations such as:

• Gartner

• ZoomInfo

• Salesforce

• HubSpot

• Oracle

• SAP

• LinkedIn Sales / Talent Solutions

• ADP

• ServiceNow

Must-Have Criteria

• Hunter mentality: Majority of experience should be new-business focused.

• Closing experience: Must personally own and close deals.

• Quantifiable results: Candidate must be able to clearly provide:

  • Quota

  • Quota attainment

  • Deal size

  • Number of deals

  • Activity levels

  • Conversion rates

  • Sales-cycle length

• Track record: Evidence of consistent target achievement.

• Stability: Avoid candidates with a repeated pattern of short-term moves without clear achievements.

• Communication: Fluent, polished and client-ready English.

• Senior stakeholder exposure: Comfortable selling to senior decision-makers.

Nice to Have

• Previous fully remote / home-based experience.

• Experience selling into US and European markets.

• Experience with structured sales methodologies such as:

  • MEDDIC

  • Challenger

  • Sandler

• Strong self-generated pipeline experience.

Important Screening Note

• Remote experience is NOT a requirement.

• Do not reject an otherwise strong candidate because they have not previously worked remotely.

• Assess their ability to work independently as part of the interview process.