We are searching for a Groups Sales Director who has a proven track record selling to SME clients in the MSP / IT Services / IT Support space in the UK. You must be able to demonstrate that you have led and worked across multiple teams to deliver the overall sales objective. My client is acquiring IT services companies and your role will be to lead the sales function and work with the sales directors of each group company to meet the overall sales objective.
Direct reports: Regional sales leads (initially the entity MDs in their commercial capacity).
Purpose
Own the group sales engine. Build a national selling capability and professionalise commercial discipline across the entities, while preserving the local relationships that SME customers buy. Remove the single point of failure created by MDs owning all commercial activity, and provide cover and succession across the regions.
Context of group today
• Growth today is driven almost entirely by the MDs, who act as their own sales directors. This is a single point of failure and is not professionalised, measured, or repeatable.
• We operate a blended model: national capability and standards, with service and response delivered locally so the customer experience stays local.
• Target state: Customers should be owned by the group, not solely by the subsidiary, with the group holding the capability to sell.
• Target market is SME accounts broadly 20 to 200 seats, including decent-sized accounts of several hundred seats. This is not an enterprise pursuit function.
Key responsibilities
Sales operations and cadence:
• Embed the customer journey end to end: lead generation, nurture, QBRs, annual client budgets, conversion percentages, and a 12-month revenue pipeline per account.
• Drive and monitor MD activity. Hold leaders to account on QBRs, follow-ups, and pipeline hygiene. Make sure the basics are done and measured.
• Work with Technology and Finance to productise the group's offerings into a standardised, sellable product set.
• Own whitespace analysis across the group base, seeking to align customers to the standardised product stack; own sales pricing and packaging strategy.
• Set and enable revenue per head performance and targets as the sales organisation scales.
• Build and operate an ARR/MRR forecasting portfolio, and collaborate with delivery leadership on pre-sales and project forecasting.
• Run lead generation through HubSpot and the order book through HaloPSA and Sage, keeping these systems the single source of commercial truth.
Direct selling:
• Personally lead larger and multi-region ICP opportunities, pitching as the group with the confidence of group scale and capability.
• Take inbound opportunities (for example a 200-seat business within ICP) and run them centrally rather than passing straight to an entity MD.
• Carry out client visits on significant opportunities where group weight adds value.
Customer ownership and localness:
• Transition customer ownership to the group while protecting the local relationship and feel that underpins retention.
• Define how regional sales leadership and national selling sit together so localness is preserved, not eroded.
Standards, best practice and lead conversion:
• Professionalise commercial best practice across entities, including land-and-expand and wallet-share growth rather than new logos alone.
• Work with the CMO to convert marketing-generated leads (MQL to SQL to close) and replace underperforming external lead-gen agencies.
• Build and refine the core sales process: qualification, pitch, proposal, close. Deliver this as part of a 90-day sales playbook for onboarding and integration, with focus on client retention, brand transition, and account manager and sales rep onboarding and training.
• Drive cross-sell and upsell enablement across the existing base, with defined plays, collateral, and targets per entity.
Cover, succession and integration:
• Provide a framework for succession planning. Step in to manage client relationships when an MD is unavailable or exits.
• Manage commercial individuals up or out against a higher-performer standard.
• Lead on sales integration during onboarding and thereafter.
• Build a strong understanding of the client base pre and post deal:
• Produce a whitespace report during onboarding.
• Identify key commercial KPIs and begin reporting them.
• Establish customer risk ratings and customer tiering.
Group sales capability:
• As the Group grows in size through acquisitions, hire and build out a high performing Group level sales team (e.g., Regional sales directors, national SDRs) to drive incremental, direct Group sales
• Design and operate the group sales compensation and incentives model, aligned to margin, retention, and cross-sell rather than new logo volume alone.
New pillar growth (AI and Cyber):
• Champion AI and Cyber as new pillar focus areas for growth and capability: build propositions, sales enablement, and pipeline for both, working with the CMO and technical leadership.
Reporting and governance:
• Own the commercial section of the monthly board pack: pipeline, ARR/MRR forecast, conversion rates, and sales KPIs reported consistently across entities.
Candidate profile
• Blended sales leader: both a sales operations and enablement mindset (activity, cadence, measurement) and a credible front-line seller able to win and visit larger accounts.
• Background in SME-focused IT services, MSP, or comparable recurring-revenue B2B; understands the sell, nurture, review, refresh cycle (not a sell-once telecoms model).
• Commands the respect of entrepreneurial MDs and can drive them without owning every relationship.
• Comfortable operating across multiple regions and entities, setting standards centrally and executing locally.
• Top-tier, long-term calibre with the capacity to grow into a larger national platform.
Measures of success
With subsidiary companies nationally (enablement):
• Improvement in MQL to SQL conversion rates, with a working CAC inside target for typical customers.
• New logo wins within ICP and improved wallet share across the existing base.
• QBR completion, client budgets set, and a quantified, monitored 12-month pipeline per account.
• Contribution to FP1 organic growth and reduced churn.
Direct contribution
• Group level revenue and EBITDA contribution by acquiring and converting larger bids (exact criteria TBC, e.g., multi-region, multi-site customer accounts, customer accounts with over 200 seats etc.) sold at the Group level
Salary description
£100000.00 - £130000.00 per year