Core skills

Reading Room 

Commercial Director, Business Development

readingroom.com (full-service digital agency)

February 2018 – Redundancy June 2018. Farringdon, London

Reading Room are a full-service digital agency delivering websites, digital marketing and consultancy to high profile clients including The Royal Family, Ministry of Defence, UK-wide football clubs and a clutch of leading charities. Reporting to the MD, I was appointed to lead the commercial New Business team of six, making necessary operational changes for growth. In my short time there, I moved the team away from inbound reliance, working to get upstream of any briefs; refocused the bid, proposal writing and collateral and installed a much-needed CRM that provided transparency across the business – but most importantly, built up a sales pipeline of design, build and consultancy to £4.4m at a challenging time for the business.

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Commercial Director role made redundant due to IDOX Plc restructure of the digital business, 25 colleagues including myself were affected June 22. Agency business resized from 80 to 55.

TRND Ltd. (a Bertelsmann company)

Head of Business Development & Marketing - UK 

trnd.com/company (European consumer marketing agency)

June 2017 - Redundancy November 2017 - UK operations closed

Headquartered in Germany, TRND is a global marketing agency specialising in word-of-mouth activation, delivering in-home product trials for FMCG & tech brands. I was asked to join the UK business in the Summer of 2017 to take over from the departing sales director, delivering some much-needed business development strategy and focus on new business, client services, organic growth and key account management. Responsible for the full 360-sales-circle from initial contact to on-boarding new account wins. This role was 70:30 new business to organic growth with clients including Church & Dwight, Grouppo Campari, IAMS, Jacobs, TCCC and Estée Lauder.

Freelance Sales & Marketing Consultant: x2 full-time assignments

Fresh Consulting LLP

freshconsulting.com

(Seattle based UX & digital creative firm)

July 2016 – June 2017: 12-month fixed assignment. Home office, London

Fresh Consulting is a Seattle based digital consultancy firm specialising in business transformation. I was asked to work alongside the Lead Consultant to deliver the sales & marketing intelligence needed to successfully launch the business in the UK. This involved writing and rolling-out the strategic roadmap and marketing collateral through to commissioning lead-gen support, cold calling and arranging initial creds meetings. The ultimate strategy was to build the B2B sales pipeline, handing over to the consulting team to deliver. Fully trained in digital process, CMS & top-level technical solutions. Able to provide HEX reviews and digital insight to drive sales. Provided sales & business development insight to US teams to drive reactive & proactive sales.

Bigkid Creative 

wearebigkid.com   

(Full-service creative & marketing communications)

August 2015 – May 2016: extended short-term assignment, Caterham, Surrey

I was asked by Cubiquity, a leading print management firm, to develop and implement a sustainable new business sales & marketing strategy to enable its design studio to win its own work and not rely on internal projects. A key part of my resulting strategy was to spin the team out as a stand-alone creative agency with its own brand, personality and voice. I guided the transformation from an internal department to a stand-alone business, helping to shape the offerings, creating sales collateral, creating processes and training the teams in the importance of consultative sales – engaging with clients to share our story.igkid

Touchline

New Business Director

touchline.com

Dec 2012 - July 2015. Farringdon, Central London. UK 

Reporting directly to the founding partners, I was responsible for driving all elements of business development for the UK business.

Established in 1999, Touchline delivers quality crafted content, creative and media to high-profile clients including the IOC, FIFA and the Government of Dubai. I join the agency to focus and launch the business development function, running the sales & marketing operations – a first for the agency in roles traditionally picked up by the partners. Working alongside colleagues in the UAE and to my own sales strategy, I successfully handled the full sales cycle, largely outbound cold-calling. Successes included conceiving and launching the Thought Leadership platform Connected Worlds for BT, Amlin World for Amin Insurance, FIFA’s 2014 annual report and the membership communications programme Courtside for Badminton England.

My first role upon joining in 2012 was to commission a group website, cement a firm brand image and establish a central new business CRM, all elements which have propelled the business forward. 

Central to my role was the development of communication and marketing concepts, or campaigns, marketed to prospect and existing clients. These concepts ranged from using thought leadership as a brand-positioning tool through to shining a light upon brand sponsored activities. 

I was responsible for campaign conception through to defining prospects and refining our market message for each group. This involved the research and proactive targeting of contact to establish meetings to share our ideas. These concepts were often moulded to client’s own ambitions and followed through with quality proposals and presentations. The process naturally continued to ensure colleagues were briefed and a business case was structured to maximise profit.

New relationships worthy of mention include The Bank of England, PwC, BT, UK Sport, Investec, Coutts, Virgin Unite, Badminton England and Amlin Insurance. In addition, I also took on the role of sponsorship manager for ‘Philanthropy Age’, a not-for-profit group project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Ten Alps Creative & Media

Head of Business Development

tenalps.com

May 1999 - October 2012. Holborn, Central London. UK 

I had ultimate responsibility for acquiring profitable and substantial accounts to Ten Alps Media & Creative.

My role extended beyond the contract negotiation and transition period, ensuring that my growth strategy was maintained through effective account direction. This involved a sales management task, directing team efforts to ensure the proposed results were delivered.   

I implemented and controlled annual strategic plans for business development across both Ten Alps and client accounts, typically including competitor analysis, sector growth and market awareness. All activity was all carefully, monitored and benchmarked so I was able to present quarterly account reviews to the respective boards.

With teams specialising in contract publishing, branded content, media sales and digital development - my dual role was to deliver ‘potential rich’ accounts to the business and also account direct them - providing excellence in client service and developing organic growth.

Duties included:

Reviewing, developing and presenting the strategy and direction of growth for client accounts
 

• Working consultatively with client marketing teams

• Assessing and enhancing clients’ product portfolios

• Responding to and compiling pre-qualification, comprehensive  tender and creative documents

• Developing transparent P&L projects to secure business

• Pitching concepts and presenting proposals to senior management from both the public and private sector

• Ensuring the marketing efforts of Ten Alps were maintained

Key successes:

• Able to develop many strategic partnerships with leading associations and membership bodies, persuading them to evaluate their communications resulting in Ten Alps winning high-value business.

• Steered media industry and prospect awareness through four corporate name changes and a major PLC acquisition

• Led a working party to implement a new CRM system for the group (Enterprise Suite from ATEX Media)

• Regularly re-tendered and retained a number of competitive high-value Ministry of Defence communication contracts, from pre-qualification and tender through to Secretary of State contract negotiation.

WOM & Household Activation / Consumer Activation Marketing

Client Services

'Challenger' & Consultative sales 

Sales pipeline growth

Print & digital publishing

Development of marketing

collateral

Sales agency contract negotiation

Prospect identification

Competitive tendering

Media, sponsorship & event sales

P&L project accounting

Presentations and pitching

Recruitment & training

Account implementation

CRM maintenance