Head of Sales & Events - Maternity Cover

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The Head of Sales & Events leads MAC’s Sales team. Their main purpose is to drive income generation from Events hire e.g. conferencing, room hire and special events across MAC’s varied spaces. With line management of the Sales team delegated to the Deputy Head of Sales & Events.

The role is essential in delivering a financially and operationally successful events and venue hire business whilst working proactively with colleagues across the organisation to balance MAC’s primary role as an arts centre. The role works closely with MAC’s in-house catering team to ensure catering sales are linked to venue hire service.

Leading by example, this role champions excellent customer service and is detail orientated ensuring all our customers experience excellent service and communication from enquiry to post event feedback.

Key Responsibilities

Business Development

To continuously research the market identifying businesses or sectors currently under represented in MAC’s client base and develop strategies and packages to reach those markets, driving business to MAC.

Work cross organisationally to understand and identify hire opportunities and team capacities, working with marketing to develop plans and packages to drive business across the financial year, promoting MAC’s uniqueness as a venue.

Work closely with the Catering, Front of House and Marketing teams to continuously develop healthy, seasonal, cost effective menus which can be professionally photographed and promoted to prospective clients, driving catering sales and customer experience.

To actively engage, network and build relationships in person and via B2B channels (LinkedIn, conferences and industry events etc) with the local business community to promote MAC’s Hires spaces and its uniqueness as a venue.

To work with the Marketing team to develop processes to actively seek customer feedback and use these as a measure of success, an opportunity to learn, improve and maintain relationships for the future.

Business and Financial Planning

To be commercially and entrepreneurially minded, always seeking new event sales opportunities, whilst being sensitive to the primary needs of MAC and the content of its arts programme.

To keep under constant review, MAC’s offer and pricing in comparison to other venues in Birmingham and develop packages and pricing which reflect venue hire trends, our position in the local market and our uniqueness as a venue.

To contribute to the budget setting and review processes for Event Sales and work with Catering Management to plan for the effective delivery of annual budgets.

Work closely with the Head of Catering Operations and the Finance Team to oversee the accurate and timely financial administration of the Events business, ensuring internal processes support this.

Events Hires

To manage the Sales Team responsible for generating and converting enquiries and liaising with customers to confirm event details in order to accurately hand over to the delivery teams.

To lead on large-scale, high profile bookings or “non-standard” bookings, act as the main point of contact with the customer to understand their needs and budgets, negotiate prices and co-ordinate MAC Teams to deliver.

To champion excellent customer service and exceed customer expectations by providing the link between the Event Sales and Event Delivery teams ensuring events are delivered as planned and are operationally and financially successful.

To have the confidence to say “no”, able to recognise that not all enquiries are financially worthwhile or deliverable with the resources available across the organisation.

To work with the Marketing and Communications team to deliver the Event Sales marketing plan to attract new opportunities supported by high quality photographic and digital assets.

People

Supported by the Deputy Head of Sales & Events, lead team performance in a fair and inclusive way, utilising the support of MAC’s HR Team throughout the HR lifecycle, ensuring HR process is administered and documented correctly.

Work proactively with key departmental stakeholders, establishing strong relationships and “ways of working” which support the successful delivery of external hire events at MAC.

To champion your own development and that of the Sales team and the work they do, keeping the team up-to-date, informed and motivated towards the department and wider MAC objectives and financial targets, sharing success and being honest about challenges.

To develop training plans and objectives for the Sales Team (and individuals) which are aligned to departmental targets, focusing particularly on Service, Sales and data.

Technology

Make full use of Event specific systems to support operational planning, delivery and analysis, challenging system providers to support with development, training and reporting.

Use MAC business systems to support with the delivery of your management responsibilities, seeking training or support where required.

Compliance

Working with the Heads of Customer Service and Technical & Facilities, establish a clear understanding of MAC’s access, health & safety and emergency procedures to ensure all Events booked by the team are legally and locally compliant in these areas and clients receive accurate information to support their event preparations.

Work with the Head of Technical and Facilities colleagues to ensure all equipment used in the delivery of events is safe and compliant, reporting any issues immediately.

To incorporate MAC’s Green Group Action Plan into Sales & Events activities and offer.

Work with the Head of Catering Operations and Deputy CEO to ensure all Event bookings are compliant with MAC’s Premises License.

Other Duties

To actively contribute to the wider running of MAC as a member of the Management team.

Note

This job description outlines the principal responsibilities and duties of the post holder and is not an exhaustive list. The post holder will be expected to undertake any other duties or responsibilities commensurate with the scale or responsibility of the role.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

All staff are expected to further, promote, and ensure the implementation of the equal opportunities, diversity and safeguarding policies of MAC.

Hours of work will include occasional weekend and/or evening working and the post holder will be expected to plan their week accordingly to support their team and high profile events.

Person Specification

Essential

• Strong and confident at building professional networks
• Strong and demonstrable experience in sales and a business development role(s).
• Strong and demonstrable experience of successful sales account management and client relationship management.
• Strong and demonstrable experience of event management and operational delivery.
• Understanding of event catering delivery.
• Hands-on experience of venue management software.
• Strong communication, influencing and negotiation skills; a people person who understands how to get the best out of colleagues, including those not in their team.
• Confident and outgoing with the self-motivation to succeed in event sales.
• Customer and sales focused, whilst also understanding of the need to balance venue sales with the needs of MAC’s primary purpose as an arts venue.
• Experience of managing event sales and delivery teams.
• Experience of delivering income and expenditure budgets.
• Highly organised and ability to multi-task.
• Computer literate experienced across Microsoft packages and a range of event specific software.
• Excellent knowledge and sales experience in the venue industry, or exhibition and conferencing centres.
• Experience of dealing with agents and agencies for booking events.

Desirable

• Network and connections to local organisations/venue hire customers.
• Hands on experience of using Yesplan or resource booking / planning software.
• Hands on experience of CRM and/or sales lead systems
• Knowledge of the arts sector, and of working in an arts centre.

How to Apply

To apply for this post please follow the link below and follow the application process.

Please note that all applications are anonymised during the shortlisting stage. Any attached CVs will not be used at the shortlisting stage, so please ensure you complete the application fully and include all of your experiences, qualifications and any skills you have that would help us when considering you for this role.

Deadline

This job is on open on a rolling basis until it is filled therefore we strongly advise you to submit your application as early as possible.

Please note that we will assess applications on a rolling basis and therefore we may close this vacancy at any time.

Shortlisting

Shortlisted candidates will be notified of the outcome of their application between the time they submit their application and the application deadline.

Interviews

To be arranged with short-listed candidates.