Head of Sales - #188423

About the role

Zen is the largest independently owned, and B Corp certified, telecoms and technology service provider in the UK. We’re the only Which? Recommended Provider and are renowned for delivering excellent customer service and technical support. We place our people at the heart of all that we do and are recognised as a Great Place To Work.

Following the launch of The Fibre Hub in 2025, Zen has exciting and ambitious plans to become the UK’s Alt Net aggregator of choice.

The Partner Division sells connectivity, voice and cloud services, with a particular focus on connectivity, through a network of 600 partners and service providers. Our strategy is to attract new like-minded partners, while supporting existing partners to retain and grow their installed base through the decade of full fibre and the transition to all-IP.

The post holder is a key member of the Partner Senior Management Team and is responsible for leading a team of field and office-based account managers in our Partner Division, alongside contributing to the effective running of the division. They are responsible for delivering the sales growth and targets for the partner division, across the portfolio of services.

They will be expected to inspire, lead, coach and develop the team to maximise sales performance, working closely with marketing, portfolio, finance and operational teams. This is a very collaborative role and the ideal candidate will work with a high degree of autonomy, will have excellent inter-personal skills and be comfortable working closely with representatives from across the business.

The post holder will be expected to be enthusiastic and an inspirational leader with excellent commercial and people skills. The role will report to the Managing Director of Partner

What you'll do

• Develop and execute a clear vision, strategy and plan for the installed base sales team to support the division to achieve its objectives, pro-actively taking corrective action, modifying plans as necessary to meet business performance.Contribute as part of the Partner management team to determine the short and long-term strategy for the partner division, providing strategic sales input into development of the annual plan.
• Monitor the sales team performance and ensure targets are met at both individual and team level.
• Motivate, coach and develop the team to maximise sales performance, whilst also ensuring we deliver an outstanding service to our partners.
• Provide regular clear feedback on performance to the sales team, balancing both recognition and areas for improvement, putting in place development and training plans.
• Set clear KPI’s to track both sales pipeline and performance, ensuring that targets are met.
• Provide regular forecasts of sales pipeline, ensuring that sales pipeline is accurate in our CRM platform.
• Ensure that each account manager has a clear account development plan for their base i.e. key decision makers, wallet share, competitor spend v Zen, key growth accounts, at risk accounts and provide support through coaching to uncover and convert opportunities. Ensuring that the information is kept up to date in our CRM platform.
• Develop a clear understanding of the opportunities across the installed base and a plan to convert the opportunity.
• Effectively balance the distribution of accounts across the team to maximise our available resources and to ensure that the workload is balanced in a fair and even way
• Engage directly with partners to build relationships, support key opportunities, gather feedback on the overall Zen service and competitor insight.
• Collaborate effectively with the partner management team to ensure clear alignment on partner messaging, activities, targets and communication to the sales team.
• Work closely with our Operational and Service teams to share feedback on the partner experience, put forward ideas to improve service and jointly strive to deliver an outstanding partner experience.
• Work very closely with our partner marketing team to provide input on messaging, joint campaigns,effectiveness of marketing campaigns and where we should focus our marketing resources.
• Maintain a thorough knowledge of the competitor landscape, industry trends and opportunities, use this knowledge to influence our strategic direction.
• Share partner and competitor insight with the portfolio team to shape our product and technology roadmap, pricing strategy and to align activity.
• Build a solid relationship with the Partner SMT sharing your view and collaborating effectively on joint activities to ensure the effective running of the division.
• Clearly communicate the performance of the sales team to the sales team, division, management team, ExCo and Board.

Share best practice with other sales leaders across Zen to utilise collective skills and experience