Sales Director
Any business, whether they’re mass producing widgets or selling their consultancy services, needs a steady flow of new customers to achieve growth or replace those that are lost.
In a competitive sector, that can’t be done with placing ads in industry newspapers and building a website – it needs an overarching sales strategy that takes the board’s growth and sustainability goals and achieves them through winning new clients and keeping existing clients happy.
This strategy is the responsibility of the director of sales, an executive level position that ensures the commercial health of the company is assured, at least from the revenue perspective.
The sales director accomplishes this strategic goal by managing a team of sales consultants, which might have its own hierarchy or could be just a few people, depending on the size of the business.
Sales Director skills required
Sales director jobs always require a good understanding of the basics of sales: marketing, networking, negotiation and contracts. A vital component of the skill set will be an ability to fully understand the products and services they are selling, as they may well be asked very technical questions whether it’s a sales meeting or a trade fair, and full knowledge is impressive and expedient.
They’ll also need to know the capabilities of the production team, supply chain and logistics when they are promising to supply goods or services to customers. That means they should be able to communicate effectively internally and externally, and to maintain good working relationships across the board.
Sales Director Jobs in Carlisle
Carlisle is the north-easternmost city in England, its outskirts lying just 4 miles (6 km) from the Scottish border. It’s roughly equal to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in terms of latitude, although it is much smaller, having a population of only 100,000. The city is served by the M6 which passes along its east side as it makes its way from Preston and Birmingham in the south, and changes into the A74(M) as it goes north towards Glasgow. The road east is the A59 which heads to Newcastle, and westwards, the A595 reaches the coastal towns of Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness. Carlisle is also on the main railway line from Manchester to Glasgow and Edinbugh. It is also the end point of the Settle to Carlisle railway line, which is considered one of the most scenic rail journeys in the UK.
The city can trace its roots back at least to Roman times, where, it is thought, it would have been a settlement connected with Hadrian’s Wall; the Wall would have sliced modern-day Carlisle in two. It must have been considered a strategic hotspot as it continued to be settled after the Romans, and a castle was built there in medieval times, as was the town’s cathedral. The city changed hands many times over the following centuries, most notably in 1745 when it was briefly held by Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Carlisle did play its part in the Industrial Revolution, but its relative isolation meant it was never one of the major players. It did grow a thriving railway engineering industry, however, and textiles were quite an important employer. Carr’s of Carlisle was founded around this time, and it would later become United Biscuits. Metal Box had a factory in the city, and it lives on under the Crown Holdings umbrella. There is still plenty of diversity in Carlisle’s industrial base, and as it’s so well connected it will always be a good place to look for Sales Director jobs. The logistics industry would be quite different today without one of its Carlisle’s successful companies, Eddie Stobart, which was founded in the 1950s.
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Sales director jobs at Cast UK
Cast UK specialises in executive-level recruitment in a wide range of industries. We are a hub for both those seeking to take a step up the career ladder and those looking for top quality talent.
If you need to find that director of sales to realise your goals and strategies, get in touch with Cast UK on 0333 121 3345 today or contact us here.
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