About Smart
Smart Training and Recruitment is a specialist Apprenticeship and skills provider, privately-owned, well-respected organisation within our sector. We deliver learning programmes across health and social care, hospitality, business administration, professional development, and warehousing and logistics.
We are in the middle of an ambitious growth phase, working towards achieving a vast increase of “in learning” numbers and a considerably higher turnover. All this whilst continuing with the delivery quality that got us here. We are doing that through productivity and better ways of working rather than simply hiring more people. Our culture is relaxed professionalism. Confident but not stiff, polished but not corporate, committed and ambitious for the future.
The role
We are looking for a Sales Manager to run the day to day of our commercial team and turn the plan into delivered numbers. You will lead our Business Development Managers and Sales Development Representatives, report to our Managing Director, and sit on the Senior Leadership Team.
This is not a role that manages a spreadsheet from a distance, it is hands on. You will coach live deals, run the pipeline rhythm, hold the standard on qualification and forecasting, and build capability in the people around you. The number matters, but the number follows from a fully coached, highly prepared team rather than the other way round.
You will also work in close partnership with our Marketing Manager, so that marketing, sales and enrolment run as one pipeline rather than three departments that email each other.
What you will own
· The team and the budget. Lead the Business Development Managers and Sales Development Representatives to agreed monthly and annual targets and own the sales contribution to our budgeted learner starts and revenue.
· Coaching and development. Run a genuine coaching rhythm of weekly one to ones, live deal reviews, call and meeting reviews and skills work. Hold a documented development plan for every person and develop the bench so Sales Development Representatives can progress towards Business Development Manager roles.
· Qualification and discipline. Embed and sustain our qualification methodologies, BANT-C at the top of the funnel and MEDDPICC on live opportunities. Own the discipline in Zoho: clean stages, realistic close dates, lead source recorded, and no ghost pipeline.
· Forecasting. Produce a consistent, trustworthy forecast throughout the month rather than a month end scramble. Flag risk early and give the leadership team something they can plan against.
· New business and key account growth. Carry a personal focus on strategic and large employer accounts, and build relationships with levy payers, national employers and partners.
· Rhythm and productivity. Own the weekly pipeline review, and work artificial intelligence supported tools into how the team qualifies, prepares and follows up. Designed to save time, not add to the burden of administration.
What we are looking for
Essential
· A track record of managing a business-to-business sales team, field based, desk based or both and delivering against a number.
· A genuine and demonstrable coach. Someone who has measurably improved salespeople, not simply supervised them.
· Strong discipline around data and customer relationship management, with the confidence to challenge poor quality pipeline information.
· Self-directed, able to create daily presence and a coaching cadence with a dispersed team.
· Comfortable building rhythm and standards in a growing, changing function rather than inheriting a finished machine.
· Practical use of artificial intelligence tools in your own working week, rather than an interest in the subject.
· Full driving licence and willingness to travel, including occasional overnight stays.
Desirable
· Experience in apprenticeships, skills, further education or workforce development. Desirable, not essential. If you can lead and coach a sales team, we will teach you the sector.
· Working knowledge of Apprenticeship Funding Rules.
· Advanced working knowledge of a customer relationship management system, ideally Zoho.
· Experience of embedding artificial intelligence or productivity tools into a live sales workflow.
· Fluency in sales qualification methodology, from the BANT and MEDDIC families, and the ability to teach it as well as apply it.
What good looks like in your first six months
We would rather be clear now than vague later. Six months in, we would expect to see:
· A weekly forecast the leadership team trusts, with variance understood and under control.
· Every member of the team running BANT-C and MEDDPICC as standard, evidenced in Zoho.
· A live coaching rhythm in place, with a documented development plan for each person.
· Pipeline coverage tracked against budget, with risk flagged early enough to act on.
· A clean Zoho: honest stages, current close dates, lead source recorded, and no dead opportunities inflating the picture.
· A working partnership with Marketing, with lead flow and conversion reviewed together rather than separately.
What we offer
· Competitive salary depending on experience, plus part of the Senior Leadership reward scheme
· Flexible working hours based on those necessary for the completion of your duties and are based on the average minimum hours of thirty-five hours per business week (Monday to Thursday 8.45am until 5pm and Friday 8.45am until 1pm).
· Seven business weeks paid holidays (including bank holidays) broken down into 63 half days.
· Enrolment onto company occupational pension scheme
· Range of benefits and services are provided to you by the employer’s partner Bravo including access to a digital employee health and wellness platform.
· Commercial groundwork already done. A rebuilt customer relationship management system, an agreed sales methodology and a non-executive commercial adviser on hand to coach you through year one. You are not arriving to fix a broken system.
· A privately owned business where decisions get made quickly and you will know the people making them.
· Remote or hybrid, with regular travel to our Isle of Wight head office and into the field
How to apply
Send a current curriculum vitae and a short covering note to Jan Hopkinson [email protected]. Tell us about a salesperson you improved and how you know you improved them. That will interest us more than a list of targets hit.
Closing date: 31st August 2026. We will respond to every applicant within five working days.
Job Type: Full-time
Work Location: Remote
