Commercial Sales Director
Peterborough – Office Based
Target Earnings: £80,000 – £100,000
The Role
This is a proper sales leadership role.
Not one where you inherit a successful team, sit in meetings, look at a CRM dashboard once a week and ask everybody why the numbers aren't higher.
We’re looking for a Commercial Sales Director who genuinely loves sales – winning business, developing people, improving performance and being involved in the deals that really matter.
You’ll take ownership of the commercial sales strategy, lead high-value negotiations and build a sales team that knows what good looks like.
There’s plenty of strategic responsibility, but you’ll still need to be close enough to the action to know exactly what’s happening in the pipeline, where opportunities are being won or lost and what needs to change.
If you’re at your best when you can influence the direction of a business and still get involved in making things happen, this could be a very interesting next move.
What You'll Be Doing
Own and deliver the commercial sales strategy, with a clear focus on substantial revenue growth.
Lead major new-business opportunities and high-value contract negotiations.
Build strong relationships with senior and executive-level customers.
Recruit, develop, coach and retain a genuinely high-performing sales team.
Set clear expectations around activity, pipeline, conversion and performance.
Run meaningful deal reviews – not meetings for the sake of having meetings.
Identify where deals are stalling and help your team find a way forward.
Analyse pipeline performance and use the numbers to make better commercial decisions.
Improve sales processes, playbooks and ways of working to increase win rates and reduce sales cycles.
Make sure CRM and sales technology are being used properly rather than simply being expensive places to store notes.
Work closely with Marketing, Product and Customer Success so everyone is pulling in the same commercial direction.
Bring ideas, challenge thinking and have a genuine voice in the wider business strategy.
What You’ll Need
Significant B2C AND B2B sales experience – ideally 8+ years.
At least 3–5 years' experience leading sales teams within a fast-paced or high-growth environment.
A proven track record of improving sales performance and delivering revenue growth.
Strong new-business instincts. You need to be comfortable hunting for opportunities rather than relying solely on inbound leads.
Experience managing complex or high-value sales cycles.
Confidence negotiating with senior decision-makers and executive-level stakeholders.
The commercial judgement to know when to push, when to challenge and when to walk away.
Genuine coaching ability – someone who can make good salespeople better rather than simply manage their targets.
Confidence using CRM systems such as Salesforce or HubSpot and using data to understand performance.
Experience with modern sales enablement tools would be useful.
Energy, resilience and a strong sense of personal accountability.
The ability to challenge people constructively without creating a culture where everyone is terrified to tell you something has gone wrong.
A competitive streak – but preferably without turning every Monday morning meeting into an episode of The Apprentice.
What You Might Not Like
Let’s save everyone some time.
This is office based in Peterborough. If you're looking for a predominantly remote Sales Director role, this won't be the one.
It is also not a purely strategic board-level position where somebody else handles the day-to-day sales operation. You will be expected to understand the detail, know the pipeline and get involved in important deals.
There will be targets. Big ones.
You’ll be expected to challenge performance, make changes when something isn't working and take ownership when the numbers aren't where they need to be.
And if your preferred leadership style is simply asking people to “do more activity”, you’ll probably find this uncomfortable. They want somebody who can actually diagnose why performance isn't where it should be and do something useful about it.
But if you like accountability, enjoy building successful teams and still get a buzz from winning a significant piece of business, those are probably the exact reasons you'll like it.
What To Do Next
You don't need to send me a ten-paragraph covering letter telling me you're passionate about sales.
Send me your CV.
If your background looks relevant, we’ll have a proper conversation about the business, the team, the opportunity and what they actually need you to achieve.
And if it isn't right for you, I’ll tell you that too.
No hard sell. No disappearing act. Just an honest conversation about whether it makes sense for both sides.
This role is being managed by Bea Ukaye at our Peterborough Office
