Senior Account Manager – England Rugby Hospitality

England Rugby Hospitality (ERH) is the RFU’s new and exclusive partnership with Keith Prowse and is the primary place to purchase official hospitality at Twickenham for England Internationals.

ERH is able to offer hospitality in four brand new state of the art facilities, thereby enhancing our clients’ matchday hospitality experience. This is therefore a rare opportunity within the Sports Hospitality Industry to be part of a career-defining project which completely changes the landscape of how hospitality at a venue is sold.

The roles of Senior Account Manager will be critical to our success, so we’re looking for passionate, dynamic, resilient and results-driven individuals to help us achieve and exceed team, company and match targets.

Experience in a sales role is essential. Successful candidates will have experience of working well under pressure, have strong interpersonal skills and be able to work well as part of a team and on their own initiative.

Key Stakeholders:

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the governing body for grassroots and elite rugby in England, with 2,000 rugby clubs in its membership. Its income is made up of funding from sponsorship, government, ticket sales, merchandising, hospitality and catering, a hotel, travel and leisure companies and TV rights.

Twickenham Experience Ltd (TEL) is the RFU’s joint venture with Compass Group Plc., which manages and operates all match day catering, hospitality and bar services as well as non-match day catering, conference and event management services at Twickenham Stadium.

Keith Prowse (KP) is TEL’s official match day hospitality sales partner and has the responsibility for hospitality sales within the stadium. KP have been the official hospitality provider for almost 40 years at some of the UK’s top sporting events such as Twickenham Stadium, The Championships Wimbledon; Investec Derby Festival. KP have the largest hospitality inventory in the UK and designs hospitality experiences in line with today’s consumer tastes; each event is different and draws a unique crowd. Using a tiered approach to hospitality, each experience is tailored to the target audience and allows the customer to clearly recognise the differences between price points, exclusions and inclusions.

England Rugby Hospitality (ERH) is the entity set up by the RFU and supported by KP that sits within TEL to market and sell all match day hospitality within Twickenham Stadium ( including the new east stand ), to include all Boxes (2000 guests) and all Suites ( c 8655 guests).

Nature and Scope:

Moving forward, the only place that official hospitality for England Rugby can be purchased is via ERH. The ERH Corporate Sales Team will build Twickenham business by promoting the new East Stand Development project and existing facilities.

The ERH Senior Account Manager is a fundamental player with significant revenue expectations and ambitions. This is a critical role contributing to the growth and success of the business, given that a large % of the overall revenue target will be delivered by this team and where the holder is personally responsible for a stretching but achievable individual sales target.

Accountabilities:

• Further building on an existing client portfolio. Subject to ERH/ KP ways of working.
• Client retention through established strong existing relationships.
• Annual sales target in excess of £1million.
• Maximising revenue by utilising the ERH/ KP database and managing the sales process.
• Creating and attending appointments / customer show rounds, with both new and existing customers.
• Implementing new initiatives to drive new business.
• Making sure individual and team KPI’s are hit.
• Provide a weekly sales report to the Head of Premium Sales.
• Presenting the ERH inventory to both new and existing customers. Maximising the marketing suite and entertaining opportunities to introduce the new facilities at Twickenham.
• To identify new customers and areas of growth, maximising potential around customers who haven’t bought within the stadium previously.
• To extend relationships beyond hospitality bookers i.e. procurement and finance etc.
• Responding to and being the point of contact for all sales and non-sales issues and enquiries, resolving within the agreed time frames.
• Creating bespoke sales plans by account – where required.
• Meeting both annual and match specific sales targets.
• Maintaining required sales pace.
• Building and managing a sales pipeline and managing this to the agreed standard.
• Logging all sales activity within the CRM system and managing this to the agreed standard.
• Staying on top of campaign activity.
• Being aware of market intelligence and competitor activity.
• Actively collaborate with ERH, RFU & KP colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of strategic, business and operational plans.
• Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of ERH, RFU & KP at all times, including the promotion of the Core Values.
• Undertake such other duties as maybe required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation.