Commercial Manager, Americas

FT Live overview:

Financial Times Live (FT Live) is the conferences and events division of the Financial Times newspaper and its group publications. Our mission is to bring our global executive audiences the very latest in knowledge and opinion, and connect them to one another.

Chaired by senior FT journalists, the 200-plus core events, strategic forums and digital webinars organised by FT Live every year gather pre-eminent public and private sector decision-makers, visionaries and strategists from the world’s most important economies and industries for agenda-setting debates that cover the key issues of our time.

From unique experiences such as the FTWeekend Festival to our senior-level business summits such as the award winning Global Boardroom, FT Live has become one of the FT Group’s most successful and fastest-growing divisions, and is at the forefront of the FT’s accelerated development as an essential, interactive information source across numerous platforms.

Summary of role:

FT Live is looking for an individual to join our commercial team to develop and grow the US events portfolio, maximising revenue from existing and newly sourced clients, and helping with new product development efforts within the Americas region. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to expansion plans within the region for a market leader.

In this role, you will:

• Support the development of the events portfolio within FT Live US.
• Collaborate with global content portfolio managers and internal stakeholders to generate new revenue streams and launch events.
• Organize and attend regular client meetings to keep abreast of market opportunities and develop new business.
• Work across FT Live’s entire portfolio of products which includes bespoke events, webinars, half and full day conferences, and industry leading awards.
• Be responsible for all stages of the commercial cycle, including: prospect identification, extensive market outreach, client consultation, proposal creation, contract negotiation and signing.
• Prospect, pitch, and close new business in excess of annual targets.
• Keep precise records of conversations with all targets and clients.
• Maintain and strategically develop a number of existing key accounts.
• Identify and generate new leads to drive revenue.
• Analyze the territories in assigned sectors and prioritize new business.
• Exceed monthly activity levels.
• Work closely with the events delivery team; editorial/content, marketing, design and operations.
• Manage the client relationship throughout the event lifecycle.
• Attend and network at industry events.

 

You will bring to the role:

• Excellent level of initiative, self-motivation, pro-activeness and a strong passion for sales.
• Comfortable with conducting the necessary calls and outreach efforts to contact all key stakeholders within a sell-side ecosystem.
• Experience of creating new revenue streams and increasing the value of existing ones
• Proven commercial track record within a B2B sales environment
• Commercial awareness and ability to adapt your sales approach based on industry sector and job function.
• Awareness of wider industry segment business issues and ability to converse credibly with clients on a range of national and international business topics.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to use influencing strategies to gain commitment both with peers and colleagues.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to juggle multiple projects.
• Extensive research skills.
• Proficient in MS Office suite, LinkedIn and Salesforce CRM.
• Educated to degree level.

Desirable:

• Experience creating revenue streams within a B2B environment or a commercial events business through sponsorship sales.
• Ability to work within a large, dynamic and fast moving international business.
• Proven ability to deliver new business against performance related targets.
• Demonstrated ability to adapt approach based on client’s needs.
• Experience of dealing with senior level management professionals.
• Understanding of wider industry segment business issues and ability to converse credibly with clients on a range of national and international business topics.
• Experience of working internationally.
• Task and time management proficiency.

Experience:

A minimum of 2-3 years sales experience in a B2B sales environment is essential. Events sponsorship sales experience at a recognized media owner or conference company would be preferable.

This role would be su