Education Sector Development Executive
Location
Darlaston, West Midlands | United Kingdom
Job description
Hours: Full time, Permanent
Location: Field based with visits to office at Jamesbridge, Darlaston when required
Salary: Up to £40,000 depending on experience + Company Car, Laptop, Mobile Phone + opportunity to earn a bonus of up to 20%
We are a dynamic and innovative retail, wholesale, and foodservice business, committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences and staying at the forefront of industry trends.
Reporting to the FoodService Education Sector Manager the Business Development Executive will be driving growth within the independent secondary schools and multi-academy trust sectors. This key role requires an experienced individual who can effectively engage with kitchen leadership and school bursars, influence their procurement decisions, and develop long-lasting partnerships.
Key Responsibilities:
1. New Business Development:
- Identify, target, and engage with key decision-makers in independent secondary schools and multi-academy trusts.
- Develop and execute a comprehensive business development strategy to acquire new customers.
- Set and achieve ambitious sales targets and drive a CAGR >30%.
- Articulate the value proposition of Blakemore Foodservice and tailor it to the specific needs of each client.
- Build and maintain a robust pipeline of potential clients.
2. Account Management:
- Manage and nurture existing accounts to ensure ongoing growth in sales, order sizes, share of basket, and profitability.
- Develop strong relationships with clients, becoming a trusted advisor and resource.
- Drive double digit year-on-year sales and profit growth for existing accounts as per the business plan.
- Continuously seek opportunities for upselling and cross-selling solutions from the wider Blakemore estate.
3. Cross-functional Collaboration:
- Collaborate with in-house telesales partners to drive order quality and growth.
- Work closely with the marketing team to execute a channel-specific marketing plan targeting the education sector.
- Collaborate with the IT department to ensure systems integration and alignment to streamline processes.
- Partner with the food development team/chefs to plan and present customised food solutions to clients.
- Engage with the finance team to ensure customers remain in good financial standing and deliver against channel profitability targets.
4. Specific Targets – In accordance with set KPI’s:
- Acquire independent secondary schools and new multi-academy trust clients as per the plan and within the first year.
- Exceed the revenue targets from new accounts.
- Deliver the customer retention rate targets.
- Increase the average order size within the first year
- Collaborate with the marketing team to execute channel-specific marketing campaigns every quarter.
- Monitor and maintain target profit margin across accounts.
5. Key Knowledge, Skills, Experience and Qualifications Required
- Proven track record of successful direct sales to educational institutions, particularly secondary schools, and multi-academy trusts.
- Exceptional influencing skills and the ability to build strong, lasting relationships.
- Highly competitive and results-driven with a strong desire to win new business.
- Financially literate and comfortable managing a P&L.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
- Self-motivated and able to work independently while contributing to a collaborative team environment.
About you:
Join our Foodservice team as a Business Development Executive – and contribute to our mission of delivering exceptional customer experiences through data-driven decision-making and with a desire to make change, so if you think this is you - we'd love to hear from you.
What’s in it for you?
You will play a vital role in our business and have a huge impact on our success so not only will you receive excellent training, support, and continued development but we will also offer a competitive salary and superb benefits package.
- 34 days holiday per year including public holidays (Increasing after 3, 5 and 10 years)
- Use of a Company Car, or take a Car Allowance as an alternative
- Bonus of up to 20% of annual salary
- Mobile Phone & laptop
- Cycle to work scheme
- Develop your skills and capability in a highly supportive and multi-diverse culture
- Outstanding Training & Development opportunities
- Gain hands-on experience in a high volume, fast paced environment
- Enhanced Maternity & Paternity pay packages
- Flexible working hours opportunity
- Excellent additional benefits package including:
- Early access to your pay through ‘EarlyPay’
- 24/7 access to your payslips via HR/Payroll portal
- 12.5% Staff discount on fresh items & 10% Staff Discount on ambient products in our SPAR stores (ex. Alcohol & Cigarettes)
- Wellbeing support – access to emotional support, counselling, legal and financial advice
- Company Pension Scheme
- Company Life Insurance worth 1 x Annual Salary and 6 x Annual Salary with Company Pension Scheme
- NEST pension scheme
- Extra Holiday - Purchase Scheme
- Long Service Awards
Inclusive environment: as a Disability Confident Committed employer we are dedicated to creating a fair, inclusive workplace for all. We offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
You may have experience in the following: Education Sector Development Executive, Business Development Executive, Sales Executive, Account Manager, Key Account Manager, Client Relationship Manager, etc.
REF-212 283
Job tags
Salary
£40k per annum
