Delegate Sales Manager, FT Live

About Us

The FT has an uncompromising mission: delivering independent, quality information, news and services to individuals and companies around the globe. It’s the cornerstone of our reputation and the heart of our ambitions for the future. But for our people, the FT offers so much more than what we do. FT people come from all kinds of backgrounds and work across a huge range of disciplines and locations, and find an empowering, warm and welcoming culture that values curiosity and rewards smart, ambitious thinking. Those who are willing to unite around our mission and live our values will find plenty to challenge, inspire and interest them. Like the audiences we serve, no two FT people are the same; but together we help our audience be better informed and understand the world around them. It’s a job that’s never mattered more, and a career that can take you anywhere you want to go.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

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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.

The Role / Position Overview

This role will operate on the front-line of FT Live’s relationship with paying delegates. You will be responsible for ensuring that we achieve growth in our delegate revenues by selling our event products in a targeted and compelling way. You will work closely with counterparts in VIP acquisition and research to closely coordinate our market outreach, seeking to increase the revenues that we derive from paying delegates as well as delivering an audience that reflects the quality and seniority that are expected of FT Live events.

This role will form part of the Delegate Services Department, which forms a key part of FT Live’s ‘Premium Experiences’ strategy. Success in this role will be defined by your ability to identify relevant delegate prospects, deliver a persuasive and compelling case for why they should purchase a ticket to our events and build a relationship with them to the extent that they see FT Live as a key part of their annual calendar and come back to us year-on-year.

Key Responsibilities

• To meet and exceed weekly, monthly and annual delegate revenue targets across your portfolio;
• To develop an expertise on the agendas and issues of interest to prospective delegates within your assigned sector, with a view to improving conversion rates.
• Calling and engaging with prospective delegates, providing a clear articulation of our event proposition and obtaining new paid registrations
• Engaging with existing clients via the phone or email in order to develop lasting relationships
• Achieve weekly and monthly KPIs including call time and dials outs, set by the Head of Delegate Services Acquisition & Customer Services
• Proactively generate new leads to call, working collaboratively with research counterparts
• Support the Head of Delegate Services – Acquisition & Customer Services in the successful running of the department;
• Attend weekly team meetings, giving an overview of your current event/conference delegate registrations progress.
• Support any contract Telemarketer working on your specific event/conference, with process’s and best practices. Setting a good example through your own working practices.
• Daily management and maintenance of the CRM system (SalesForce) ensuring sales activity is recorded i.e. calls and emails
• Providing feedback to wider FT Live teams on the conference campaigns, communicating any challenges and offering potential solutions
• Liaising with the Head of Delegate Acquisition Data Operations & Research to ensure you have sufficient leads and helping refine the research to progressively improve our targeting.
• Attending any project or marketing meeting where requested
• Liaising with the conference production and marketing team, to develop an understanding of the event program, theme and audience profiles.
• Provide weekly reports and forecasts as required.

Required Skills / Experience

• Experience creating revenue streams within a commercial events business through sales.
• Ability to work within a large, dynamic and fast-moving international business.
• Proven ability to deliver new business against performance-related targets.
• Experience of dealing with senior-level management internally and externally.
• Understanding of wider industry segment business issues and ability to converse credibly with clients on a range of national and international business topics.
• Task & time management proficiency.

Desirable experience:  

• Prior experience in media/events sales or business development experience at a media owner or events organisation.

What’s in it for you? Our Benefits

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working (including working from home), medical cover, enhanced maternity & paternity packages, subsidised gym memberships and Giving Back opportunities. Full details of our benefits can be found here.

Further Information

The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.

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