RSA House - Venue Sales Manager

Venue Sales Manager

RSA House

Job type: Full-time, on-site at RSA House

Reporting to: Head of Sales and Marketing

The Company

Company of Cooks is the RSA’s contract catering partner and in December 2022 won a five year contract extension to run the hospitality business and Coffee House at RSA House. Company of Cooks have been working with some of the UK’s most cherished venues since 1996, delighting customers and clients alike with great food and drinks, brilliant service and an absolute focus on the details that make good restaurants, cafes and bars, great ones. We operate all restaurants, bars, events and staff catering at the Royal Opera House, the restaurant and café at the National Portrait Gallery, and are being invited to return to the Royal Academy of Arts in Burlington Gardens after their 250th anniversary redevelopment. We are excited to be recruiting for a Wedding Executive based at The Royal Society of Arts.

The Client (the venue, RSA House)

The RSA is the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce, a charity committed to a future that works for everyone. A future where we can all participate in its creation. The RSA has been at the forefront of significant social impact for over 260 years. Their proven change process, rigorous research, innovative ideas platforms and diverse global community of over 30,000 problem-solvers, deliver solutions for lasting change.

The RSA is dependent on revenue from external events, fellowship subscriptions, sponsorship and donations in order to carry out this important work. The profits generated from hospitality business are fed back into the charity to fund the RSA’s programmes of work such as Education and Learning, Sustainability and The Future of Work.

In 2018, RSA House went through a nine-month partial redevelopment which included closure of four of the 11 spaces, including refreshing our fabulous and historic vaults. In 2019 we rebuilt the events business with a refreshed product including a new Coffee House  with an all-day dining menu. In 2020, the venue proudly picked up three awards; Best Wedding Venue at the Hire Space Awards and Best Historic Venue and Silver for Best Venue Customer Service at the London Venue Awards. In 2020 seven event spaces were refurbished during the pandemic and the RSA has heavily invested in advanced digital technology and hybrid capabilities, to enhance the event experience and to ensure the venue has market leading facilities for the return to live events.

In 2021 RSA House won Most Versatile London Venue at the London Venue & Catering Awards and made the shortlist for Best Client Support During Covid-19 and Best London Venue Covid-19 Response. In 2022 the venue picked up the silver award at the London Venue and Catering Awards for ‘Best Wedding Venue’. In 2023 the venue is shortlisted for three awards; Best Wedding Venue, Venue of the Year and Best Catering at a London Venue. In 2023 and into 2024 there are large growth plans in place to develop the venue sales, a big part of which is driving the wedding and private business forward and putting RSA House on the map as a destination wedding venue. Other recent exciting projects include the newly refurbished coffee house, the introduction of an outdoor seating area and revamped reception spaces.

What makes us different?

RSA House offers an eclectic mix of 11 unique and atmospheric events spaces including the Great Room , Benjamin Franklin, Durham Street Auditorium and Vaults, providing rooms for use for all types of events including conferences and meetings, product launches and press days, screenings, Christmas parties, fashion shows, gala dinners, corporate receptions, weddings and private celebrations and show cases.  At weekends the building can be hired for exclusive use.

We are renowned for our outstanding customer service, versatile facilities and friendly approach which is what makes us stand out from the competition and keeps customer retention high.

Your impact

A key proactive role within a team of six; under the leadership of the Head of Sales and Marketing and General Manager, with responsibility for leading the sales team, generating new business leads and selling our events business, to meet revenue targets and KPI’s.  You will be responsible for delivering and executing the sales and marketing strategy in collaboration with the Head of Sales and Marketing. You will lead the team on the day to day handling of enquiries and conversion of incoming enquiries whilst executing sales strategies for growth across the venue spaces.

This role has a focus on our corporate market (approx. 80% of total sales revenue) and key accounts and requires an understanding of the London market and agency business. 

The role allows a breadth of responsibility encompassing largely reactive sales with some proactive sales and a responsibility to lead and coach the team to achieve overall sales budget and to maintain sales standards.

There are opportunities to attend industry exhibitions, plan showcases, develop relationships with key marketing partners to allow for proactive opportunities, and network at events.

This position is full-time five days out of seven and flexibility is expected to meet with the business needs.  This includes some travel mainly within London, hosting site visits, meeting and greeting clients, leading FAM trips and attending exhibitions.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Responsible for a personal sales target of circa £900k (venue hire, food, beverage and recoverables) and leading a team of four to achieve overall sales budget of £4.4m

Champion all standard operating procedures (SOPs) across the sales team on a daily basis (including enquiry handling, show rounds and booking process)

Set team KPIs and track team performance on a weekly basis to deliver sales budget

Identify new opportunities for sales and markets

Have excellent knowledge of venue capabilities, capacities, unique selling points and pricing

Sales, Business Development and Event Coordination

Build strong relationships with event bookers and agents, to keep RSA House as a venue of choice for their events

To maintain and strengthen our reputation as a leading London events venue

Carry out showrounds with clients at every given opportunity

Strong and confident negotiation skills to meet sales targets

Assist the Head of Sales to proactively find and confirm new business. Identify and generate new business leads by reaching out to new customers and developing strong relationships

Lead familiarisation trips with corporate clients and agents

Prepare well written proposals that are bespoke to the clients’ needs

Maintain and update the client databases to ensure accuracy

Ensure the team are responding to enquiries within 1-4 hours

Actively take responsibility for our key accounts and plans for their growth and retention

Educating, leading and mentoring the sales team to ensure the team fully understand and deliver upon the standards expected of them in their roles

Refer all turndown enquiries to eve (central sales team)

To report on sales and marketing activity and relevant figures on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis

To lead the weekly sales team meetings

To attend monthly and quarterly client meetings with the RSA and Company of Cooks

To ensure all deposit payments are received on time

Work to achieve higher average spends through the use of effective up-selling techniques

Record and share all client feedback and provide management with details of market feedback and competition

Management of the CRM system to ensure all customers details are entered fully and accurately and all revenue details are correct for bookings

Offer ideas for promotions and innovative ideas

Adhere to correct standards of dress and appearance

Marketing

Act as brand champion

Assist the Marketing Manager by reviewing the website each month to ensure content is relevant and up to date

Keep up to date on all online third party listings (i.e. Hire Space, Venue Scanner, TAG Venues etc)

Complete quarterly competitor analysis

Attend networking events, exhibitions and other promotional events when required to promote RSA House venue spaces and offers

To champion our ESG and sustainability commitments at every opportunity

To actively contribute to newsletter and social media content to improve engagement levels and support the Marketing Manager with plans for content

To research new, and attend, networking and promotional hospitality events

Relationship Management

Create a work environment that aligns with the RSA’s and Company of Cooks’ values

Communication must be your strong point, with many key stakeholders and levels of seniority from the team all the way through to board level representatives

Build strong, genuine and trusting relationships with the sales and operations teams

Focusing on establishing good working relationships with our external clients and agents, internal clients

To internally champion the RSA and network with the members

Promote the Company of Cooks partnership within the venue

Ability to resolve conflict fairly and calmly

To maintain and develop relationships with colleagues at eve and across the Company of Cooks business

Share best practice with the team and champion excellent sales qualities to the team

Maintain a positive and supportive manner throughout your work

Be committed and motivated to achieve delivery of values and goals

Have an open mind to allow for growth and development

Able to accept change and remain focused

Build and maintain strong relationships with third party suppliers such as entertainment, florist, photographers and AV

Administration and Organisation

Maintain and update venue sales database; regularly increasing the quantity of contacts and improving quality

Be commercially aware with an understanding of finance and profitability of the business, contributing to the visual records and goals in the office

Collate material as required for sales activities and showcase events

Effectively manage the administration around showcases, pre and post, to ensure ROI

Time management and prioritisation are key in order to meet KPI’s and goals and ensure appropriate diary management and effective use of time

Occasional Responsibilities

Personal development to expand knowledge of industry trends in food, food service and creative selling and share information and best practise with the team

Attend relevant training courses

Support to the sales team when needed to handle corporate and internal booking enquiries and administration

Actively offer support to other areas of the business when required

You will:

Have had at least two years’ experience in managing at least a team of two sales people

A strong understanding and experience of managing various key stakeholders and able to work with a variety of different characters

Able to manage multiple projects at one time

Be confident and clear when communicating and presenting

Be commercially minded and sales driven with the ability to close business consistently and with success

Have previous experience in proactive event sales, demonstrating success in building new business and account growth

Can demonstrate development of both existing and new business sales

Be self-driven and a self-starter

Motivated by success of the sales budget and conversions

Focus on the achievement of own and team related targets and budgets

Have excellent written and oral communication skills

Have strong negotiation skills

Have excellent organisation and time management skills

Have excellent numeracy skills

Have the customer at the heart of everything you do

Be confident and warm, open and honest

Be positive and proactive in your approach to all projects and team management

Be highly competent in use of MS Office and diary management system Rendezvous (or similar)

Be proactive and self-motivated

Able to work well and remain calm under pressure

Demonstrate leaderships skills under any given situation

Be enthusiastic and committed to the job and bring creative new ideas to the table

Be a team player

This job description and person specification is a desired guideline but not exhaustive and we reserve the right to make changes to this job description as appropriate.

**All Applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK**