Sales and Marketing Coordinator - RSA House

Sales & Marketing Coordinator, RSA House

Reporting to: Head of Sales and Marketing
Based at: RSA House
Working closely with: RSA House Events team

The Company
With 26 iconic locations across London, Venues by CH&CO is a highly specialised, focused operation with its finger firmly on the pulse in London and beyond. The team are fully immersed in the trends, news and activity of this niche sector. We are very much tuned into the world of venues and events. This is the world we and our clients inhabit, and we know it inside out. Now, more than ever our position is to be one of a specialist partner, harnessing our passion for our portfolio of venues and our knowledge of the sector.

Our venues are represented by eve, our online platform and central team, curating and creating extraordinary event experiences. We’re a dedicated group of venue experts who make it our business to know our clients’. Our address book is huge - with unique access to over 600 CH&CO Workplace clients across the UK and a database of 7,000 event bookers and growing. eve represents and works closely with venues operated exclusively by Venues by CH&CO.

The Client (the venue)
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.

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 known 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 role within the sales and marketing team; responsible for selling, marketing and coordinating a range of events, under the leadership of the Head of Sales and venue General Manager. This is a multi-dimensional role and an exciting opportunity to work closely with the RSA Public Events team and other internal departments, helping to sell, book and coordinate their calendar of events, including high profile public lectures and dinners, training days, and the annual Christmas Party. This role takes on responsibility as the primary contact for meetings and events for fellows of the RSA and internal events with responsibility for selling and administrating to meet revenue targets. It also provides ownership for development opportunities within this important market and managing the relationship effectively with our internal clients and fellows.

The role allows a breadth of responsibility encompassing mainly reactive sales but some proactive sales, marketing administration activities an taking responsibility for smaller corporate meetings and dinners, to support the wider sales team.

This position is full-time five days out of seven and flexibility is expected to meet with the business needs in order to represent the team when dealing with our internal bookers as well as representing the business in the external events community.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Sales and Event Coordination
• Have excellent knowledge of venue capabilities, capacities, unique selling points and pricing
• Respond to enquiries within 1-4 hours of the enquiry being received
• Follow up on all enquiries within 24 hours and record in the system with follow up activities
• Timely preparation of quotations, contracts and function sheets
• Accurately create contracts and raise invoices
• Conduct show rounds and assist with familiarisation trips
• Meet and greet clients at events as agreed, follow up feedback and secure repeat business
• Coordinate material and equipment for sales presentations including client gifts and giveaways
• Refer enquiries across our group of venues when appropriate
• Record and share all client feedback and seek to resolve all client queries

Marketing
• To assist in keeping up to date all online listings and assist with managing subscription renewals
• To help to update the venue hire section of the RSA website
• To actively contribute to newsletter content
• To contribute content for social media channels
• To refresh menu designs for each season
• To assist in the design of marketing email banners, flyers and special offer mailers for use to market to our database of clients
• To communicate and research industry trends in food, service and creative selling, by our competitors and family of venues
• To assist with competitor analysis

Relationship Management
• Be the main contact for the internal departments, dealing with their bookings from enquiry to event date.
• Participate in events meetings with the operations teams
• To maintain and develop relationships with existing and new clients with a focus on the members and the employees of the RSA
• To internally champion the RSA and network with the members
• To promote the CH&CO partnership within the venue

Administration and Organisation
• Manage administration of event sheets for your own bookings as well as assisting the wider team when required. Communicate accurate event operational information to CH&CO and RSA operations
• Accurately raise invoices, take card payments by phone and take responsibility for receipt of payments
• Respond to e mail enquiries in a timely manner, ensuring your own and the shared inboxes are consistently monitored and kept up to date
• Maintain and update venue sales database; regularly increasing the quantity of contacts and improving quality

Health & Safety
• Personal development to expand knowledge of industry trends in food, food service and creative selling
• Attend relevant training courses when necessary

Occasional Responsibilities:
• Personal development to expand knowledge of industry trends in food, food service and creative selling
• Attend relevant training courses and CH&CO meetings when necessary
• Supporting the sales and marketing team with wider projects and workload during busier periods

The ideal candidate:
• Is a graduate looking for their first role to gain experience and development in venue and catering sales and marketing
• Has previous customer facing experience
• Is extremely customer focused
• Is personable, friendly and approachable
• Has meticulous attention to detail
• Is proactive and self-motivated
• Is able to work well under pressure
• Is a team player
• Is enthusiastic and committed to the job
• Has digital marketing and social media experience
• Has refined oral and written communication skills
• Has strong negotiation skills
• Has excellent organisation and time management skills
• Has excellent numeracy skills
• Is highly competent in use of MS Office
• Experience in a diary management system (such as Rendezvous or similar) is desirable but not essential

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**