Work with us

Commercial Services is one of the largest trading organisations of its kind in the UK with corporate headquarters and warehousing facilities near Maidstone, Kent, employing circa 600 people across the group.  It is pre-eminent in educational supplies through its business KCS - a leading provider in its field.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As an Account Specialist you will account manage a targeted geographical area, with an existing customer base.

Specifically contacting current and new customers using available data to grow business opportunities within our service offering. Build relationships with your customer to encourage retention and loyalty by following our account management structure.

You will provide regular contact to your customers by offering an excellent and efficient service, offering unbiased advice. You will grow and sustain a reliable pipeline of contract opportunities, for both existing and new customers, whilst working closely with suppliers and the wider team to help deliver business targets and growth.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:

• Have a clear and full understanding of the service we provide offering unbiased advice to customers relating to SLAs and advantages of using the frameworks within the Professional Services portfolio.
• To be adaptable to the ever-changing environment of Professional Services to ensure productivity and efficiency to retain and promote growth across the full portfolio of frameworks.
• Take full ownership and management of assigned projects.
• Identify decision makers and develop strong customer relationships to build a pipeline of sales opportunities, identifying, planning, quoting, overcoming customer objections and closing the sale. Look for opportunities of upselling and cross-selling throughout our varied frameworks.
• Work collaboratively with our internal and external stakeholders to achieve your annual business and growth targets, through pipeline and closure of sales.
• Using available CRM and other data systems to capture and record accurately all activity relating to your customer’s current and future contract supply details.
• Ensure that you have regular call backs scheduled in with your customers, work as a customer advocate, ensure your customer’s needs are understood and satisfied. Provide an excellent customer service at all times.
• Make outbound and receive inbound calls to meet our KPIs to and from education and corporate customers throughout the UK.
• Take ownership of queries, investigating and resolving these by liaising with customers and suppliers.
• Follow our account management structure and all processes and procedures correctly to ensure we are providing our suppliers and customers with an exceptional service.

Essential Criteria

• GCSE English and maths or equivalent
• Excellent knowledge of Excel, Word, PowerPoint
• Proven track record of increasing revenue through generation of leads
• Experience in a sales role within education/public sector and generating sales via telephone calls
• Knowledge of the sales process and the application of this leading to sales generation
• Experience of working in a customer service or sales working environment
• Confident and clear telephone manner ensuring you are communicating effectively with customers and suppliers and responding to any queries effectively
• Excellent oral and written communication, ensuring correspondence is accurate and understandable as well as professional
• Good organisational, planning and negotiation skills
• Ability to prioritise and meet and exceed targets that are set for you individually but also as part of a team
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build solid working relationships
• Strong attention to detail ensuring any quotes and correspondence is accurate