Education Area Manager - Midlands

Talk Straight Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car allowance

EV car scheme after 1 year

20 days' annual leave plus bank and BH

Pension and employer contribution

Team events

Birthday off, wellbeing day, charity/0

Job summary

Schools Broadband, part of Talk Straight Group, is seeking an Education Area Manager to own new business growth across the Midlands. This field-based role involves home-based work with regular travel across the region and occasional visits to the Ilkley office. You won’t be required to work outside the UK.

You’ll win new schools, colleges, MATs and local authorities, collaborate with channel partners, and manage a 3–6 month pipeline while hitting annual gross profit targets.

Qualifications

• Proven track record of winning new business and growing accounts in education or similar B2B environments.
• Strong communication, presentation and influencing skills.
• Good commercial judgement and confident decision-making.
• Experience managing a 3–6 month pipeline and keeping forecasts accurate.
• Strong CRM, planning and organisational skills.
• Self-starter with energy and willingness to travel regionally.

Responsibilities

• Find, qualify and close new business across schools, colleges, MATs, local authorities and channel partners.
• Deliver against annual gross profit and contract growth targets for the region.
• Protect and grow a defined set of key customer and partner accounts.
• Build and manage a 3–6 month pipeline and forecast accurately.
• Sell connectivity, firewall, filtering, WAN, hosting, VoIP, endpoint management and storage.
• Follow up inbound and campaign leads to capture regional opportunities.
• Work with channel partners to drive new business and retention.
• Apply sound commercial judgement on pricing and where to focus time.

Skills

New business development

Account growth

Communication skills

Forecasting

CRM

Travel readiness

Pipeline management

Negotiation

Job description

Schools Broadband, part of Talk Straight Group, is a specialist education ISP. Since 2007 we've provided broadband, web filtering, monitoring and cyber security to schools across the UK, and today we support over 3,500 schools and around 350+ multi-academy trusts.

We're strengthening our regional sales coverage and looking for an Education Area Manager to own new business growth across the Midlands. You'll win new schools, colleges, MATs and local authorities, and work with our channel partners to open new doors.

This is a field-based role. You'll work from home, spend regular time on the road with customers across the region, and visit our Ilkley office when needed. You won't be required to work outside the UK.

What You'll Do

• Find, qualify and close new business across schools, colleges, MATs, local authorities and approved channel partners
• Deliver against annual gross profit and contract growth targets for your region
• Protect and grow a defined set of key customer and partner accounts
• Build and manage a healthy 3-6 month pipeline and forecast accurately
• Sell our full portfolio: connectivity, firewall, filtering, WAN, hosting, VoIP, endpoint management and storage
• Follow up quickly on inbound and campaign leads, so no regional opportunity is missed
• Work with our channel partners to drive new business and customer retention
• Use sound commercial judgement on pricing, margin and where to focus your time, within company policy
• Hand renewals over to our Internal Account Management team, while staying involved in growth or commercially sensitive deals
• Keep CRM records, quotes and forecasts accurate and up to date
• Represent us at education events such as BETT and others when required

A typical month

Around four face-to-face customer visits and 10+ virtual meetings, alongside prospecting, partner meetings and pipeline reviews. Expect regular travel across the Midlands and occasional overnight stays.

Who You'll Work With

You’ll report to our Chief Sales Officer and work closely with Marketing, our Internal Account Management team, our Partner Programme Manager, and our technical, service and support teams.

Requirements

Essential

• A proven track record of winning new business and growing accounts, in education or a relevant B2B environment
• Strong communication, presentation and influencing skills
• Good commercial judgement and confident decision-making
• Experience managing a 3-6 month pipeline and keeping forecasts accurate
• Strong CRM, planning and organisational skills
• A self-starter with plenty of energy who's happy to travel regularly across the region

Desirable

• Working knowledge of connectivity or unified communications solutions
• Knowledge of the UK education sector, ideally including safeguarding or security solutions

Benefits

• Competitive base salary with generous uncapped OTE commission scheme
• Commission accelerators
• Company car allowance and access to company car EV scheme after 1yr of continuous service
• 20 days' annual leave plus bank holidays
• Day off for your birthday, wellbeing day and paid charity day
• Pension and employer contribution
• Team events and social gatherings