VRM National Sales Manager

About The Role

Motability Operations are currently recruiting for a National Sales Manager to join our team remotely on a full-time, permanent basis. This role is a key strategic commercial leadership role, with overall responsibility for the growth, maintenance and development of the mfldirect dealer base.

You will join our VRM Wider Leadership Team, working closely with Product, Marketing, Commercial and Customer Development Leaders to implement a strategy to grow and optimise our dealer customer base, to ensure the sustainable Remarketing of all of Motability Operations Vehicles when they are returned at the end of the lease.

Whilst this role will be based remotely, there will be a requirement of attending our Bristol office 1-day per week.

Main Responsibilities

You will be responsible for ensuring that the investment relating to the management of our dealers are optimised to drive growth, EV adoption and a positive Premium to Market.

1. Define and design a growth plan that ensures we can grow the mfldirect dealer base to 4,000 plus dealers over the next two years. The plan will need to carefully balance cost and resource to ensure the customer development teams focus their time on the most valuable accounts.
2. Manage a high performing team of mfldirect Relationship Managers.
3. Holding responsibility for customer relationships, you will need to be comfortable in face-to-face customer meetings and negotiations, with regular national travel a necessity.
4. Establish a value-based segmentation approach to our active dealers and the circa 10,000 prospects we have identified.
5. Responsible for the design, delivery and management of our annual Dealer Reward Programme that focuses on maintaining positive engagement with mfldirect.
6. Works closely with the General Manager of Sales Operations to ensure that the New Business process is fit for purpose and new application SLAs are met.
7. Work closely with the Content and Design Lead to ensure we have got a solid networking programme designed to target specific dealer groups, OEM’s and Remarketing organisations to drive growth and mfldirect’s presence in the wider market.

Provide insight and thought leadership

1. Be the voice of mfldirect in the marketplace, regularly speaking at events, offering expert opinion and providing the mfldirect view of the marketplace.
2. Provide expert insight and sentiment from the wider market ensuring that you have got your finger on the pulse. Regularly feeding back to Senior Stakeholders and attending internal and external forums such as the RV Forum and the VRA.

Champion our Dealer Customers and develop a compelling proposition

1. Work closely with the Design and Content lead to ensure we develop a well formulated EV Proposition that engages the dealer network and increases the number of dealers buying EV’s.
2. Work closely with the UX Team Manager and the Defleet Product Principle to ensure our customers voices are being heard across, Marketing, Commercial Optimisation and Product Management.

Drive Commercial Decision making

1. Work closely with the VRM Pricing and Optimisation Manager to ensure the impact of the VRB Programme is understood and designed in a way that optimises Net Premium.
2. You will apply a strong commercial focus, ensuring that the costs associated with Remarketing offer value for money to the scheme.
3. This is a highly collaborative role and you will need to work closely with the Senior and Wider Leadership Team across commercial operations and wider organisation to drive and implement ongoing process improvement.
4. You will take a data driven approach to reviewing costs and ensuring that cost controls are initiated, and expectations set to minimise costs and improve customer experience.
5. This is a highly commercial role, and you will need to use a data driven approach to managing Remarketing Costs and ensure there is a value-added approach whilst not impacting the dealer experience or our North Star which is our premium to market.

About You

1. You're a highly commercial, strong and proven negotiator who thrives under pressure.
2. You’re an experienced communicator who can use data and both quantitative and qualitative insights to tell compelling stories to different audiences and stakeholders.
3. Collaboration will be one of your USP’s and you will have the ability to work across the organisation, with partners and suppliers to get things done.
4. Alongside a customer focus, you will also need strong commercial awareness and have a deep understanding of the automotive industry.
5. You will be connected across the UK automotive landscape with strong established relationships with key players, be that OEM’s, Dealers or other Remarketers.
6. You will need to effectively lead, develop and motivate your team to drive a commercial strategic agenda which actively engages our Remarketing customers.
7. You have experience speaking in public and don't shy away from difficult conversations.
8. Ability to operate seamlessly between commercial requirements, customer experience deliverables and strategic priorities.
9. You embrace change and you’re motivated by exploring ways of delivering value and impact across the business.
10. You will have a strong track record of delivering sales focused growth strategies that can be demonstrated through tangible outcomes.
11. You are a champion of diversity and inclusion.
12. You love building and developing teams of highly effective and empowered individuals.

Minimum criteria:

1. Substantial business development and relationship management experience within the automotive industry.
2. You are a strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills, able to build trust-based relationships with team members, peers, managers, and stakeholders.
3. Significant experience within the UK automotive industry with a good understanding of Remarketing.
4. Extensive experience of leading a high performing field-based relationship management teams.
5. Commercially astute with a strong track record in growing existing and new business.
6. Experience managing large complex reward programmes and or budgets.
7. Strong analytical skills.
8. Confident speaker/ presenter with experience delivering content to various audiences from Boardrooms to conference halls.

About The Company

Motability Operations is a unique organisation, virtually one of a kind. We combine a strong sense of purpose with a real commercial edge to ensure we provide the best possible worry-free mobility solutions to over 700,000 customers and their families across the UK. Customers exchange their higher rate mobility allowance to lease a range of affordable vehicles (cars, wheelchair accessible vehicles, scooters, and powered wheelchairs) with insurance, maintenance and breakdown assistance included. We are the largest car fleet operator in the UK (purchasing around 10% of all the new cars sold in the UK) and work with a network of around 5,000 car dealers and all the major manufacturers. We pride ourselves on delivering outstanding customer service, achieving an independently verified customer satisfaction rating of 9.8 out of 10.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. They represent ambition, and we look for our people to live and breathe them every day:

• We find solutions
• We drive change
• We care

We operate hybrid working across the organisation where we split our time between working on-site at our offices, and at home, remotely within the UK. We believe hybrid working achieves a good work/life balance for our colleagues, allowing us to connect with each other, collaborate on important work, and perform together to deliver for our customers. It allows us to have the flexibility to work remotely up to 2-days per week whilst also using the great office spaces we have available.

As a Motability Operations team member, you can expect:

• An annual discretionary bonus
• 15% non-contributory pension (9% non-contributory pension during probation period)
• Life assurance at 4 times your basic salary to give you peace of mind that your loved ones will receive some financial help
• Employee Discount Scheme with a huge number of retailers and an app to save on the go
• Discounted Electric/Hybrid Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Access to the Cycle to Work Scheme (we have showers, changing rooms and secure bike sheds on site)

As well as financial benefits, our staff's health and well-being are very important to us, so we also offer:

• 28 days annual leave with option to purchase and sell days
• Funded Private Medical Insurance cover
• Critical illness insurance
• Free access to healthcare apps, such as Peppy, Unmind, Aviva Digital GP
• Funded health screening for over 50s
• 1 day per year to volunteer – Staff can support a local charity or do a sponsored event whilst being paid for it
• Access to our fully accessible company allotment – Where we grow our own produce for local charitable organisations
• Access to Prayer room and quiet spaces whilst working in the office

We also understand that not everyone is the same so offer several voluntary benefits that you can select outside the core package, these include:

• Dental Insurance
• Health and cancer screenings for you and your partner
• Discounted gym memberships
• Charitable giving

At Motability Operations, we believe in building a diverse workforce, where our people are empowered to attend work as their true selves, and we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply. We want to sustain a culture that nurtures, where employees are free to flourish and where they’re rewarded equally, regardless of race, nationality or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, or gender.

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer and as such, all our offices provide first rate disability access. With our hybrid working environment, we do our best to accommodate part-time and flexible working requests where possible, building on our culture of trust, empowerment, and flexibility.

Please note, Motability Operations reserves the right to bring forward the closing date of any of its job vacancies if we receive a suitable number of quality applications from which to make a shortlist. Therefore, we recommend that you apply as soon as possible rather than wait until the published closing date.