B2C Sales Manager

Impact Travel Group (ITG) offer life-changing responsible travel experiences for the international market. We bring about social change by operating community development and conservation initiatives through transformative education and youth travel. ITG consists of several impact- driven organisations including African Impact, Kaya Responsible Travel, World Endeavours and Roots Interns.

With numerous awards to our name, we are proud of what we do and our people are at the core of our business. By joining ITG, you will be part of a team who are passionate about delivering the best international travel experiences with long-lasting impact.

This role will drive and lead our direct sales function for a division of B2C travel within ITG. With a close relationship with the Marketing team, this role will also be involved in increasing quality leads, and understanding customer wants and needs to build an awareness of the industry and of the competition.

The key areas of responsibility are leading the sales team, ownership of the sales funnel from enquiry arrival, ensure projects and customers are prepared for arrival, report and review sales performance through KPI’s and confidently manage customer complaints and incidents when required. This role requires a coaching leadership style with strong sales knowledge and experience. An understanding of volunteer and intern travel or responsible travel is essential to engage our customers and input into marketing and product development. Linking the sales and marketing funnel and being able to analyse the customer journey is also key to this role.

This role reports to the Managing Director of Impact Travel Group.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Own the direct sales funnel from enquiry to customer arrival

• Accountable for all direct enquiries, ensuring the team is meeting standards of response and using the relevant systems and processes to manage each enquiry.
• Manage our customer database on HubSpot, including lead segmentation, enquiry allocation, development of HubSpot workflow automations, and refinement of dashboard reports.
• Build knowledge of our products and experiences to be able to advise, answer questions and support your team as required.
• Track and report all enquiries through the sales funnel so trends, patterns and improvements can be tracked and analysed.
• Gather and analyse customer wants and needs through your team to assist in shaping product development and determining marketing focus.

Prepare customers and project teams for arrival

• Accountable for the collation of all customer data prior to arrival to ensure project teams are prepared for volunteer arrivals.
• Manage the admin team who capture, sort and share customer data ensuring accuracy and correct processes are followed.
• Accountable for all sales and admin resources shared with our customers. Ensure all supporting documentation provided to our customers (particularly Pre-Departure Packs) are accurate, informative and visually appealing.
• Update and develop new supportive materials based on the needs of our customers and project teams.
• Communicate with 3rd Party operators to ensure we have the correct pricing, product info and support materials to share with customers.
• Manage any issues, non-arrivals and changes to bookings that require specific attention ensuring consistency, alignment with T&C’s and Directors’ input when required.

Report and review sales performance

• Regularly monitor and track measures and stats to demonstrate sales performance, using the CRM tool as a repository for all sales funnel information.
• Analyse KPI performance with suggestions for actions and improvements where targets are not being achieved.
• Input into the marketing and sales focus areas to improve performance of specific products, project locations and/or new products.
• Work together with project teams and marketing to keep all project descriptions on the website up to date and action areas of improvement to increase sales.
• Collaborate with Marketing to determine any special offers and assist with the preparation of newsletters or targeted email marketing.
• Work with Senior Management and Finance to set annual pricing for our products, and ensure these prices are reflected on the website and shared with all relevant parties.

Customer Relations and incidents process

• Own the process in how we deal with complaints and incidents that affect our customers, showing empathy, fairness and compliance to booking T&C’s
• Discuss complaints with relevant parties ensuring all required people are in the loop.
• Manage relations and communication with other parties involved in complaints or
• incidents e.g. parents, Embassies, 3rd party partners etc.

Lead the Sales and Admin team

• Manage a small team of Destination Specialists and Placement Managers remotely.
• Coach and train the team to continuously improve skills, approach and process and to
• look at every opportunity to increase sales conversions and revenue.
• Support the sales and admin team in preparing our customers for their arrival in setting
• correct expectations, answering questions and dealing with arrival changes and issues.
• Manage performance and develop team members as required.
• Create a healthy team vibe, with a good balance of competitive sales spirit, sharing
• success and celebrating targets.
• Work with the Finance team on team finances including reconciling bookings across
• reporting, reviewing renumeration packages to ensure they are competitive in the
• industry, calculating sales team monthly commissions and chasing debtors.
• Assist with the organisation of project visits for team members.

Partner Relationships

• Build, maintain and grow partnerships with our international partners who sell African Impact projects in return for commission.
• Strategize with these international partners to increase enrolment of volunteers/interns on projects throughout Africa e.g. offering commission incentives
• Prepare partner contracts and ensure these are signed and that all parties understand the terms of contract.
• Create and host training webinars with new and existing partners to ensure all team members know our product and can sell it effectively.
• Set overall booking targets for Agents and track trends, patterns and progress towards target accordingly.
• Oversee the communication of any project updates to partners timeously, including sharing the latest sales and marketing materials.
• Accountable for all partner bookings, ensuring the Partners Administrator is meeting standards of response and using the relevant systems and processes to manage each enquiry.

On-boarding and Training

• Ensure a smooth on-boarding process for new team members, with adequate one-to- one training and independent learning on our products, systems and processes.
• Ensure all sales and admin process and procedure training materials are up-to-date and develop new materials as and when processes/systems/procedures change.
• Undertake performance reviews and develop new team members, helping them to improve and grow with African Impact.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE Essential

• Minimum of 5 years of sales experience in the International responsible travel industry
• At least 2 years’ experience of managing a team of sales consultants
• Coaching and approachable leadership style, with various approaches to manage team members from different countries and cultures
• Experienced in using a CRM tool (ideally HubSpot) to manage the sales funnel
• Understand the relationship between Sales and Marketing to create leads and convert sales
• Strong use of data, stats and measures to track and report KPI performance in a clear and simple way
• Strong analysis skills to track weaknesses in the sales funnel as a whole or for specific products
• Collaborative approach to problem solving, continuous improvement and business development
• Passion for creating experiences that result in positive change through travel
• Available to travel and stay away from home for visits to projects or conferences.

Good to have

• Marketing experience in understanding customer desires, navigation and taking action towards a sale.
• Have volunteered and understand the different motivations for volunteers and intern experiences.

Please note, you must have the legal right to work in the country you are applying from. Impact Travel Group is unable to offer visa sponsorship.