Chief Commercial Officer
Reporting to: Board
Location: Catalyst (formerly Northern Ireland Science Park), Titanic Quarter, Belfast
Note: This position is now closed.
The Company
Established in 2005, IRP Commerce is one of the leading technology companies in Northern Ireland and one of the UK’s foremost ecommerce platform providers. The company has won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 award multiple times.
The company’s platform and approach has allowed mid-market businesses based in the UK and Ireland to transact more than £1 billion GBP and has powered the largest sites in a number of markets. Clients include retail, manufacturing and distribution businesses in both the B2C and B2B sectors.
The company has had a heavy R&D focus producing some of the most exciting software in the ecommerce industry. It has also had good commercial traction and is committed to expanding its commercial reach across the UK, Ireland and beyond.
The company’s commercial model involves supporting multiple specialist ecommerce agencies whilst also building strong relationships with direct customers and technical partners.
To help the company achieve their goals, the company is now seeking an experienced and highly-motivated Chief Commercial Officer.
This role represents a huge opportunity for a talented commercial individual to play a key part in the development of one of Northern Ireland’s leading technology companies.
The Role
The successful candidate will be responsible for the delivery of the company’s commercial strategy.
This will involve marketing, sales, partner and customer engagement to drive business growth and market share.
It will also involve generating demand for the IRP, currently across Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and GB, running direct and channel sales campaigns and developing strong relationships with industry partners.
The role will involve travel and the ideal candidate will be highly capable, energetic and driven to maximise income and profitability for the company. The primary responsibilities of the CCO role will be as follows:
- To develop and implement sales and marketing strategies, plans, forecasts and KPIs to achieve corporate revenue objectives.
- To maximise business opportunities and the company’s overall profitability, as part of the senior management team.
- To manage customer relationships and satisfaction through customer services and product development.
- To manage and develop the sales, marketing and customer services teams and instil a culture of continuous improvement.
- To manage the sales, marketing and customer services functions within agreed budget.
- To manage partner relationships, including Agencies and Technical Partners, to maximise their opportunity, agreeing targets and service level agreements
- To be actively involved in sales when required, especially for larger contracts.
- To report to the company Directors and Board.
Key Responsibilities
The successful candidate will be expected to fulfil the following functions:
(a) Sales, Marketing and Distribution Strategy
- To create workable sales, marketing and distribution action plans against which staff will have clearly-defined roles and responsibilities in line with agreed strategic plans.
- To ensure that sales, marketing and distribution teams operate within financial budgets and constraints to achieve agreed objectives.
- To oversee and evaluate market research and adjust marketing strategy to meet changing customer, market and competitive conditions.
- To monitor competitor products, sales and marketing activities.
- To recommend product positioning and pricing strategy to produce the highest possible long-term market share.
- To plan and oversee advertising and promotion activities and events, including print, online, electronic media, direct mail, sponsorship and conferences.
- To prepare periodic sales reports showing sales volume, potential sales and areas of proposed client base expansion.
- To review and analyse sales performances against quotes and plans to determine effectiveness.
(b) Sales Execution
- To generate new sales leads via a multichannel approach, including but not limited to:
- Direct outbound sales
- Inbound website sales
- IRP Agencies
- Social presence
- Conferences and events
- To direct marketing channel development activity and coordinate sales distribution by establishing quotas and goals.
- To ensure that the collateral used to support sales channels is appropriate, up to date and available to sales staff.
- To direct sales forecasting activities, set performance goals accordingly, measure the performance of sales efforts and take corrective actions.
- To ensure that existing customers are upsold all new features and services to maximise revenues.
(c) Partner & Customer Management
- To agree annual targets with IRP Agencies and measure and evaluate their performance on an ongoing basis, updating targets as necessary.
- To meet with Technical Partners and end-customers regularly in order to understand their individual needs and to identify customer-specific strategies and targets.
- To review performance to ensure that current strategies are meeting changing customer needs — and wider market circumstances.
- To ensure that each customer is supported in a manner that best fits their needs.
- To ensure that each customer is utilising the IRP system optimally and that they are using insights and data to improve their figures on an ongoing basis.
- To ensure that customers are retained and well managed by IRP Agencies.
(d) Staff Management
- To be responsible for the Sales, Marketing and Services Divisions.
- To develop a highly-skilled and motivated team of professionals.
- To recruit and hire the best staff for the team.
- To train and provide ongoing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for staff to maximise their performance.
- To set clear KPIs and goals for staff that are aligned with the IRP Agency targets and requirements.
- To assess staff on an ongoing basis and deal with under-performance quickly and effectively in the correct manner.
Person Specification
Essential Experience & Skills:
The candidate must have:
- A strong, proven commercial background and profit focus.
- Proven ability to plan and implement organisational strategies and operational objectives.
- Significant senior management and leadership experience.
- Demonstrable experience of managing operational performance within financial budgets.
- An ability to create and maintain a software distribution channel.
- Proven ability to attract new sales and retain existing customers.
- Strong experience of creating and developing business opportunities, including internationally.
- A strong track record of building and managing partner relationships.
- A strong track record of human resource management and staff development.
- An ability to create and maintain a software distribution channel.
- Demonstrable and exceptional skills in the following areas:
- Leadership and man management
- Interpersonal relations
- Strategic planning and implementation
- Sales and negotiation
- Business development
- Commercial financial analysis
- Problem solving, creative thinking and decision making, including the ability to make ‘tough’ decisions
- Presentation and communication, both written and verbal
Desirable Skills:
It may be beneficial that the candidate has a strong knowledge and experience of:
- Ecommerce, including international selling, particularly at the mid-market level and beyond
- Commercial software and technology
- Digital marketing and consulting
In addition, the ideal candidate will be:
- Educated to degree level with subsequent relevant professional qualification(s)
- Highly motivated, energetic and enthusiastic
- Results driven
- A great team player
Compensation and Benefits
- Highly competitive salary — negotiable, based on experience
- Performance-related bonus
- Private healthcare
- 35 holidays per year
- Free parking
- On delivery – to earn substantial remuneration
How to apply
If you feel that you have the potential to join our team and help create the future of commerce, we want to hear from you. Send your CV to: