Sarah Williams

Experience

• 

  RM Education

  May 2009 - Sept 2012

  Promoted to Business Development Manager for London and Hertfordshire Primary and Secondary schools. A pure Business Development role to focus solely on new business opportunities for RM Education, carrying a target of £5,000,000 sales revenue.Responsibilities identical to Field role, only working with non-RM schools, responsible for generating new business and pipeline by means of research, sales calls and school visits. I used various resources to research potential prospective schools, but the most successful method was picking key topics of the time, whether it be a Government lead initiative or an educational story in the media, and using the most relevant hardware or software to market into the school to assist in raising their attainment or supporting them in meeting Ofsted requirements. Responsible for London Free Schools and new Academies – in this role I worked with a specialist team of RM colleagues including Technical Consultants, Educational Consultants, Bid Writers and Senior RM Sales Management. We would work in specific groups geographically to ensure consistency throughout our bids. The process would involve firstly a presentation to be made by the Free School/Academy board, including individual question and answers sessions with the Governor’s/Head/Senior IT staff. We would then take away as much information as possible, and produce our Bid document. There were often very short timescales on these projects, so organisation and planning were critical, whilst also conducting my day to day BD role. My role as Business Development Manager was to write the Executive Summary and create the vision and USP behind our proposal. During this process we would be invited to present our Educational and Technical vision. My role in this presentation would be not only facilitator, but the drive behind the sell on RM Education’s passion and vision, the person to sell our solution and concept to the Board. Show less Field Account Manager for the North London Primary Schools, but also requested to cover South London. A challenge that was relished and certainly tested abilities and flexibility. Holding an annual target of £7,000,000.Field Account Visits: Responsible for all London Primary School face to face meetings, with a target of 7 per week, that was consistently hit and exceeded. Meeting responsibilities included: discussing schools key ICT strategies and development plans, identifying opportunities, listening to customer requirements and aligning our products and services to their needs. Then conducting a variety of presentations bespoke to the customer requirement. Meeting with a wide variety of customers: Local Authority Advisors, Governors, Senior Leaders, Teachers, Network Managers and Business Managers. Show less A hybrid Account Manager responsible for both Primary and Secondary patches in the Midlands and Wales. Holding an annual target of approximately £5 million and responsible for total management and drive of this business. Business Reviewing and Forecasting: Responsible for reviewing monthly business, addressing any gaps and then creating activities/campaigns to recover any shortfall, or identify campaigns that are most successful and drive them further forward. Forecast our business, producing predictions for the full year, analysing this data and again addressing gaps and planning strategic business.Sales and Business Development: Highly focused on telephone sales and business development and adhere to a very strict structure to ensure own energies are focussed on proactive sales activities. Run a variety of different campaigns at any one time, focusing on different solutions and towards different contact types to ensure maximum coverage in schools. Consistently hit and exceed sales targets, and consistently identify new AM, AD and BD opportunities, usually growing the pipeline by approximately £80,000-£100,000 per week. Hold meetings in the REAL Centre, inviting my customers to visit me and explore all our products and solutions. Very competent whether it be face to face or over the telephone, building rapport effectively and quickly. Daily praised by my customers for my high levels of service and my passion and happiness that come across.Team Responsibilities: Responsible for managing my patch and my team, directing and coaching. Working with a Field Account Manager, Internal Account Manager2 and a First Sales Advisor. Reporting our figures directly to my manager; therefore taking full responsibility for accuracy of the figures. Coaching my internal colleagues in best practise and how to operate as highly efficient Account Managers with the highest levels of customer service. Also deputise for my Manager, when she is not available. Show less

  • Business Development Manager

    Dec 2011 - Sept 2012

  • Field Account Manager - London Primary Schools

    May 2011 - Dec 2011

  • Internal Account Manager - Sales

    May 2009 - Aug 2011
• 

  Intercept IT

  Oct 2012 - Mar 2013

  Territory New Business Manager

  Territory Manager - Virtualisation and Cloud services Responsibilities included: new business development, strategic IT business planning and the development of long term client relationships. My role was consultative. I worked collaboratively with Intercept's new and existing clients to help them design, build and deliver bespoke, leading edge cloud and virtualisation solutions. Together with project delivery, Intercept also offers a wide range of SLA backed managed services. Territories: London (NW, W & SW), Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Wales, Shropshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria. Show less

• 

  Blur Group

  Mar 2013 - Aug 2015

  blur Group is an international e-commerce company that enables companies around the world to buy and sell professional business services. With over 60,000 service providers blur customers can buy services such as marketing, branding, technology, digital, accountancy, legal, HR, video, apps and much more. I personally brought on enterprise customers such as Danone Waters, Danone Early Life Nutrition, Danone Nutrica, Taylor & Francis, Lidl, Worldpay and Sabre.My team brought on customers including Argos, Tesco, Sixt Car Rental, Sabre, We are Wales cycling team, Keir Group and the Daily Mail Group.Responsible for:- Leading and managing the Business Development team, including Enterprise Sales, Senior BDMs, BDMs and Sales Interns- Sales figures analysis and weekly global sales conferences- Setting targets, KPI's and incentives- Sales strategy and tactics- One to One's and Personal Development- Recruitment and On-Boarding - Training and Coaching- Hands on support with enterprise business development and sales- Hands on support with enterprise events Show less What attracted me to blur? The Leadership team, the story and history of the organisation, the 'blur philosophy', the blur people and the simple fact that this is a revolutionary way to fulfill project briefs and exchange business services saving time, money and hassle, but also providing greater reach out to global experts and to offer greater flexibility and to drive greater efficiency.With more than 28,000 active 'Experts' globally, blur Group runs the world's leading business services exchange, where members can buy and sell key business services, including creative, marketing, media and technology projects. Launched in 2010, blur Group's Business Services Exchange connects a professional and passionate community of buyers and sellers, enabling them to discover a far broader set of suppliers, cut the cost of service delivery while shortening project cycles and reducing internal costs. blur Group is a public, international company, headquartered in London, United Kingdom with an additional sales office in Dallas.My role: to focus on the top 50 Global Accounts and Global FMCG recommending blur Group's Global Business Services Exchange and for the multinational organisations to brief the Business Services Exchange for all of their marketing and technology needs. Show less

  • Head of EMEA Sales Team

    Aug 2013 - Aug 2015

  • Senior Global Business Development Manager & Team Leader, Global & FMCG Accounts

    Mar 2013 - Aug 2013
• 

  Leading Women UK

  Jan 2014 - Dec 2015

  Guest Speaker - every two months at Leading Women UK events

  I was delighted to be invited to be a guest speaker for Leading Women UK events in 2014. I was asked following an Exeter Chamber of Commerce event that I was guest speaking at.It's such a great honour and gives me the opportunity to meet some incredible women based in the South West, and discuss what my company does and share stories of success and other business matters.It's great fun, I love public speaking. In fact see my first public press video below! http://www.brrmedia.co.uk/event/preview/WNIIyJbE/133590 Show less

• 

  Regus

  Sept 2015 - Jul 2016

  Area Manager

  Within my role I had overall responsibility and ownership for leading all aspects of 3 business centres in Liverpool Street (New Broad Street House super centre, London Wall and Austin Friars. This included all commercials, sales, operations and people management. I was responsible for generating new sales plus growing and retaining existing customers by delivering exceptional service. Ultimately, I drove the overall profitability.People Leadership: - Responsible for recruiting, training, motivating, leading and developing the team - Set clear performance expectations for each team member with individual targets - Conducting meetings to brief the team on daily workflow, prioritising and delegating in order to meet deadlines and customer needs - Provide clear communication of performance and team objectives through monthly team meetings and one to ones - Manage Retention, Grievances, Sick Leave, Disciplinary and Performance Management effectively to ensure a high performing teamBusiness Growth: - Regularly review, improve and grow business plans and communicate these with my team to ensure they are delivered and actioned - Continuously drive CBIT (Before Interest and Tax) and CBIT margin through revenue growth and cost control - Continuously contribute to profitability and budgets across all Regus products - Manage and develop a pipeline of new business to maximise occupancy and yield - Generate profitable new business to exceed targets through - Retain, renew and grow relationships with existing customers - Keep abreast of the local market by attending networking events and building strong channel relationships with commercial brokersCustomer Service: - Lead by example creating strong ethos - Deliver and maintain an exceptional customer service standards at all levels - Focus on exceeding customer satisfaction and needs - Ensure front of house, housekeeping, health & Safety, visual and company brand standards are delivered and maintained Show less

• 

  Coople UK

  Aug 2016 - Apr 2018

  Senior Business Consultant, specialising in on-demand staffing

  I specialised working in Hospitality Recruitment across London - my clients included small to large hospitality & leisure groups. It was fantastic working with restaurants, pubs, bars, clubs and hotels - the hospitality sector is fun and exciting, but also highly demanding :)Coople is Europe’s number one on-demand staffing platform. Coople connects people and companies, and finds qualified, available employees in the hospitality, events & promotion, retail, logistics, business services and commercial sectors within hours. Available on iOS and Android, the Coople app has a unique algorithm to connect candidates with the most suitable jobs available. Through the app, users and companies can rate each other, providing a clear and open network of trusted, skilled staff and dependable businesses. Coople provides tens of thousands of employees (“Cooplers”) to thousands of businesses, takes care of all right-to-work checks, admin and payroll, and fills 98% of roles within four hours. It’s free to join and to use, and companies only pay for the hours worked. Operating since 2011.Coople has offices in London, Zurich and Lausanne Show less

• 

  Smart Moves Recruitment

  May 2018 - Jul 2019

  Business Manager

  Smart Moves Recruitment is unique and as one of the most dynamic and innovative recruitment agencies in Milton Keynes for over 19 years, has a reputation for working harder, thinking differently and consistently placing the highest calibre candidates with some of the region’s best employers.We recruit for clients across the UK - permanent, temporary and contract staff.The types of quality candidates we are currently representing include: - Sales Managers/ Business Development Managers/ Account Managers/ Telesales/ Telemarketing/ Team Leaders- Administrators/ Data Entry/ SAP Administrators/ Receptionists - Project Managers - HR Directors/ HR Managers/ HR Administrators - Marketing Director/ Marketing Manager/ Marketing Administrators- Technical & Engineering- Customer Service Advisors - Retail Advisors- Beauty TherapistsOne of our most prestigious clients is an International University. We have been providing them with talented staff for over 10 years. When I had a catch up with their Head of Recruitment earlier this year he shared a few key reasons why we are 1 of just 2 agencies that they use:- We provide high quality people consistently – whether they be perm, temp or contract- We understand their requirements – not only experience and skills required, but personality fit- We are quick, efficient, reliable and fun to work withAs corporate members of the REC and in an industry that is saturated with a diverse range of recruitment solutions, we take the challenges of recruitment seriously. In a technology driven market, we are constantly developing our processes to ensure candidates always get the right opportunities - and employers only see the appropriate people.Long-standing client partnerships, innovative talent attraction and an exceptional candidate experience are all fundamental to our continued growth and success. As an independent, privately owned and managed business. Show less

• 

  Sirenum

  Aug 2019 - Jul 2021

  Presales Software Engineer

  My role is to create bespoke software demonstrations and present the Sirenum Enterprise Suite of products to prospective clients. I provide technical sales support to the Sales team and Sales Directors. My role starts at the business discovery process once the sales person has qualified the initial lead.- Discovery call to understand the pains and challenges of the client- Use this information to help create the demonstration flow, choose what features to highlight and focus on during the demonstrations- Prepare, engineer and deliver custom demonstrations. I really enjoy researching the prospect client and soaking up information via their website. So that I can use real data within my demo’s (clients, job roles & competencies etc)- For 2nd demonstrations use real client scenarios to then demonstrate exactly how Sirenum could work within their business and drive efficiencies and increase revenueSirenum helps organisations meet the evolving needs of the rapidly expanding dynamic workforce. Our technology leverages mobile and the cloud to streamline the management of part-time, temporary, and hourly workers.Built from the ground up to handle the complexity common to temporary staffing agencies, Sirenum is also well suited to help employers in complex work environments like transport, care, construction, and security. Sirenum helps these organisations in scheduling shifts, monitoring staff, and processing key financial processes including payroll.With Sirenum, employers drastically reduce costs while growing revenue, increasing staff utilisation and improving health and safety.The Sirenum platform is now used to manage more than 100,000 workers across tens of thousands of sites around the globe and is adding thousands of workers every month. Show less

• 

  Bullhorn

  Jul 2021 - Nov 2023

  Solutions Consultant - following a company acquisition

  Preparing and delivering end-to-end product demonstration presentations aligned to my prospect’s/client’s specific business needsWorking with prospects to discover and qualify business needsPositioning Bullhorn + Sirenum product values, while differentiating against competitionResponding to functional and technical elements of RFIs/RFPs

• 

  SourceDogg

  Nov 2023 - now

  I am excited to share that I have moved into an even more strategic customer success role within SourceDogg, and will also be responsible for developing and nurturing relationships new SourceDogg customers.As a Strategic Account Specialist at SourceDogg, I specialise in building and nurturing strong customer relationships to drive business growth and increase customer adoption and satisfaction. My role involves:Customer Relationship Management: Developing and maintaining long-term relationships with key customers, ensuring their needs are met and expectations exceeded.Sales and Revenue Growth: Identifying new business opportunities and upselling additional services to existing clients, contributing to the company's revenue targets.Project Coordination: Collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless project execution and delivery, meeting client specifications and deadlines.Market Analysis: Conducting market research to stay updated on industry trends and competitor activities, providing valuable insights to clients and internal teams.Customer Support: Acting as the primary point of contact for clients, addressing their queries and concerns promptly and effectively.Performance Reporting: Preparing and presenting regular performance reports to clients, highlighting key achievements and areas for improvement.My commitment to excellence and my proactive approach has enabled me to consistently deliver high-quality service, fostering client loyalty and driving business success.My mission is to transform customer needs into transformational supply chain management solutions. I leverage my skills in account management, partner management, go-to-market strategy, and customer relationship management to deliver value, satisfaction, and loyalty to my clients. Show less SourceDogg is a leading Supplier Management & eProcurement software provider committed to offering the easiest-to-use software experience and value to a client base that includes many successful infrastructure, construction, and engineering clients.My roles:- Customer Success Manager, working with our customers to get value out of SourceDogg, reduce cost and mitigate risk in their supply chain.- Solutions Consultant - responsible for providing technical expertise and support to the Sales Team in promoting and selling our company's technical products and/or services.Partner closely with our customers to ensure supply chain transformation and improvement. Understanding supply chain challenges and strategies to develop solutions to solve and evolve.Collaborate with the sales team to understand customer needs and identify how our technical products/services meet those needs.Assist in delivering compelling technical presentations and demonstrations to prospective clients, highlighting the features, benefits, and value of our offerings.Address technical enquiries and provide accurate, timely responses to customer questions or concerns. Customise technical solutions to meet the specific requirements of clients, working closely with the sales team to propose tailored solutions. Show less

  • Strategic Account Partner

    Jan 2025 - now

  • Customer Success Manager / Solutions Consultant

    Nov 2023 - Jan 2025