Sales Director, Raconteur

The opportunity

Raconteur, part of TechnologyAdvice, is seeking a Sales Director to lead, develop, and raise the performance of our commercial sales team while owning a defined, high-value territory of their own.

This is an intentionally hands-on leadership role for an exceptional commercial operator who wants the responsibility of leading others without stepping away from the market.

You will carry two clear accountabilities.

• Deliver exceptional commercial performance from your own territory.
• Create the leadership, standards, coaching and accountability that enable your team to consistently deliver theirs.

Success requires both.

You will lead from the front, personally developing senior client relationships, creating opportunities, shaping ambitious commercial solutions and closing meaningful business. At the same time, you will coach sellers through complex opportunities, strengthen territory and account strategy, improve pipeline quality, raise forecasting accuracy, develop talent and create a culture where ambition is matched by execution.

Raconteur helps ambitious B2B brands influence senior decision makers and create measurable commercial impact through branded content, thought leadership, proprietary research, digital experiences, events, roundtables, audience engagement and demand generation.

Our proposition allows clients to connect brand, engagement and demand through integrated programmes designed around their objectives rather than individual products.

Our special interest reports published in The Times provide an additional highly distinctive platform for clients seeking to influence senior business audiences through premium editorial environments.

The Sales Director will ensure our commercial team brings the full strength of this proposition into the market. You will help move client conversations beyond individual products, uncover bigger commercial challenges and create integrated solutions that are more valuable to clients and more difficult for competitors to replicate

You will work closely with senior commercial leadership to translate ambitious revenue goals into clear priorities, territory strategies and action.

You will have meaningful autonomy over how your team operates, direct accountability for measurable commercial outcomes and the opportunity to influence how Raconteur builds its next generation of sales talent and leadership. For a high-performing individual contributor ready to prove they can succeed through others, or an existing sales leader ready for greater commercial ownership, visibility and responsibility, this represents a significant career opportunity.

Location: United Kingdom

What you'll do

• Own both a personal revenue target and accountability for the commercial performance of your sales team.
• Lead from the front, actively developing your own territory, building senior client relationships, creating opportunities and leading complex sales cycles through to close.
• Translate revenue goals into clear territory priorities, account plans, pipeline expectations, activity standards and measurable outcomes across the team.
• Build a high-performance culture where expectations are clear, accountability is consistent, and every seller understands what excellent performance looks like and how to achieve it.
• Coach and develop sellers through one-to-ones, call coaching, deal strategy, pipeline reviews and account planning, strengthening discovery, value selling, prospecting, stakeholder management, negotiation and closing capability.
• Ensure the team sells around client objectives rather than individual products, creating integrated solutions across branded content, research, digital experiences, events, roundtables, audience engagement, demand generation and special interest reports.
• Bring rigour to pipeline management and forecasting by challenging assumptions, testing deal quality, identifying risk early and maintaining a clear view of where future revenue will come from.
• Drive both new business and account growth, ensuring sellers proactively create opportunities, engage senior decision makers and develop client relationships into broader, more valuable partnerships.
• Personally support strategically important or complex opportunities where your experience and seniority can materially improve the likelihood or value of success.
• Use revenue, conversion, pipeline and market data to identify performance gaps and determine whether intervention is required across activity, capability, strategy or prioritisation.
• Maintain strong sales process, CRM and opportunity management discipline across the team.
• Partner closely with Commercial Content, Editorial, Marketing, Client Success and Operations to ensure solutions are compelling, achievable and aligned with the customer experience we promise.
• Recruit and onboard exceptional commercial talent, building the market knowledge, proposition understanding and selling capability required to become productive quickly.
• Develop high potential team members into future senior sellers and sales leaders, while addressing underperformance early through clear expectations, targeted coaching and measurable improvement plans.
• Continuously raise the commercial standard of the team, turning successful behaviours, approaches and learnings into repeatable ways of working that improve performance at scale.

What success looks like

Success will be measured through two lenses: the commercial results you personally deliver and the performance you create through others.

You will be successful when:

• You consistently achieve your personal revenue target, and the team delivers against its collective revenue goals.
• Your territory and the wider team maintain a healthy, credible pipeline with disciplined qualification and accurate forecasting.
• The team creates more net new opportunities, increases opportunity quality and value, and builds deeper relationships with senior decision makers.
• Existing client relationships grow through proactive account development and stronger integrated solutions.
• Sellers demonstrably improve their discovery, commercial thinking, account planning, objection handling, negotiation and closing capability through your coaching.
• Performance standards are clear and consistently managed, with high performers challenged and developed and underperformance addressed early.
• New hires become productive quickly, and high potential talent progresses into future senior sellers and sales leaders.
• Clients and cross-functional teams trust the commercial organisation because what is sold, promised and delivered remains aligned.
• Senior leadership has confidence in your forecast, commercial judgement and ability to identify risks and opportunities early.
• The commercial team becomes stronger, more capable and more consistently successful because of your leadership.

Who you are

• An accomplished B2B media, publishing or marketing solutions salesperson with a consistent record of delivering ambitious revenue targets and winning complex, high-value opportunities with senior marketing decision-makers.
• Significant experience carrying a personal quota, combined with the drive to create pipeline, engage clients and close meaningful business.
• Leadership or player-coach experience, or compelling evidence of readiness to take accountability for the performance and development of others.
• Demonstrated ability to generate business through intelligent prospecting, territory strategy and account development, while leading sophisticated sales cycles from discovery and proposal development through negotiation and close.
• A strong understanding of how B2B marketers approach brand, content, thought leadership, research, audience engagement, events and demand generation, with the ability to connect these capabilities into integrated solutions built around client outcomes.
• Commercial curiosity and the ability to move conversations beyond the initial brief to uncover the underlying objective, challenge, urgency and opportunity.
• Strong judgment around pipeline and deal quality, including the ability to distinguish activity from progress, interest from intent and attractive opportunities from genuinely qualified business.
• A credible coaching style grounded in diagnosing performance gaps, providing clear, actionable feedback and adapting the approach to different individuals while maintaining consistently high standards.
• A track record of developing high performers without overmanaging them and addressing underperformance directly, constructively and without avoiding difficult conversations.
• Demonstrated ability to create clarity, set expectations and build accountability while providing the coaching and support people need to succeed.
• Sound judgment about when direct involvement will improve an opportunity and when coaching someone else is the best path to winning it.
• Clear, confident communication, sound commercial decision-making and the credibility to represent Raconteur with senior clients, executives and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Resilience, competitiveness, curiosity and a high level of accountability, paired with the ambition to develop people, raise standards, influence commercial strategy and be measured by more than an individual revenue number.

What we offer you

• Career Growth: Advance with mentorship programs, leadership academies, and opportunities to shape company culture and DEI initiatives.
• Flex Fridays: Adjust your 40-hour week to enjoy a full or half day off on Fridays.
• Remote-First Culture: Work from the comfort of your home.
• Private Health & Dental Insurance: Comprehensive coverage, including discounted gym memberships and additional perks.
• Paid Time Off: Start with 25 days of holiday per year, with an additional day added for each year of service.
• Parental Leave: Supportive maternity and paternity leave policies.
• Salary Sacrifice Nursery Benefit: Save on childcare costs with our tax-efficient program.
• Life Assurance: Peace of mind with coverage to protect your loved ones.
• Pension Plan: Invest in your future with our competitive pension scheme.
• Employee Assistance Program: Access free counseling and other support services.
• Wellness Perks: Access the Headspace app to support your well-being.
• Speaker Series Bonus: Present in our monthly speaker series and earn a bonus.

#LI-Remote

Work authorization

Employer work visa sponsorship and support are not provided for this role. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United Kingdom at hire and must maintain authorization to work in the United Kingdom throughout their employment with our company.