Head of Sales

Description:

Job Title: Head of Sales
Contract Type:  Permanent
Salary:  £81,054 (£89,586 is achieved after 12 months successful performance in the role) 
Working Hours: 35 hours per week
Working Pattern: Monday-Friday Hybrid
Location: Based anywhere in the UK but with requirements to travel to our London and Liverpool offices and to developments across England.

Does your vision match ours? Are you passionate about sales?

At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For over 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live fulfilling and rewarding lives. 
In addition, we have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living.
If you share our values and are excited about making a significant impact as the Head of Sales, we encourage you to apply with your CV and cover letter.  We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet all the criteria on the job description, at Riverside we recruit to potential not just on skills and experience.  
This role also falls under our Ethnic Diversity guaranteed interview scheme. If you are Ethnically Diverse and demonstrate you meet the minimum criteria for the role you will be guaranteed an interview.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Our Sales team is part of a wider specialist Home Ownership function that is responsible for delivering services to circa 16,000 home ownership customers and sits within the Group Customer Service Directorate. We’ve reached an exciting milestone as integrate our London sales and marketing activity into the team following our merger with One Housing Group and are looking for an ambitious sales professional to help us deliver Riverside’s ambitious property development programme and achieve forecast sales income in excess of £90m in 24/25

As the Head of Sales, you will lead the Home Ownership Sales teams to deliver exceptional services to affordable home ownership, market sale, resales and tenanted sales customers. You will ensure that regulatory and statutory requirements are met, that sales targets are achieved and that Group standards are complied with. You will drive continued commercial business growth of Home Ownership products, service offers and improvements by providing market intelligence and expertise to Development and Growth colleagues to ensure new development opportunities within agreed plans, targets and timescales. 

About you

We are looking for an experienced sales professional who has the vision and energy to bring our sales teams together to deliver consistent high-quality services from multiple outlets across the country. We have a large development programme in London so experience in this market is essential.

You will have experience of selling affordable home ownership products and a thorough understanding of the regulatory framework applicable to Shared Ownership, Rent to Buy. This role is more than new sales though; you will have experience of tenanted sales through Right to Buy and Right to Acquire, knowledge of the new Right to Shared Ownership produces and knowledge of leasehold resales and staircasing. It’s an exciting time to join us and an opportunity for an experience Head of Sales or ambitious Sales Manager to work in one fo the largest Home Ownership teams in the country.

For full details, please see below the role profile, or contact  for the job description. 

Role Profile

Deliver the Group’s home ownership objectives through shared ownership, market sale, tenanted sales (i.e. Right to Buy, Right to Acquire and Right to Shared Ownership) and Rent to Buy and London Living Rent activities 

Lead and motivate the Home Ownership sales teams to ensure delivery of efficient and high-quality services to support the Group’s home ownership vision 

Deliver high levels of customer satisfaction throughout the sales customer journey

Achieve agreed financial targets for new build homes including profit margin and first tranche sales income 

Secure off plan sales where possible to minimise ‘time to sell’ periods and volume of stock plots 

Maximise income generated through resales and staircasing activities 

Ensure tenanted sales are administered in accordance with statutory and legal timescales 

Ensure that all sales marketing and processing activity complies with statutory, regulatory and Group standards 

Lead on the continued development and implementation of the ‘new’ shared ownership product for homes built under the 2021-26 Homes England and GLA funding programme or delivered under Section 106 agreements 

Contribute to feasibility assessments for new opportunities by providing knowledge, information and data about market trends, product suitability, specification, and pricing to support viable developments 

Work collaboratively with Development and Growth colleagues and the Home Ownership team to provide effective and seamless services to new homebuyers and deliver high levels of customer satisfaction 

In conjunction with Finance colleagues, provide regular, timely and accurate performance reports about all aspects of sales activity to a range of stakeholders, including Executive Directors 

Analyse sales performance and make recommendations as required to ensure sales performance is aligned to agreed budgets and targets and corrective action is taken when required 

Manage sales and marketing budgets and resources across a national sales programme with multiple developments 

In conjunction with Development and Growth colleagues, ensure that new homes are built to the required standard/specification, that issues/risks are escalated and managed as required and that homes are effectively accepted into the stock portfolio 

Be the ‘expert’ in the Group about affordable home ownership, have up to date knowledge about changes and innovation in the sector, provide a consultancy role to other parts of the business and contribute to continued nationwide growth of our affordable home ownership products, service offer and improvements 

Influence the use and selection of third parties used by the Group in the marketing and selling of new homes, specifically in respect of shared ownership and Rent to Buy homes 

Provision and management of on-site sales and marketing facilities in line with Group, commercial, regulatory, and advertising standards 

Management and monitoring of third-party selling agents and Independent Financial Advisors, dealing with performance issues in a timely manner 

Management and monitoring of conveyancers acting for the Group to ensure sales complete within agreed timescales 

Ensure that all activities are carried out in accordance with the Group’s information security requirements and data protection legislation, specifically in respect of the retrieval, storage, retention, sharing and destruction of information 

Ensure that all statutory and Group Health and Safety requirements are adhered to when carrying out duties 

Represent the Group externally in respect of Home Ownership activities and deputise for the Director of Home Ownership as required  

Person specification

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

Essential

Demonstrable commitment to the Riverside Values

Proven track record of leading a new homes sales team across multiple outlets, ideally with experience of London housing markets

Knowledge and experience of selling a range of home ownership products including open market sale, Shared Ownership, Rent to Buy and London Living Rent 

Excellent knowledge of the legal and regulatory framework for tenanted disposals and the requirements for delivering services to leaseholders including staircasing, lease extensions, freehold disposal and resale 

Proven ability to think and plan strategically, using business growth methodologies including modelling, horizon scanning and feasibility analysis to develop and execute business growth and sales strategies 

Experience of successfully leading, managing and motivating teams at a senior level, including managing team performance 

High commercial acumen with demonstrably strong client-side contract management skills and expertise. 

Experience of successfully managing large scale budgets adhering to strict financial protocols

Demonstrable experience of carrying out successful influencing and negotiation, managing business and customer requirements to a mutually agreeable solution. 

Effective stakeholder management, both internally and external to the organisation, including the ability to successfully persuade and influence others 

Excellent communication skills able to write and deliver professional, quality reports and presentations to Executive Team, Governance Community etc.

Desirable

Experience of managing a multi-site team

Evidence of continued professional development

Membership of a relevant professional organisation