Sales Manager

Benefits

• Sales incentive scheme
• 35 hour working week
• 31 days holiday + earn up to 12 rostered days off per annum
• 14 hours of volunteer leave to support causes that are important to you and/or our business
• Flexible working plus up to 2 weeks working from anywhere
• Company Contributed Ethical Stakeholder Pension
• Company Health Plan (after qualifying period) including 24/7 Employee Assistance Program
• Occupational Maternity Pay (after qualifying period)
• Bike to Work Scheme
• Family & friends discounts
• Training & career development opportunities
• Team activity afternoons (Wilderness Wednesday)
• Industry discounts on outdoor clothing & equipment
• Cake on your birthday
• Unlimited tea and coffee with only the occasional milk shortage emergency

Role Purpose & Overview

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Sales Manager to join our Direct Sales team. This is a hands‑on sales role, with responsibility for managing your own busy pipeline and achieving individual sales targets, alongside leading and supporting the wider sales team.

You will sell our scheduled and custom trips, helping customers find or create the right Wilderness experience while delivering an excellent level of service throughout the sales journey.

The role is fast‑paced and varied, with a high volume of enquiries and a strong focus on response times, conversion and achieving sales targets. Alongside your own sales responsibilities, you will support and motivate the team to perform at their best, helping them manage their pipelines, develop their skills and achieve their individual and team goals.

You will also play an important role in ensuring our sales processes, systems and ways of working are understood and consistently followed, supporting the successful adoption of new tools and processes as they are introduced.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Performance

• Confidently sell across our trip portfolio, developing the product knowledge required to match customers with the right experience.
• Take personal responsibility for achieving and exceeding individual sales and revenue targets.
• Proactively manage your own sales pipeline, ensuring enquiries are followed up quickly and opportunities are progressed efficiently through to booking.
• Maintain a strong focus on conversion, identifying what is needed to move individual opportunities forward and close sales.
• Deliver an excellent and highly responsive sales experience, building strong relationships with prospective clients and matching them with the right trip.
• Monitor your own sales performance, pipe line and conversion, taking action where performance is behind target.
• Balance Sales Manager responsibilities with maintaining a consistently strong level of personal sales activity and results.

People Management

• Lead, support and motivate the sales team to achieve individual and team sales targets while delivering an excellent customer experience.
• Regularly review individual team members’ pipelines, sales performance and conversion, providing coaching and practical support to help progress opportunities and achieve targets.
• Conduct regular one-to-ones and performance reviews, setting clear objectives and providing constructive, ongoing feedback.
• Support team members in prioritising their workload and managing busy pipelines effectively, particularly during periods of high enquiry volume.
• Identify development needs and help deliver training and coaching to strengthen sales skills, product knowledge and confidence.
• Foster a positive, collaborative and supportive team environment where people share knowledge, help one another and celebrate individual and team success.
• Lead by example, demonstrating a proactive approach to sales, customer service, teamwork and achieving targets.

Customer Experience & Sales Support

• Ensure a consistently high standard of customer experience throughout the sales journey, with a strong focus on responsiveness, accuracy and personalised service.
• Support the team with complex enquiries, challenging sales situations and customer complaints, stepping in where additional guidance or experience is required.
• Coach the team to understand individual customer needs and confidently recommend the most appropriate scheduled or custom trip.
• Ensure agreed response times and customer service standards are consistently achieved, particularly during busy periods.
• Monitor customer feedback and identify opportunities to improve both the sales journey and overall customer experience.
• Work collaboratively with other teams to resolve customer issues and ensure a smooth handover from sales through to trip delivery.
• Encourage a customer‑first approach that balances delivering an excellent experience with achieving strong commercial results.

Custom Trip Design

• Collaborate with customers to understand their interests, preferences, and requirements for bespoke Wilderness trips.
• Design and create customised trip itineraries that provide unique and memorable experiences that align with our carbon reduction goals.
• Work closely with the operations team to ensure seamless delivery of custom trips, including logistics and special requests.
• Stay informed about new destinations, activities, and trends in adventure and luxury travel to continually enhance product offerings.
• Maintain detailed records of custom trip designs and customer interactions for future reference.

Sales Processes & Systems

• Develop a strong understanding of current sales processes, systems and workflows, ensuring these are followed consistently across the team.
• Support the implementation of new processes, technology and ways of working, helping to embed them successfully within the sales team.
• Ensure the team understands and adopts agreed processes and systems, providing guidance, training and support where needed.
• Identify opportunities to improve sales processes and ways of working, sharing ideas and recommendations with the wider team.
• Monitor how processes and systems are working in practice, highlighting challenges or areas where improvements could be made.
• Work collaboratively with other departments on projects that impact the sales team, representing the needs of both the team and the customer.
• Keep the focus on practical improvements that support strong sales performance, efficiency and customer experience.

Preferred role‑specific Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• Proven experience in a sales management role, preferably within the travel or adventure tourism industry.
• Strong leadership and people management skills, with a track record of motivating and developing a team.
• Excellent customer service and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Experience in designing custom travel experiences and understanding customer needs.
• Good local knowledge of our product, including key destinations, experiences and activities.
• Ability to handle customer complaints with tact and professionalism, ensuring positive resolutions.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.
• Proactive and results-oriented with a strategic mindset and the ability to think creatively.
• Passion for wilderness and adventure travel, with a strong interest in the destinations, landscapes and experiences we offer.

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