Sales Manager

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.

As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career. Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

This is a Sales Manager position within the UK Field Sales Team. As a member of this team, you are expected to grow targeted merchant acceptance in the North of England and across the UK as required by Amex. 

How will you make an impact in this role?

• Work a pipeline of named merchants prospects
• Manage Amex acceptance in a defined list of allocated postcodes (“your patch”). You will be expected to know which merchants accept Amex and identify any merchants that don’t accept Amex. You are responsible for accelerating coverage in your patch and therefore you will either sign these prospects yourself or refer them as leads to be worked by another sales channel 
• Sell Amex acceptance to merchants across a range of different, but predominantly B2C, industries
• Audit Amex acceptance and expand coverage, as required by American Express, within the North of England (Field Sales North) and on occasion across the UK
• Quickly follow up with any lead identified as a non-accepting merchant by colleagues or senior leaders
• Collaborate closely with other UK sales managers to sign merchants, share leads, and grow acceptance.

Responsibilities

• Meet / exceed your annual sales target, this includes prioritising signing named list prospects and opportunities in priority geographies and driving engagement with Amex marketing channels where feasible to drive activation and BCV growth
• In addition to managing an allocated named pipeline of prospects, identify new prospects that meet defined criteria and add them to your pipeline. Actively manage your pipeline by progressing prospects through the sales cycle and regularly updating information in Merchantforce
• Establish a thorough understanding of different merchants’ businesses and different industries through desk research, industry forums and reading annual reports
• Leverage knowledge to expertly articulate the Amex value proposition to merchants and prepare tailored, well-researched, compelling, high-quality value led sales presentations. Regularly utilise all digital sales tools, including onboarding tools such as Experian, digital onboarding platform, Sales Navigator, FullCircle, Business Insights reporting, Tableau, Merchantforce, Sales Dashboards, Merchant Insights Dashboard
• If required, sign merchants on custom contract terms, including obtaining bespoke pricing, pay plans or investment to successfully secure the merchant. This requires collaboration with key stakeholders, including Pricing, Risk GCO, Marketing, as well as ensuring compliant capture of the contract in the Custom Contract Tool
• Work closely with key Amex stakeholders, including but not limited to Marketing, Pricing, GCO, Risk, Payment Consulting Group, Sales Enablement and Business Insights. Develop a deep understanding of the American Express merchant acquiring and card issuing business and build a network of contacts across the organization. 
• Operate within a highly regulated environment, selling to and onboarding merchants in full compliance with all Amex policies and regulations. Onboard new merchants compliantly, completing all aspects of new account setup and POS technical enablement. When required, set up merchants on Payment Designation and enable multi-currency capabilities
• Support welcome acceptance with merchants and, if required, provide ongoing support to merchants for max. of 13 months after signing
• Contribute towards acquisition, coverage, employee engagement as well as lead business development projects as identified by the business
• Demonstrate excellent knowledge of the UK payments industry and articulate new trends and developments in the payments industry.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Background in sales management with a proven ability to manage a sales pipeline, driving velocity and progress through the sales cycle. Highly results- focused, with track record of delivering against targets, signing named merchants and long-term holdouts, and securing wins across long cycle times through tenacity and flexibility
• Demonstrated ability to work and problem solve independently, while sharing learnings and best practices with colleagues. Proactively builds as a broad network of contacts across Amex to leverage expertise as required. Resilient and highly adaptable, with the ability to navigate complex processes and operate effectively within a large, matrixed global organization where decision-making can be slow.
• Innovative and creative in approach, bringing a fresh, thoughtful, and can-do approach to overcoming barriers and challenges. Demonstrates a growth mindset, proactively volunteers for stretch projects, and remains open and willing to learn new skills
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to represent American Express up to board level within partner organizations and communicate effectively across all levels. Strong presentation, negotiation and relationship building skills
• Ability to provide thought leadership and develop data led insights to identify trends, opportunities, leverage insights and tailor the American Express value proposition to align with a merchant’s business needs, as well as articulate merchant needs clearly back to the business to ensure we are delivering value across industries
• Highly collaborative, with a proven track record of influencing across lines of business to drive Blue Box results, underpinned by strong personal accountability and integrity
• Excellent technical and IT skills. Whilst this is a face-to-face sale role, the candidate must also effectively execute multiple desk-based activities, including research, preparation of sales presentations and completion of merchant onboarding using a wide range of systems and navigating complex processes. Compliantly administering the onboarding of new merchants in line with company policy is a fundamental aspect of this role
• Strong commercial acumen, with understanding of the key profitability drivers of the Amex acquiring business, as well as a merchant’s business model, sales revenues, costs, and operating margins
• Be prepared to travel, whilst the primary sales focus is in and around the North of England, the successful candidate should be willing to travel anywhere in the UK (if required), to accelerate coverage. 

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the UK is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.  

Offer of employment with American Express is conditional upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries 
• Bonus incentives 
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location) 
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 
• Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location) 
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location) 
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program 
• Career development and training opportunities

Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.