Head of Trade Sales

Premier Holidays Ltd; Cambourne; Hybrid; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent travel company is seeking a Head of Trade Sales to drive their sales strategy across the UK market. This hybrid role involves leading a team of Business Development Managers, nurturing trade relationships, and ensuring alignment between sales strategies and business goals. The ideal candidate will have significant leadership experience within the travel industry, excellent communication skills, and a proven track record in managing sales performance. This position requires flexibility in working hours and travel within the UK and internationally.

Benefits

Huge discounts on holidays

Annual performance-related bonuses

25 Days Holiday plus UK Bank Holidays

Death in Service payment

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance

Free onsite Parking

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience in the travel industry, ideally within a tour operator.
• Proven track record of managing a field-based sales team.
• Strong commercial ability to interpret data and influence strategy.

Responsibilities

• Drive the overall sales strategy for Premier Holidays.
• Lead and develop a team of three Business Development Managers.
• Nurture key trade relationships and represent Premier Holidays at a senior level.

Skills

Leadership experience within the travel industry

Strong commercial acumen

Excellent communication skills

Ability to build trade relationships

Organisational skills

Education

Relevant experience in a tour operator

Job description

Job Title: Head of Trade Sales

Reports To: Managing Director

Direct Reports: 3 x Business Development Managers

Based: Hybrid role (3 days working in Cambourne head office, 2 days working from home)

Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience plus annual profit share and trade sales performance related bonuses

At Premier Holidays, our ambition is bold: to be the UK’s go‑to specialist in the trade for tailor‑made long‑haul experiences while remaining the trusted market leader for holidays to the Channel Islands. Proudly established 90 years ago, we continue to grow, evolve, and deliver exceptional service to our agent partners, something we couldn’t achieve without the talent and dedication of our people.

Job Summary

The Head of Trade Sales will be responsible for driving the overall sales strategy for Premier Holidays across the UK trade market. This includes leading and developing a team of three Business Development Managers, managing sales performance across all regions, providing strategic direction, and ensuring strong alignment between field activity, digital channels, product priorities, and wider business goals. The role holder will nurture key trade relationships, represent Premier Holidays at a senior level across the industry, and play a critical role in ensuring the company maintains and grows its position as a trusted long‑haul specialist and the market leader for Channel Islands holidays. The role requires some travel to include relevant attendance at industry events, agency meetings, conferences, training sessions, and occasional overseas trips.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, motivate, and develop the team of three Business Development Managers.
• Establish KPIs and monitor performance to drive team and business growth.
• Oversee regional sales plans and ensure consistent high standards of delivery are met across all territories.
• Support BDMs during key meetings, events, and supplier engagements as needed.
• Foster a collaborative, high‑performance culture across the sales function.

Sales Strategy & Performance

• Develop and implement an annual sales strategy aligned with Premier Holidays’ commercial priorities.
• Review and analyse sales performance data, identifying trends, challenges, and opportunities for growth.
• Oversee trade sales and marketing budgets, working closely with the Senior Partnerships Manager to optimise spend and ensure activities align with strategy, and ensuring that trade marketing and sales activity remains within budget.
• Collaborate closely with the Head of Marketing to ensure all marketing activities support the sales strategy.
• Drive initiatives that grow market share, maximise revenue, and enhance brand presence.
• Oversee the agent incentive program.
• Oversee digital sales initiatives alongside the Website Manager to ensure alignment with the field sales strategy.
• Provide regular insights, reporting, and recommendations to the Board of Directors.

Trade Partnerships & Relationship Management

• Represent Premier Holidays at a senior level with key trade partners, miniples, consortia and influential industry bodies.
• Oversee agent credit arrangements and manage associated risks.
• Be responsible for managing and maximising sales from national accounts.
• Negotiate commercial agreements, which include commission levels, overrides and marketing spend.
• Lead strategic negotiations and discussions to strengthen long‑term trade partnerships.
• Support the team in initiating and nurturing relationships with travel agencies across the UK.
• Ensure consistent company messaging and presentation standards at all meetings, roadshows, and events.

Market Insight & Product Alignment

• Maintain deep understanding of the UK travel industry dynamics, competitor performance, and commercial trends.
• Act as the conduit between the sales team and internal departments, feeding back market intelligence to the product, marketing, commercial and operations teams.

Events, Training & Administration

• Planning and overseeing trade events, roadshows, fam trips and conferences.
• Representing Premier Holidays at key conferences, trade exhibitions, and overseas educational trips.
• Ensure the team consistently promote Premier Holidays as a leading long‑haul specialist and the market leader in the Channel Islands.
• Setting the brochure distribution strategy and managing this throughout the year.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Essential

• Significant leadership experience within the travel industry, ideally within a tour operator or trade‑facing environment.
• Proven track record of managing a field‑based sales team and driving measurable sales growth.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to interpret data, identify opportunities and influence strategy.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills at all levels.
• Ability to build and sustain senior‑level trade relationships and negotiate with confidence.
• Highly organised with the ability to prioritise, forward‑plan and manage multiple projects.
• Willingness to travel across the UK and internationally when required.
• Be a positive brand ambassador with a passion for travel and for championing the Premier Holidays brand.
• Possess a full, clean UK driving licence.

Desirable

• Strong existing network of travel agent and/or industry relationships.
• Experience working with digital sales channels and/or website commercial optimisation.
• Familiarity with Premier Holidays destinations or product range.

What’s in it for you?

• Huge discounts on your own holidays (plus reduced rates for friends and family!)
• Annual company profit share bonus plus annual trade sales related performance bonus
• 25 Days Holiday plus UK Bank Holidays
• After completing one year of service, benefits include a Death in Service payment of 3x salary, Income Protection, and Private Medical Insurance
• Working from home 2 days per week
• Work laptop and mobile phone
• Standard Life Pension: 5% Employer Contribution, 3% Employee
• Regular social events: Summer Party, Christmas Party, Quiz nights, brochure launches and a social fund to spend on team building events
• Become part of the Premier family and experience a supportive company culture that fosters teamwork and cross‑department collaboration
• Be a person, not a number! We value all of our employees and strive to create an inclusive and welcoming work environment
• Free onsite Parking
• Annual Volunteer in your Community Day

What are the hours for the role?

We’re looking for someone who can offer flexibility in their working hours due to the seniority and nature of this position. While the core hours are 37.5 per week, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30 with three office days and two work from home days, the role requires the ability to travel (within the UK and overseas) and attend events outside of these hours when necessary.

A bit about Premier

Premier Travel Group (made up of Premier Holidays and Premier Travel) are an independently owned, family‑run travel company that has proudly been operating locally for 90 years. Over half of our team of 245 people have been with the company for more than 10 years, which says a lot about our company ethos and experience in selling holidays.

Premier Holidays Limited is the tour operation side of the business offering holidays to the Channel Islands plus a wide range of long‑haul destinations where bespoke, tailor‑made holidays are created for the Far East, Sri Lanka, Middle East, Southern Africa, Indian Ocean, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. We are well known within the travel industry as the market leader for Channel Islands and for over 30 years as long‑haul specialists with a team possessing extensive experience in creating personalised single and multi‑centre holidays around our long haul destinations. Our wide range of inspiring brochures can be found in most Travel Agencies across the UK and our knowledgeable staff are always on the end of a phone line to offer invaluable holiday advice and personal recommendations.

Premier Travel Limited is the East of England’s leading independent travel agency with 31 branches across the East and Southeast of England, twelve of which are in the Cambridgeshire area. Our Travel Consultants pride themselves on their excellent travel knowledge, high levels of customer service and the personal touch that keeps our many loyal customers coming back to us again and again.

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