Sales Manager UK

Entrepreneur First; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A VC-backed technology startup in London is seeking a Sales Manager to lead and grow their UK commercial team. In this player-coach role, you will manage Account Executives and BDRs/SDRs while personally closing deals. The ideal candidate should have 2-4+ years of B2B sales experience, a track record of quota performance, and strong leadership skills. This position offers a competitive salary, uncapped OTE, and a flexible working environment.

Benefits

Competitive base salary

25 days holiday

Flexible hybrid working

Regular team socials

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• 2-4+ years in B2B sales with strong closing experience.
• 2+ years managing AEs/SDRs or clear player-coach track record.
• Proven consistent quota performance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach the UK commercial team including AEs and BDRs/SDRs.
• Ensure pipeline quality and accuracy in forecasting.
• Personally handle parts of the sales process to close deals.

Skills

B2B Sales

Team Leadership

Sales Forecasting

Coaching

Objection Handling

Job description

Overview

Sales Manager, New Logo Sales - London - VC Backed Software Startup

Location: EC2M4YJ Central London, In office 3-5 days per week

Team: Commercial (Growth)

About Opply

Opply is modernising how scaling food and consumer goods brands buy ingredients, solving a £1 trillion market inefficiency that's been overlooked for decades.

Right now, SMB brands waste 70% of stock and pay 40% above market rate because they lack access to enterprise-level supplier networks and smart automation. We've built an AI-powered platform that changes this entirely: automated ordering, predictive forecasting, supplier matching, and embedded credit that lets brands sell before they pay.

We're a scaling, VC-backed by Index Ventures, Anthemis, and Chalfen Ventures, with unicorn angels from GoCardless, Flow.io, and Trouva. We've won StartUp of the Year and Supply Chain Specialists of the Year, and we're scaling fast across the UK and internationally.

This is category-defining work in a massive, underserved market.

The Role

As Sales Manager at Opply, you’ll lead and grow the UK commercial team—managing Account Executives and BDRs/SDRs while also carrying an individual quota and closing deals yourself.

This is a true player-coach role. You’ll be accountable for pipeline health, conversion, execution standards, and coaching—while personally running strategic opportunities, improving win rates, and tightening the sales motion end-to-end.

If you’re a hands-on leader who can coach rigorously, build repeatable processes, and still get deals over the line, you’ll have a massive impact here.

What You\'ll Be Doing

Team Leadership and Performance

• Lead, coach, and performance-manage a team of AEs and BDRs/SDRs
• Set weekly priorities, activity standards, and pipeline targets across the team
• Run 1:1s, call coaching, deal reviews, and structured feedback loops
• Build a culture of high ownership, pace, and commercial excellence
• Recruit and ramp new hires as the team scales

Own Pipeline Quality and Forecasting

• Ensure top-of-funnel output is high-quality and aligned to the right ICP
• Maintain disciplined CRM hygiene, pipeline governance, and forecasting accuracy
• Diagnose bottlenecks (connect rates, show rates, conversion, cycle time) and fix them
• Partner with Marketing to sharpen targeting, messaging, and campaigns

Close Deals (Player-Coach)

• Personally run a portion of opportunities end-to-end: discovery → demo → proposal → negotiation → close
• Step into late-stage deals to unblock stakeholders, handle complex objections, and drive urgency
• Build commercial business cases and value narratives tied to cashflow, margin, and operational efficiency
• Negotiate terms and ensure clean handoffs into onboarding / delivery

Improve the Sales Motion

• Build and iterate playbooks for outbound, discovery, qualification, and negotiation
• Share market feedback with Product to influence roadmap and product
• Track competitor moves, market trends, and customer pain points to refine positioning
• Represent Opply at industry events and in the wider market

What We\'re Looking For

You\'ll thrive here if you are:

• A player-coach: credible on the floor, leading by example and still closing
• A strong sales operator: you run pipeline like a system, metrics, rhythm, accountability
• A sharp coach: you can improve discovery, objection handling, and deal control quickly
• Commercially credible: you speak fluently about value, outcomes, and trade-offs
• High ownership: you solve problems fast and raise the standard around you

Experience we expect:

• 2–4+ years in B2B sales, with meaningful closing experience
• 2+ years managing AEs/SDRs (or a clear player-coach track record leading a pod)
• Consistent quota performance (as an individual contributor and/or team lead)
• Strong forecasting discipline and comfort owning a number
• SaaS/tech sales experience preferred; food/consumer goods experience a plus

Why Now

Opply is at an inflection point. We're scaling with strong customer traction, scaling revenue, expanding internationally, and building out the commercial team to match our ambition.

You'll join early enough to have an outsized impact: shaping playbooks, owning territory, and growing into leadership as the business scales.

Training & Development

You won't be left to figure it out alone. We've built a structured development environment to turn high-potential sellers into confident commercial operators:

• Full onboarding programme with clear ramp expectations and success metrics
• Weekly 1:1 coaching and feedback loops to build consistency and confidence
• Classroom learning and role plays for discovery, objection handling, and deal progression

What You'll Learn Here

This role is a career accelerator. You'll develop skills that compound:

• Outbound excellence: Multi-channel prospecting done right (phone, LinkedIn, email, events)
• Modern discovery: Combine qualitative insight with quantitative value logic to uncover real urgency
• Commercial fluency: Speak credibly about cashflow, operational efficiency, and growth readiness
• Market expertise: Deep understanding of the scaling F&B world (supply chain challenges, margin pressure, and what operators actually care about)
• Unshakeable confidence: Built through repetition, feedback, and high standards

What We Offer

• Competitive base salary + uncapped OTE
• 25 days holiday plus UK bank holidays
• Flexible hybrid working (balance autonomy with collaboration)
• Regular team socials and global offsites to connect, collaborate, and celebrate
• Pension scheme