Job Information Pack

Business Development Manager

£38,754 up to £52,151

This pack contains the following documents:

How to apply

Our benefits – what we can offer you

What does the job involve (Job Description)

What you need to be a Business Development Manager

Background information about the role, the team and what you’d be

doing

How to claim interview expenses

You can find out more information about what we do, our history, our culture and our products and services on our website www.ncfe.org.uk. If there’s anything particular that you can’t find on our website, please call us and we’ll be happy to help answer your questions.

Job description - Business Development Manager

What does the team do?

The Business Development team is the sales team of NCFE offering advice, support and guidance to new and existing customers on our products and services to gain increased sales through exceptional customer service. The team provides a personal service to support our customers to deliver and run our qualifications. They do whatever they can to make life easier for our customers so that they have an enjoyable and successful experience of working with us.

What’s the team structure?

Senior Business Development

Manager

Business Development Manager NW

Business Development Manager NE

Business Development Manager SE

Business Development

Officer SE

Business Development Manager SW

Business Development Officer SW

Business Development

Officer NE

Business Development Officer NW

Business Development

Manager (Private Training Providers)

North

What does the job involve?

Talking and visiting with new and existing customers and stakeholders on a daily basis to increase the sales of NCFE products and services through always delivering exceptional customer service. 

Our customers, which we call centres, could be Further Education (FE) colleges, Private Training Providers (PTP) or schools.

You may have a Business Development Officer reporting to you so you will be responsible for providing them with line management and leadership as well as their development.

The specialist duties and responsibilities of the Business Development Manager role are:

maximising the long-term sales potential of NCFE within the allocated region contributing to the development, monitoring and delivery of the business development

plan for NCFE working towards agreed targets for business development activity and assisting in the

development of future targets developing a regional business development plan contributing to the review of existing and development of new products and services

within NCFE’s portfolio providing guidance and advice on NCFE’s products, services and their potential

application to maximise sales developing business proposals/tenders for new and existing customers and

reporting/feedback on customer and stakeholder visits maintaining current knowledge of developments in the education sector, customer activity

and NCFE’s products and services ensuring close liaison with the appropriate regional teams(s) within the Centre Support

team identifying and, where appropriate, acting upon, market intelligence, research and

marketing activity required to support the achievement of sales objectives developing and maintaining effective working relationships with key customers,

stakeholders and education sector contacts contributing to the devising and delivery of a variety of customer and stakeholder based

information events leading, attending, contributing to and evaluating events as prescribed by NCFE lead, manage and develop BDO/s to achieve operational targets acting as a key point of contact for customer queries

We’d also expect any Manager at NCFE to...

set, monitor and manage the achievement of regional team targets lead on specialist cross-organisational projects as required contribute to cross-organisational issues and the achievement of organisational

objectives carry out other tasks in line with your position or skills manage performance in line with our values support and develop individual team members

..and we’d expect every single member of staff to… deliver exceptional customer service to all NCFE customers, both internal and

external

improve the performance of NCFE by seeking new business opportunities and continually reviewing and implementing improved working practices and processes

What will you need to be able to do the job?

Qualifications & Experience

full driving licence experience of working in a similar/comparable role solid line management/staff supervision experience project management experience

Skills & Knowledge

excellent telephone manner excellent written and oral communication skills, including good grammar and spelling demonstrable word processing, data entry, spreadsheet and email skills attention to detail and ability to work accurately excellent report writing skills excellent presentation skills

Abilities & Behaviours

ability to work in a way that demonstrates our company competencies- Delivering Excellence- Striving to Improve- Thinking Positively- Understanding Self and Others- Thinking & Decision Making- Facilitating Change- Managing Performance

ability to develop and maintain working relationships, including networking, with a range of contacts including at a senior level

ability to identify and act upon business opportunities ability to travel extensively, including regular overnight stays

It would be even better if you also had:

knowledge of current developments in education knowledge of quality assurance procedures and issues within an education context knowledge of funding within Further Education negotiation and influencing skills sales skills educated to at least degree level or equivalent holder of A and V units or equivalent experience of working in an educational environment sense of humour!!

What are the main priorities of the role?

To provide a key point of liaison with potential and existing customers and stakeholders within a defined region and identify and maximise opportunities for sales growth.

What might a typical day be like? A day in the life of a Business Development Manager (BDM).

The good news is that there isn’t a typical day, but ‘a day in the life of’ could look like this:

6.45 – Switch on lap top and connect to Outlook via VPN, check updated emails and Business Development Officer’s (BDO) movement for the day. Fire off a couple of meeting requests to Centres and check and update regional Op plan tracker

7.00 – Leave home to drive to Birmingham for an early morning meeting with the Director of Curriculum at a large central Birmingham college

9:00 – Good news, traffic has not been too bad today and arrive half an hour early. Check Blackberry for new emails and respond as necessary. Check meeting notes and proposed agenda.

9:25 – Check in at reception where I’m met by Director’s secretary who takes me to the meeting room. Informed that we’ll be joined by a couple of Curriculum Managers during the meeting to talk about a number of new qualification developments. Meeting takes about 1 ½ hours which is about average.

11:00 – Get back to car and check Blackberry for messages, a number of return calls have to be made and respond to a couple of Head Office emails. Call BDO as a query has come up which needs BDM response. Check Tom Tom for routing and drive time to next meeting which is with a Private Training Provider to discuss a significant potential contract to deliver Spectator Safety at the Birmingham Arena.

11:45 – Arrive at Centre, meeting not until 12.30 so time to open laptop and work on visit reports.

12:20 – Check in at Centre, outline new National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) available. Good interest shown but Centre wish to know why they should move to NCFE from existing supplier. Run through checklist of unique selling points and discuss possible discounts on bulk registrations. Make a note to discuss this potential with Director of Business Development. Agree to feedback business model within 3 days.

13:30 – Back in car and time to head back home. Stop off at garage and buy lunch. Park up for ½ an hour to have a break and listen to 5 Live!

15:30 – Arrive back home and have time to carry out a number of admin tasks which include checking and responding to the day’s emails, finishing off a couple of visit reports, filling in Outlook calendar with new visits, completing Management Team report for Senior BDM, emailing our support person at Head office for a couple of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) reports for upcoming visits and checking Operational Plan Tracker. 16:30 – Phone BDO as they’ve a question on one of their personal development objectives, and give feedback on presentation they’re working on for an upcoming cross curriculum presentation.

17:00 – Print off agenda and minutes for BD Team and BDM/O meetings in Newcastle over the next 2 days. Check all papers are printed off for these meetings, remember hotel booking reference and complete packing for next couple of days

17:30 – Call it a day!

How do I apply?

First of all, thank you for showing an interest in coming to work for us. You’ll need to send us the following so we can consider your application:

CV – you should send us your current CV detailing the skills and relevant work experience you which makes you suitable for the role for which you are applying.

Covering letter – you should use this to provide a short snapshot of your relevant experience and to tell us anything else you think we should know about you eg why you want the job, why you think you’d fit in at NCFE, any social or leisure activities that you’re involved in which you think will help your application etc.

You can type or handwrite your CV and covering letter- we don’t mind as long as it’s easy to read!

What can we offer you?At NCFE we genuinely believe that we reward and treat our colleagues well and that NCFE is a great place to work. As a result, everyone provides a great level of service to our customers and colleagues. This enables us to grow and earn the money that we can then re-invest in our people for the benefit of our customers.

These are your entitlements whilst working at NCFE:

Competitive Rates of Pay

We think we pay a good basic salary – we regularly check our salary scales against comparable roles in the North East. From time-to-time we benchmark the salary scales applied to every job, most recently using the Croner R£ward system.

Performance-Related Salary Increments

You can earn more money if you perform above and beyond expectations and achieve your objectives. Pay awards are either a one-off ‘bonus’ or as an increment built into your basic salary. This is based upon your scores in your annual performance review.

Holidays

We offer a generous holiday entitlement:

for most posts, the basic entitlement is 25 days’ annual leave, rising to 27 days after 2 years’ service

for Manager posts and above and Business Development Officers, we offer 27 days’ annual leave, rising to 30 days after 2 years’ service.

This doesn’t include Bank Holidays (you get those as well!) and, in addition, we’d usually close the office between Christmas and New Year, which doesn’t come out of your holiday entitlement.

Flexible Working

We know that keeping a sensible work-life balance is getting harder all the time so we try to allow staff to work flexibly if they need to. We obviously need to put the needs of our customers first, but if anyone needs to start early or finish early we will try to accommodate this.

For posts below Manager level we also offer a flexible flexi-time scheme, as well as being able to be considered for the various other flexible ways of working for all staff.

Pension

We operate a flexible pension scheme which all staff can join and pay money into once they have completed 12 weeks’ service. We’ll pay the equivalent of 9% of salary into your pension fund as long as you contribute a minimum of 3% yourself. If this doesn’t fit your needs you can choose to make a 1% contribution which we will pay 3%, or alternatively you can make a 2% contribution and we will pay 6%.

Maternity Pay

We look after you if you’re expecting! If you meet the eligibility criteria, we offer enhanced maternity pay of 8 weeks’ full pay (including SMP) and the remaining 18 weeks at half of normal salary followed by any additional statutory entitlements. You can also get paid time off for ante-natal, health visitor and midwife appointments. We’re a member of the Tommy’s Baby Charity Pregnancy Accreditation Programme and we’ll even give you one of our now-legendary NCFE babygros!

Paternity Pay

New dads who meet the eligibility criteria are entitled to 2 weeks’ paternity leave, paid at full salary (inclusive of Statutory Paternity Pay) and may also be eligible to request Additional Paternity Leave where you may be able to take up to 26 weeks leave.

Adoptive Leave

If you happen to have an adopted child or adopt while you’re with us, we’ll treat you exactly the same as if you were the biological parent. We offer comparable adoptive leave and pay as well as paid time off for any appointments related to your adoption.

In addition these are the benefits currently available to you which we regularly review and update:

Healthcare plan

We operate a healthcare plan which enables you to claim towards the cost of your everyday health costs such as dental and optical care and therapy treatments, you also get access to

a 24 hour counselling line and GP advice line for those moments when you need some extra help and support. Discounted Annual Travel Pass

Unfortunately, there’s no staff parking available at our offices, so to help you with your travel to and from work we offer an interest-free loan to buy a discounted annual travel pass. This could save you more than £100 on your annual travel costs!

Tax free bikes

We’re signed up to the Government’s Green Transport Cycle to Work Initiative which enables you to make big savings on the purchase of a new bike and pay for it in instalments via tax free salary sacrifice. We have secure bike parking and shower facilities in our office so you can commute by bike to work. For more information on this scheme go to www.cyclescheme.co.uk

Learning and Development

As you might expect from an organisation dealing with education, we place great emphasis on training and developing our staff. This starts on day one with the start of an in depth induction programme and continues throughout your career with NCFE. You’ll take responsibility for your own learning and development and will actively seek opportunities to improve, you’ll do this with support from your line manager and our Learning and Development Officer who’ll help you to identify, plan and address your needs.

Induction – we give all staff a thorough induction into the organisation, this includes developing you to carry out the duties and responsibilities of your role, helping you learn about the different teams in the organisation so you know who your colleagues are, what they do and how you can work together as one team. There’s a cultural induction which includes an introduction to service excellence and values of the company which will help you to understand the behaviours which will help you to have a successful career with NCFE.

Ongoing learning and development – We invest in your skills and development throughout your career with NCFE to enable you to deliver the best service to our customers and to develop your expertise in your specialist area. We use a variety of learning methods and tailor our learning to meet business priorities and individual needs.

Love Learning Library – We’ve an extensive learning resource in our Library with over 180 different items for you to use. There’s something to suit everyone’s style from books to DVD’s, CD-Rom’s to podcasts. The library covers a wide range of topics from personal development to management, fun topics, language CD’s and some brilliant self-help books.

Support for Other Training – If you need some training for your job, we’ll fund it in full. If you want to do something a little more to do with your personal development, this could be a short course or qualification, we’ll still make a contribution towards it if we can. The support includes a contribution towards payment of fees, paid time off to attend events, paid time off for exams, contribution towards purchase of core course books.

Personal Training Allowance – We give an allowance of £200 a year to each member of staff to use on absolutely any type of training activity of their choice, which needn’t be anything to do with work! This year, staff have spent their allowance on skiing lessons,

driving lessons, card making course, website design course, pottery, dancing lessons, Spanish lessons, European Computer Driving Licence qualification, woodworking and many more.

Free NCFE Qualifications – You can do NCFE qualifications where we will contribute up to £400 towards the cost of the course – with our qualifications ranging from Creative Craft and Art and Design to Personal Money Management and Food Safety Management there’s something for everyone.

The fun stuff…

We’re not afraid to have fun at work – it makes for a happier working environment and we actually think it makes you work better as well!

Celebration Lunches - We like to celebrate things at NCFE - recently we’ve celebrated good months for income, our highest-ever customer and staff satisfaction results and winning an important contract.

Free Drinks – It’s important to keep you hydrated so you can perform at your best so we offer a variety of drinks including Fair-trade tea and coffee, a variety of herbal teas and fruit squashes – all free of charge.

News Bite - The yummiest day of the month – on the last working day of the month everyone is treated to some form of cake, scone, pastry or healthy snack. At the same time, the Strategic Management Team send round an email summary of our achievements in the month – usually in a fairly tongue-in-cheek style.

All Staff Events - Every few months we close the office for the afternoon to hold an all staff event. There’s (usually) a point to the event but we like to get those points across in a fun way. So recent events have included a Abba themed extravaganza (actually the launch of our business plan), a Rocky Horror Picture Show event, a Sports Day and a Spanish summer extravaganza complete with tapas, flamenco dancing and a fair amount of sangria!

Christmas Party – we had a masked ball for this year’s Christmas Party, which gave everyone an opportunity to dance the night away. In previous years we’ve had surf simulators, a ‘casino’ with roulette and black jack tables, and rodeo with a ‘bucking bronco’.

Other Staff Events

We encourage everyone to get involved in (and dream up in the first place) the various fun things that people organise from time to time. Some recent examples have been:

wine tasting evening pie and pint night Community Gardening Project Adult Learners’ Week 5-a-side football tournament darts, Wii & Jenga tournaments Health & Well Being Initiatives

If you join us, we hope you’ll have your own ideas!

Don’t just take our word for it!! we were named the Sunday Times 60th Best Public or Third Sector Company to

work for 2012 we were the Overall winner of the Culture for Success awards 2011 we were accredited by Best Companies with 2 stars (1st Class Organisation) in

2010 we’ve held Investors In People status since 1996 in 2009 we won 2 UK Customer Experience Awards for Best Medium Organisation,

and Culture and People. we won the CIPD Regional Award for Innovation in Recruitment and Retention &

also HR&D Excellence through Technology.

How do I claim interview expenses?

If we invite you to join us for interview we don’t want to see you out of pocket due to your travelling costs.

No matter how long or short the distance you travel you can claim for your travel costs, we just ask that you:

claim for the lower of either standard rail fare or other method of travel speak to us beforehand if your costs are going to be over £250

We’ll also cover the costs of meals, refreshments and accommodation if you need to:

travel to the interview location the night before as you’re unable to get to the interview on time if you travel on the day

attend an interview with us 2 or more days running travel home from the interview the following day as you’re unable to get home

immediately after the interview due to there not being transport available

We’ll cover these costs up to the following limits:

Expense LimitLunch - London £10Lunch – elsewhere £7.50Evening Meal – anywhere in the UK £20Overnight Stay (Bed & Breakfast) - London £150Overnight Stay (Bed & Breakfast) – elsewhere £100

You can claim for costs by completing the form on the following page and sending it and your receipts to:

HR TeamNCFESt James’ BoulevardNewcastle upon TyneNE1 4JE

NCFE, Citygate, St James’ Boulevard, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4JETel: 0191 239 8000 Fax: 0191 239 8001 Email: info@ncfe.org.uk

CLAIM FOR TRAVEL AND INCIDENTAL EXPENSES

Please complete this form and return to our HR Team at the address above

Name: ____________________________________

Interviewed for position of: __________________________________________________

Date: _______________________ Place : ____________________________________

1 Travel Costs (please attach receipts)£ p

RailFrom: to:

Car mileageFrom: to:

Total miles x 40p =Metro / BusFrom: to:

TOTAL

2 Other Expenses (Please provide details below and attach your receipts)

Signed: Date:

Your address: _____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________