Head of Marketing & Sales at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position:

Job Title: Head of Marketing and Sales

Directorate or Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Location: Lagos
Reports to: Country Examinations Manager
Department/Country: Nigeria Examinations
Pay Band: 7

Purpose of Job
To support country, regional and corporate volume and impact targets for examination, course and project delivery in Nigeria. This is achieved through identifying key markets in Nigeria, devising advertising campaigns to them and leading a sales team to deliver the Nigeria Exams doubling project.

The following are particularly important in the way we work:

• We are completely compliant in all aspects of examination delivery.
• We focus on delivering excellence to the customer in order to achieve maximum impact;
• We work with and through partners to ensure that our work is relevant and to increase impact and sustainability;
• We are forward-thinking in our use of new technologies to communicate with our audiences and to deliver services;
• We are clear and confident about our offer to partners and customers: access to UK excellence; our reputation as a trusted partner and provider; our ability to work across sectors; our access to international networks;
• We put our values - people, creativity, mutuality, professionalism, integrity - at the heart of our work. We are committed to equal opportunity and to the celebration and promotion of diversity and inclusion.

Context and Environment
(e.g. dept description, region description, organogram)

• Nigeria, a tier 1 country, has the largest project, programme and exams operations in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We operate from 4 main office locations. Individually, the Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt Exams offices alone are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd largest exams businesses by income in SSA respectively. There are currently 36 members in the exams team, 5 of whom are in the Abuja office. We operate a hub-and-spoke system in Nigeria with the main support functions, Business Support Services (BSS) and customer services, located in Lagos.
• The Exams business in Nigeria has grown significantly in recent years. We doubled our income and volumes between 2011 and 2013. In 2014/15 we delivered 90,000 examinations, this financial year the target is 100,000 exams on a turnover of £8.5m, and by 2016 we expect to double on 2013 figures to 120,000 exams.
• An investment in over 15 new posts in the exams team in Nigeria, of which this is one, will support our doubling ambition and address the issues highlighted below.
• We have a number of challenges namely: team capacity, quality of delivery, security risks and infrastructure restraints which we are addressing through organisational change, capacity increases and technological solutions. The Global New Operating Model for Exams (GNOME) and Global Financial Change projects are critical to our business plans.
• We are a global leader in a cross-SBU project on school quality and engagement in Nigeria, and we are developing a second cross-SBU project on skills and employability - again, a first for the British Council global network.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
(including people management and finance)

Strategy & planning:

• Act as a marketing and sales specialist professional who can provide high quality, innovative, effective and sustainable Marketing and Sales campaigns, from the planning stage through to delivery and evaluation.

Portfolio, Programme and Product Development:

• Contribute professional advice, guidance and support to scope the shaping and delivery of E&E Marketing and Sales campaigns for programmes/projects/products/ that are well-designed, represent good practice and involve appropriate partners from across the sector.
• Lead the development, management and evaluation of consistent and replicable marketing and sales plans/programmes for new product development, product refreshment and campaign activity.
• Ensure the British Council finds new and cutting edge ways to undertake marketing activity in a cost effective and impactful manner in these areas, in accordance with agreed E&E priorities.
• To lead the sales team in meeting challenging business development and sales targets for the Nigeria Examinations department.
• Maintain an understanding of the British Council’s wider suite of programmes, products and businesses to identify and communicate to colleagues and partners how and where marketing could make an additional, useful contribution in terms of commercial performance and/or cultural relations impact

Market Building and Brand Positioning:

• Advise and work with colleagues in the Nigeria Marketing team, Regional Marcoms team and global E&E Marketing teams, to ensure the portfolio of marketing activity best meets agreed programme/product and contractual needs

Building Professional Expertise:

• Actively build professional networks and information channels that maintain an excellent understanding of the wider marketing and sales community and developments in this sector
• Work alongside the Comms Manager to manage the identification, development and quality assurance of networks of associates, consultants and relevant suppliers to support the Marketing teams.

Relationship, Stakeholder and Key Account Management:

• Help product teams to map customer journeys at different stages of the life cycle and identify communication techniques and strategies to ensure marketing activity can best reach, engage and drive impact among these customer groups.
• Maintain excellent relationships with internal and external partners and stakeholders in the UK and Nigeria to ensure effective, integrated and joined-up delivery of agreed insight activity and its effective dissemination.
• Design and manage a customer and client database with Head of Customer Services.

Commercial and Resource Management:

• Assist with establishing and agreeing guidelines and policy for use of agencies and third parties in marketing campaign and communication activity
• Ensure the effective scoping, costing, delivery, ROI and evaluation of all marketing and communication campaigns for the SBU.
• Assist the Head of Procurement with identifying preferred procurement suppliers to meet the needs of the SBU
• Contribute to the effective deployment of projects/programmes that support the achievement of agreed ROI targets for Marketing and Sales.
• Assist with recruitment of casual sales agents. Lead on management of this cadre of agents.

Team Membership:

• Provide coaching and mentoring support to less experienced colleagues, as required.
• Share intelligence and ideas to support senior managers in identifying/developing ways in which the Marketing and Sales team could make the most effective impact on the British Council’s cultural relations and commercial strategies, or work more efficiently and effectively.

HR & Line Management:

• Currently there are 36 staff members working in the Examinations Department in the British Council in Nigeria.
• This post will line manage up to six sales manager posts according to British Council HR standards.

Other management duties:

• To perform other managerial/operational duties by agreement with line manager.

Key relationships:
(include internal and external)

• Country Director and Deputy; Country Examinations Manager; Centre Managers: Abuja and Port Harcourt; Cusomter Service Manager, Head of Marketing and Sales, SBU leads, Nigeria; Communications Manager, Nigeria; Country and Regional Finance team; Regional Examinations team; Control and Complinance team, Nigeria; Customer Service Manager (SSA) & E+E CS business Partner; Nigeria- and UK-based examination board representatives; Country, Regional and E+E Marketing BPs.
• Key government (state and federal) contacts, institutes of educations, NUC, global IELTS Marketing Team; Brand Team UK.

Other important features or requirements of the job:
(e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc)

• Some unsocial hours working may be required, especially to manage and attend relationship-building and marketing events.
• Monthly travel to other council offices is currently required as is travel to examination events across the whole of Nigeria. As some examinations take place on Saturdays, occasional weekend working will be required to evaluate these sessions.
• Attendance at some annual meetings in the region, the UK and elsewhere is required.

Skills and Knowledge
Planning & Organizing (Level 3)

• Develops annual plans -Develops and reviews the implementation of annual plans for a work group or function, taking account of business and customer requirements and reconciling competing demands.

Managing People (Level 3)

• Manages a team - Provides full line management to a team where all members are working in a similar area of expertise or business. Scope includes planning, setting objectives, role modeling an inclusive culture, recruitment, development and performance management

Communicating & influencing (Level 3)

• Is creative and adaptable in communications - able to use a range of non-standard and creative approaches to inform and/or persuade others, extending beyond logical argument to influence decisions and actions in a way that is inclusive and engaging.

Managing Projects (Level 3)

• Leads smaller projects - Analyses requirements with the sponsor/stakeholders, defining the specification with awareness of equality and diversity impact, planning, revising, implementing and evaluating on small-to-medium scale and/or low risk projects.

Managing Finance and Resources (Level 3)

• Supports budget management - Monitors and controls an agreed budget within a defined area, producing reports and analyses and contributing to planning

Experience

• Experience of developing strategic relationships and effectively selecting and managing external clients.
• Highly experienced communications manager with a successful record of marketing and sales campaigns and strategies in a client or agency environment.
• Effective development and management of a programme of campaign activity for a range of clients and monitoring of marketing effectiveness to assess improvements and ROI for marketing activity
• An effective campaign project manager -leading end to end campaign activity and client management for a business area and aware of marketing policy protocols and guidelines
• An effective sales manager - identifying key markets and leading a team to meet challenging sales targets. Strong digital marketing delivery expertise and skill base.
• Workshop facilitation and qualitative moderation practitioner skills
• A strong communicator and collaborative worker - able to present proposals and campaigns in a compelling and effective way, to engage and secure buy-in from others to clear ideas, plans and programmes of activity
• A numerate manager - enthusiastic about using metrics and analytics to improve return on campaign investment

Qualifications

• A first degree or equivalent (substantial work experience in a related field may be considered in lieu of a first degree).
• A qualification in marketing and or sales.
• Member of a professional marketing or sales institute.

Application Closing Date
31st July, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details MS Word

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviours (pdf)