We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.
We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.
Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.
British Council Pay band: Senior Management Pay – 9s (SMPS)
Department: English and Exams
Contract type: Indefinite (Permanent)
Closing Date: Tuesday 1st of April 2025, (23:59 GMT)
Location: UK, East Asia, Europe, Mena and Sub Saharan Africa
You must have the legal right to work in the stated location. We will not be providing Visa sponsorship and relocation assistance is not provided.
British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.
Role Purpose
Sales Enablement is a critical function that will embed standard approach across our network of Sales teams and create a culture of performance. This role is responsible for leading a global Sales Enablement function and forms part of the Global Sales leadership team. The post-holder will be responsible for developing a data-driven framework for tracking and optimising sales effectiveness and performance against global standards, informing workforce planning and developing a global training programme that ensures all roles within the sales teams have the necessary knowledge and skills to be effective in their roles.
Key Accountabilities Include
- Supporting the development and governance of the global sales function operating model.
- Developing a global approach to workforce planning within the Sales team that identified the optimal volume and deployment of roles within the team.
- Embedding a global Sales and Account Management performance framework that contributes to a culture of accountability and achievement.
- Developing and managing a global training and support programme for Sales team staff, to include specific support across the English product portfolio.
- Developing and managing the inventory of resources for Sales team staff.
- Leadership of the Enablement team
Role Context
A significant number of individuals who take English language training and exams with the British Council do so through our partnerships with education institutions, governments and corporate partners. Corporate and government partners typically need participants to demonstrate and improve their language and communication skills to improve workplace performance and collaboration or during recruitment and selection. Education institutions often partner with us for support with mobility and internationalisation initiatives, that require English, or as a distributor of globally recognised exams.
The British Council offers a wide range of solutions to meet these requirements. These include
- English language and communication skills training – delivered online or in-person via our global network of teaching centres
- English language assessments
- Exams distribution for secondary, higher and professional education.
The global Sales function aims to establish a coherent approach to sales, account management and customer success across these business units. This will include developing the sales strategy, team structure and functional operating model. The global Sales leadership team will partner with individual business units to implement the change programme and support ongoing growth, development and enablement, working within a global matrix structure.
Main Accountabilities/Responsibilities But Not Limited To The Following
Organisational design and workforce planning
- Embed the global sales operating model by ensuring roles, headcount and organisational design at country, cluster and regional level align with this.
- Maintain governance of the operating model by reviewing task management and data governance, working with regional leadership to resolve and misalignment.
- Develop global workforce planning tools and reporting that help the Sales function identify the optimal scope and volume of work for different role types and make recommendations for improving quality and efficiency
Business performance and optimisation
- Establish a global Sales and Account Management KPI framework and ensure that CRM and other management information tools can report against these accurately.
- Establish and maintain standard operating procedures across the sales and account management value chain, that teams and individuals can follow and ensure these are documented and codified.
- Design and implement quality monitoring processes and standards (potentially combining data analysis and mystery shopping) to monitor the impact and effectiveness of processes and roles.
- Work with the CRM team and Sales Operations team to ensure that the B2B Salesforce environment supports effective monitoring.
Training and quality
- Develop a global training programme that supports all role types within the Sales team, to include:
- Onboarding, core tasks and processes and use of Salesforce CRM.
- Product training
- Skills training that maps to core competencies for individual role families and which addresses any skills gaps identified.
- Develop and implement a management coaching programme to support better line management and nurture talent.
- To manage annual HR objectives to ensure these are SMART, relevant for individual role types and consistent across the team.
Resources
- Manage the development of collateral that helps the sales team manage and win opportunities more effectively.
- Managing a team of product specialists as a resource to support new and existing partnerships and ensure that information from Sales teams is fed back into product teams.
- Maintain a resource repository for all role types, globally so they can quickly and easily access information and resource and avoid duplicated effort.
Leadership and stakeholder engagement
- Manage a team responsible for training, information management and product enablement and support.
- Work with the global Sales leadership team to establish standard operating procedures that align with business and system capability
- Work with regional Sales leads to identify and address any quality gaps and training needs.
- Act as the key point of contact for Sales Enablement between stakeholders engaged in Marketing, Sales and delivery of B2B business to ensure the needs of clients and participants are met.
- Identify talent within the global sales network and act as a mentor.
Minimum/Essential
Role Specific Knowledge and Experience:
- Experience of managing teams
- Experience of project management of complex initiatives
- Experience of training design
- Experience of managing or contributing to business analysis and process and process improvement.
- Experience of working in a global organisation
- Proficiency in Microsoft office programs
Desirable
- Previous experience in a Sales Enablement role
- Knowledge of Salesforce or similar CRM
- Experience of B2B sales and solutions selling or working closely with these teams.
- Experience of working in the education sector
A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.
Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement
The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.
The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.
We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.
Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council’s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.
If you have any problems with your application please email askhr@britishcouncil.org
Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ‘ASK HR’ email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.
