COMMERCIAL LEADERS ACADEMY
£32,000 - £36,000 + Commission + Share Options
(First Year Commission average is £10,500 but uncapped)
London Based (by Victoria Station) with Travel & Remote up to 2 days per week.

WHO ARE WE?

We're Sessions, we’re on a mission to bring non-stop originality to every table.

Founded in 2020, Sessions has since launched and scaled 10 food brands, partnered with 300+ licensee kitchens and delivered over 3 million orders. We are now expanding into the franchising space at speed, using our own technology to grow our brand portfolio into high streets all over the UK.

Our portfolio includes crowd favourites such as SoBe Burger and Little Bao Boy, as well as brands from market leaders in the food space, such Kenny Tutt’s Patty Guy (of Master Chef fame) and internationally acclaimed menus like Ivan Ramen (seen on Netflix’s Chef’s Table).

Sessions is led by former executives from Deliveroo, Brewdog and Soho House and is
backed by industry leading investors Imbiba and Guinness Ventures.

Who's Hungry?

🏃‍♀️ We are Agile - We are customer-obsessed and adapt as needed to meet their needs
🌍 We are Ambitious - We aim to not only discover but create on-trend brands and are excited by the work required to become a tastemaker brand
🤪 We are Fun - We keep playfulness at the centre of our culture so that we can deliver on the very serious business of keeping food fun
🤖We are data-driven - We don't make assumptions based on what has always been done and instead focus on what the data tells us should be done

ABOUT THE ROLE:

You will play a pivotal part in the growth of Sessions as we continue on our mission to bring our food brands to every neighbourhood across the UK.

The Commercial Leaders Academy is a one-year program to accelerate your career at Sessions. This program offers ambitious individuals the chance to gain comprehensive exposure to sales, growth, and account management within a high-growth environment. You’ll develop the skills and experience needed to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial setting and play a pivotal role in driving Sessions' success. The initiative starts with a 4 month program with Sessions, run by all of our leadership team as well as our Sales Leads. You will learn all you need to know about Sessions, the industry and how to succeed in a start up.

HOW DOES THE ACADEMY WORK?

Month 1: Foundations – Leads & Outreach:

• Comprehensive onboarding to Sessions' mission, values, and business model.
• Introduction to lead generation tools and techniques, including market research and data analysis.
• Practice creating and qualifying leads for outreach through Hubspot, our CRM platform
• Role-playing exercises to build confidence in cold-calling and field sales
• Shadowing experienced sales team members in client meetings, both virtual and in-person.

Month 2: Deepening Skills – Meetings, Closing and Mastering Negotiation:

• Shadowing experienced sales team members in client meetings, both virtual and in-person.
• Advanced training in negotiation tactics and value-based selling from our CEO
• Live negotiation scenarios to build confidence and resilience under pressure.
• Closing your first deals with hands-on support from your manager.

Month 3: Onboarding & Account Management:

• Facilitating the onboarding process for new operator partners, from initial setup to launch.
• Coordinating with the culinary and account management teams to ensure a seamless handover.
• Conducting follow-ups to ensure operators are set up for success.

Month 4-12:
You will go into a pod of Business Development Managers and bring on new business of your own, with close support with your Regional Manager. You will continue to have monthly training sessions by sales and operations professionals.

After 12 months:
You’ll be equipped with the knowledge and experience to take on larger responsibilities, with a clear pathway to a Senior Business Development Manager Role or position within a different function (previous employees have gone into Account Management, Supply Chain and our Creative Studio after the program). You will work closely with the Program Manager to decide the best path forward.

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

• Comprehensive Sales Training: Learn and excel in lead generation, cold outreach, and pipeline management, from prospecting to closing deals.
  Identifying and prospecting leads within the hospitality sector, ideal for supporting the growth of our brands
• Approaching leads through cold-calling, field sales and email campaigns
• Managing your pipeline end to end, from pitching our model to closing the deal through face-to-face and/or virtual meetings, to sign-up new partner operators (restaurants, pubs, dark kitchens, takeaway shops) who will operate our brands from their existing kitchens
• Using our CRM system (Hubspot), giving visibility to management team of your progress
• Ensuring we have coverage of your whole region using tools provided, to analyse the data and prioritise the best zones first
• Build a tight relationship with the wider team to maintain partner quality and to upsell the addition of new brands
• Account Management Exposure: Collaborate with account managers to ensure partner success and manage opportunities to upsell additional brands
• Business Insights: Gain first-hand experience in identifying trends and challenges in the hospitality sector to shape our growth strategy.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with diverse teams across sales, culinary, marketing, and operations to gain a holistic view of how Sessions operates.
• Be the eyes and ears of what’s happening on the ground and use this insight to influence and contribute to the business strategy
• Get up to speed quickly with our model, to deliver 4+ hosts per month once fully onboarded

REQUIREMENTS:

• Experience: At least 1 year of sales or commercial experience. Even if not directly experienced (yet), you should thrive in cold-outreach and building relationships from scratch.
• Education: A degree from a top tier university with a 2:1 or higher
• Passion & Drive: Enthusiastic about food, high-growth environments, and the opportunity to help Sessions achieve its mission.
• Intellectual Curiosity & Problem-Solving: A proactive approach to identifying challenges, improving processes, and making impactful contributions.
• Strategic and analytical thinker: Able to elevate the business from the day-to-day where appropriate
• Ambitious: We're looking for our future leaders
• Well-rounded individual: Willing and able to flex and take ownership where necessary outside of their areas of core responsibility
• Strong commercial acumen with strong negotiation skills
• Right to work in the UK

BENEFITS - What Sessions can offer you

Financial Wellbeing:

💰 Commission Scheme - Paid monthly and uncapped
📃 Share Options - Receive an amount of share options for Sessions upon passing probation
💸 Pay day on demand - Choose a payday that suits you best, with the ability to transfer salary for days already worked whenever you like.
💳 Expense card - Don't find yourself short whilst waiting for expenses to be paid, the majority of our headquarters staff will be given their own Soldo company card.
🏠 Finance Platform - Access to 'Mintago', Financial Wellbeing Platform giving access to free financial advice, pension hunter, discounts portal and a range of salary sacrifice schemes

Social, Mental & Physical Wellbeing:

🏘 Hybrid Working - We offer the option for work from home days for most head office roles.
🏖 Holidays - We offer 25 days holiday + bank holidays, celebrate different bank holidays? fine by us! Let us know and we'll distribute them as suits you best
👨‍⚕️ Healthcare - Sessions operate a Healthcare Cash Plan scheme that covers medical, optical and dental expenses
😇 Volunteering Day - Take a day at full pay to support one of our partner charities
🚨 Employee Assistance Programme - Support for mental health and legal services for you and your direct family.
🥳 Socials - Sessions run optional monthly social activities, everything from drinks on us, theatre trips, karaoke, art classes, team lunches and even events such as Halloween movie nights!
🐶 Dog Friendly - We love our fluffy pals, they're welcome in the office!
👘 Wear what you like - No suits and ties please, that's so 18th century....

Technology Perks:

💻 Laptop - Apple Mac or Windows Laptop? Your choice! and most of us don't judge...
📱 Phone - Apple iPhone and company sim provided where necessary for the role
📺 Additional - Need another screen? Keyboard? Footstool? Our office manager can provide you with an ergonomics assessment to prevent workplace injuries.

Progression & Development:

📈 High Growth Start Up- This is a great chance to be part of a growing company with plenty of progression opportunities and examples of where our people have progressed as fast as we have
🚀 Management & Leadership Programme - Sessions runs a Management & Leadership Programme covering a range of topics and classes
🪄 Be Inspired - Work with industry legends such as the Ex MD of Deliveroo, ex CFO Soho House and ex Global Growth Director of Brewdog.
✏️ Membership & Qualifications - Sessions have helped support a number of our employees by providing funds for work-based qualifications and memberships to relevant associations such as AAT and CIPD.

Join a company looking to change the face of the hospitality industry.

Sessions are a living wage and equal opportunity employer.

We are a living wage and equal opportunity employer - all applicants are reviewed 'anonymously' where only work experience and education will be available for the hiring manager to view - all applicants will be considered for employment without attention to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, family or parental status, national origin, veteran, neurodiversity status or disability status.

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