Skills for Growth - SME Support is a fully funded, tailored service to help up-skill your employees and improve productivity. Delivered by GC Business Growth Hub in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the service is funded through the European Social Fund and commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, to help your business grow through re-shaping, developing your talent and enhancing team performance.

Overseeing the Australian and Far East markets at the Manchester Contact Centre

Managing a team of Contact Centre Agents to reach revenue and AHT targets along with dealing with customer complaints to ensure first call resolution whilst providing excellent customer service

Reporting directly to the MDDuties include:Liaising with the IT development team to build a flight booking system which has developed into a dynamic package system Building a new department within Travel Counsellors that involved reservations, fares & ticketing for both leisure and business travel. This now turns over in excess of £45M per annumObtaining both leisure and corporate airfare contracts with around 40 carriers (including Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, KLM/Air France, Lufthansa Group & BA) and building relationships as the business model of Travel Counsellors alters to maintain its status of market leaderNegotiating contracts, Sales & Marketing agreements & seats for educationals and incentivesWorking closely with marketing to produce offers for weekly e-shots and e-magazines/newsletters Obtaining marketing funds for activities such as the Annual Conference, direct mail pieces & e-marketing

Overseeing the fares inputting team and the pricing teamLiaising with around 125 airlines and negotiating contracts and Sales & Marketing agreementsMaintaining a close working relationship with the account managersNegotiating exclusive contracts to increase sales for the company along with seats for educational trips

There was approximately 120 staff within the direct passenger call centre with seven Team Leaders reporting directly to me.Duties included:Developing the Team Leaders to increase the overall sales of all products and morale within the call centreEnsuring targets were consistently being met

Assisting Air Product Director in dealing with smaller airlines and their contractsDeveloping existing staff and recruiting new staff. I achieved this within the salary budget and productivity increased significantlyI also continued my duties as a Business Analyst helping maximise sales and profits made from airline seats

In under two years I developed this role from one which just checked prices against competitors to one which dealt with all the exclusive promotionsDuties included:Monitoring competitors prices, and raising or lowering prices to ensure maximum profit and competitivenessUpdating website to ensure current fares are displayed promptly Training staff about the new promotionsHandling all the administration work involved with airline commercial at source deals and ensuring that pricing was adapted to enhance on-line sales

Developing and training a team within Airline Network to achieve their full potentialAssisting with the running of the call centre in the Reservations Managers absence

Covering the USA and Rest of World Being a founder member of the ‘Round the World' department that eventually merged with Business Network

Working for this national insurance intermediary with branches in England, Scotland and WalesDuties included:Selling and administration of General Insurance i.e. car, motor and travel products within a high street shop

Prudential plc is a leading international financial services companyDuties included:Maintaining a portfolio of clients in order to achieve growth to enhance the portfolioDealing with Life Assurance, Pensions, Investments and Unit Trust products