Building a commercial function to support a business area or new product can be challenging. Recruiting the right calibre of person, training them to follow new processes, capturing vital data needed to assess the customer experience, can all be difficult for a business and fraught with expensive pitfalls and false starts.To drive growth into your commercial function you need a leader who can draw upon real world experience, creating a strategic road map to achieve your targets. One who can motivate your existing team, recruit new members, whilst working with existing clients to establish feedback which will help move your business to the next level. This change then needs to be implemented successfully to achieve those goals.As Head of SME at Hermes I grew the Business Account product, recruiting and upscaling the associated Commercial Team along with designing the forthcoming improved digital platform.Key achievements, spearheading the modernisation of the Hermes SME Department from 2015-2020 are:• Improving the profitability from -6% loss in March 2015 to a 17% profit by October 2016 and 10% thereafter driving aggressive growth• Increased the Business Account parcel volumes from 8.2m in 2015/16 to 14.6m in 19/20 and 25m by 20/21• Increased the Small Corporate volumes from 0.75m in 2015/16 to 8.3m in 19/20• Introduced the Business Account Customer Service Team, increasing Retention from 82% to 97% • Built the SME Commercial Department from 2 Sales Executives and 2 Account managers to 4 teams 4 of multi-Skilled managers and a Team Manager.• Staff development resulting in progress of team members to more senior roles - 3 Senior BDMs, 3 BDM’s 3 Team Managers, 2 Corporate Sales Managers.As a key member of cross functional working groups I was involved in innovative projects such as the creation of Depot Next Day, Digital Transformation (the Hermes App) and Print In Store.To achieve the above I needed to collaborate with many talented individuals. To see what they have to say about me please read my recommendations.If your business is on a journey of transformation and you need an individual who can link the people centric world of Sales and Business Development with the digital world of innovation, to unlock growth, feel free to message me.