Sales Director - Southern Region Job Portsmouth area,England UK,Sales

Competitive salary plus performance-related bonus, dependent on experience.

Portsmouth area, with regular travel across the southern region

Every local business has a story. Build the team that helps them tell it.

Iconic Media Group is now looking for an accomplished Sales Director to build, lead and develop our southern team of media sales consultants. Home to more than 150 trusted local news titles across the UK and Ireland, we are transforming from a heritage print publisher into a publisher-powered digital marketing business, helping local companies grow through print, digital, video, social media and audience-targeted campaigns.

This is not about managing a team that simply sells advertising space. It is about creating a consultative sales culture: understanding what local business owners want to achieve, identifying the challenges holding them back and developing campaigns that deliver genuine value.

What you’ll actually do:

Build, lead and coach a high-performing team of media sales consultants
Embed a consultative, needs-led approach across every client conversation
Own performance against revenue, retention and new business targets
Recruit and develop people with the grit, curiosity and confidence to become outstanding sellers
Run regular one-to-ones, pipeline reviews and deal-coaching sessions
Create a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and sustained performance
Build your own profile and network across the southern business community
Develop relationships with councils, BIDs, Chambers of Commerce and other influential local organisations
Represent Iconic at business forums, networking events and community initiatives

What will make you successful:

You do not need to come from a media or publishing background. You do need a strong track record of building, coaching and leading sales teams to sustained results.

You will know how to turn salespeople into trusted commercial advisers: people who listen before they pitch, find the brief behind the brief and build relationships that generate repeatable, growing revenue rather than one-off sales.

You will bring resilience, commercial curiosity and the confidence to engage senior business leaders. You will also be comfortable working with targets, pipelines, forecasts and performance data—and prepared to step into important client conversations when your team needs you.

A proposition you can believe in

You will be leading a team with a powerful proposition. Research shows that 70% of people trust local news, compared with 28% for social media, while advertising appearing within our brands generates 1.5 times greater brand trust.

Your team will not just be selling media. They will be helping local businesses become better known, more trusted and better connected to the communities they serve.

You should:

Have a proven record of leading and developing successful sales teams
Understand consultative, needs-based selling
Be confident managing revenue, retention and new business performance
Be able to build relationships with senior business and community stakeholders
Live within practical reach of Portsmouth
Hold a driving licence and be willing to travel regularly across the southern region

Media, publishing or digital marketing experience would be useful, but it is not essential.

Package:

Competitive salary plus performance-related bonus, dependent on experience.