The Role

This is an exciting opportunity within TalkTalk for an entrepreneurial, commercial director to define, implement and execute TalkTalk’s commercial growth strategy.

You will have accountability for supplier and partner relationships, core commercial functions, customer lifecycle management, forecasting and planning.

Reporting to Chief Financial and Commercial Officer for TalkTalk, the Commercial Director will own the commercial strategy, executive and influence through strong relationships both internally, to board level, and externally with our partners

The Successful Applicant will:

• Entrepreneurial, challenger mindset to identify and create value

• Able to influence at C-Suite and Board level

• Be data driven and financially literate.

• Be tenacious and resilient.

• Be a great stakeholder manager.

• Think strategically

• Team player

It would be preferable if the successful applicant also:

• Has experience of data-led, digital approach to customer value creation or customer lifetime management

The Team

Supply and Partnerships:

• Growth and optimising the overall commercial position, with a focus on COGS, for TalkTalk through competitive supply and ensuring TalkTalk customers gain access to great value Full Fibre products.

• Negotiation of commercial terms with Platform X and AltNet suppliers, both current and potential, that includes the initial set-up and the ongoing monitoring, benchmarking, and evaluation of commercial offers.

• Ability to identify value creative opportunities for Talk Talk and partners, negotiate and deploy

• Supporting the business with ongoing consultation on the WSA, TSA and supporting legal documents that make up the commercial agreement between Platform X and TalkTalk.

Core Commercial:

• Translating the TalkTalk 5YP to actionable deliverables and cascading these objectives to the relevant teams within TalkTalk. Reporting on TalkTalk’s performance against these objectives.

• Future planning to recognise significant step changes and/or risks inferred by the TalkTalk 5YP and ensuring teams understand the budget and have plans in place to achieve these targets.

• Building out and leading the Commercial Evaluation governance within TalkTalk (for Projects, Product, Change Requests, etc). Establishing a formal commercial evaluation process, defining the required inputs for items to be evaluated, defining the due diligence, approval process and RACI and leading the governance meetings required to achieve all the above.

• Leading a value management program to drive cost transformation across TalkTalk to ensure up-front costs, retentions costs, recontracting costs are constantly being challenged and improved (NB: the Chief Operating Officer will remain responsible for CTS improvements)

Customer Lifecycle Management:

• Establishing a virtual team across TalkTalk “the base management machine”, that will allow the rapid and cost-effective targeting of customers with value accretive deals that can be fulfilled with minimal effort.

• Building a cohort-based approach to upsell and cross-sell. Doing nothing where doing nothing is the best course of action, and doing everything we can where there is opportunity.

• Developing bundles and products with the Product team to offer existing customers value accretive loyalty exclusives that divorce front book and back book pricing to grow margin.

• Support decisioning across all digital and agent channels to minimise down-sell and value dilution through recontracting and retention.

• Nurturing the high value legacy and OOC base while minimising churn through timely reactive and proactive remedies.

Forecasting & Planning:

• Providing validated, bottoms-up volume forecasts across product and channel that underpin the budget process, as well as subsequent reforecasts for both new acquisition and existing customers

• Providing forecasts to PlatformX that ensure TalkTalk and PlatformX meets its volume forecasting obligations with third party suppliers such as Openreach and CityFibre

• Driving and consolidating the quarterly planning process, ensuring that TalkTalk has sufficient actions in place across products, sales and marketing to meet budget or reforecast volumes

Role Expectations

Success is:

• Development of an enhanced and differentiated capability, in the form of an aggregated supply position that enables TalkTalk to deliver simple, reliable, affordable and fair connectivity for everyone, while improving Gross Margin performance and creating unique economic / commercial or capability advantages.

• Development and ownership of a comprehensive and nimble planning framework, underpinned by detailed and accurate models. This framework will enable TalkTalk to plan with rigour and replan with speed.

• Development and ownership of a clear executable plan that aligns to the TalkTalk 5YP across new acquisition, up-sell and cross-sell and retention. The plan will define clear deliverables of volume, AMPU and up-front cost that the Sales & Marketing Director can plan to deliver against. The plan will span core connectivity products and VAS across the customer lifecycle.

• Development and ownership of a clear executable plan that over-delivers against the TalkTalk 5YP for up-sell and cross-sell. The plan will be cohort based and will always protect existing revenues first using data and insight. The plan will span core connectivity products and VAS across the customer lifecycle,

• Providing leadership and coaching to direct reports and team members

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• We’re seeking a high calibre individual with strong commercial acumen and negotiation ability, and excellent analytical and numeracy skills to support solid commercial decision making for TalkTalk.

• They will have the ability to build multi-level relationships across TalkTalk and the gravitas to command respect when presenting to Senior management as well as Platform X and end-suppliers.

• Excellent stakeholder management, clear and concise communication and working with other TalkTalk functions to ensure cross-functional success is key.

• They will have the ability and personal skills to enable visualisation of an opportunity and communicate to stakeholders and contributors; this includes the ability to create business plans and models for C-suite review and evaluation.

• The successful individual will be a proven agent of change, able to organise, coordinate and deliver in complexity. They will have a strong background in delivery and implementation of complex opportunities.

• They will be capable of bringing ideas, being disruptive and having a degree of pace and urgency. They will also have a good understanding of TalkTalk strategy and the commercial considerations.

As a recognised Top 50 Inclusive Employer in the UK, we know that diversity means success and innovation. We want our workplace to reflect the communities and customer we serve. Being inclusive is part of our DNA; we are all 100% human, and we create a culture where you can truly be yourself.

We’re also not your usual 9-5. We are a dynamic workplace and we want to talk to you about how you like to work.