Ben Dunster

Promoted to lead 15 sales professionals, overseeing $50M+ revenue across 10 leading travel exhibitions. Directed sales operations, plans, and collaboration for stretch revenue growth.

• Spearheaded the development and execution of strategic sales plans for market-leading travel trade shows resulting in a 20% year-on-year increase in revenue.
• Established and fostered a high-performance culture within a 15-member sales team, offering mentorship and guidance to drive individual and team success resulting in overall performance 10% above target.
• Cultivated and nurtured strategic partnerships with decision-makers from national tourism boards, hotel chains, and leaders in the travel industry. Strengthened collaboration and alignment with key stakeholders to deliver innovative solutions and drive mutual growth, resulting in a 15% increase in average customer value.
• Managed sales forecasts and reports, providing accurate data to inform executive decision-making. Utilised CRM systems to track interactions with clients, manage sales pipeline, and optimise sales processes.

As part of the company's digital transformation, the role expanded to be responsible for implementing sales plans, reporting revenue, product and sales training for the roll out of new digital products

• Developed digital revenue strategy for 25 events, implemented a focus on product adoption, sell-through rates. Delivered 65% digital revenue growth across 2 years.
• Collaborated with sales managers to establish training objectives and designed programs to upskill teams on new products.
• Facilitated training sessions with smaller teams and led town hall sessions showcasing range of products and upskilling team with new sales techniques.
• Implemented data-driven pricing strategy, and established pricing KPIs to monitor and report on the effectiveness of pricing strategies.
• Collaborated across functions to successfully roll-out a suite of 3 new products to over 5000 customers. Delivering value to customer improving NPS by 5 points.

Promoted to be responsible for $8 Million worth of digital and sponsorship revenue across global events

• Educate, support and influence a global team of 20+ professionals to sell digital, advertising, and sponsorship products to complement exhibition participation. Delivering 60% revenue growth in 3 years.
• Strategically manage relationships with key stakeholders including tourism boards, travel companies, and media companies to secure 6 figure partnership agreements.
• Source products from internal and external suppliers including exhibition venues, experiential agencies and digital marketing firms to create solution based products and packages. Maximise profitability in excess of 60%
• Create a value proposition, pricing and sales plan for virtual events during the pandemic. Generating $5 Million in revenue when events could not run.

Responsible for managing 50 accounts within global private sector and African public sector organisations, across the WTM Portfolio

• Actively source new business accounts and grow existing accounts to achieve 20% above target
• Developed comprehensive product knowledge, enabling tailored solutions for clients'' specific needs.
• Attended industry events and conventions to expand sales opportunities.
• Collaborated with marketing teams to create targeted promotional campaigns, driving customer engagement and sales growth.

• Secured new clients through targeted prospecting and networking. from global accounts to participate in the largest travel trade event in the UK. Generate over 750k of revenue.
• Cultivated lasting relationships with key clients, resulting in increased customer loyalty and repeat business.
• Utilised CRM software to track sales activities, customer interactions, and progress towards goals.

• Establish relationships with various stakeholders, businesses, and enterprises through face-to-face meetings, cold calling, and networking to achieve $600k of revenue per year
• Professionally present and propose various solutions to customers based on their needs and maintain profit margin to achieve $200k in net profit annually