Specialist Equipment & Capital Goods — Utilities, Infrastructure & Rental Sector | East of England | 6–8 days per month
Day rate: Circa £900–£1,100 per day, dependent on experience
Commitment: 6–8 days per month, ongoing
Location: East of England, with regular national travel to customer and site visits
Reporting to: Managing Director
About the business
Our client is a fast-growing, circa £9m turnover specialist manufacturer and supplier of trailers and site equipment, serving national utilities, infrastructure contractors and rental groups across the UK. Programme commitments typically run £150k–£500k, with the largest fleet rollouts reaching seven figures, and sales cycles of 6–9 months. The buying group is genuinely cross-functional — engineering, procurement, operations, an outsourced fleet management company and, frequently, an asset finance house sit around the table before a deal closes.
The business has strong product-market fit and a loyal customer base, but commercial activity has grown up around the Managing Director rather than around a structured sales function. The MD is now spread too thin to give the sales operation the attention it needs, and the business is looking for a senior, part-time commercial leader to bring structure, accountability and a predictable revenue engine — without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
The role
This is an end-to-end commercial leadership brief, not a part-time BDM role. You will take ownership of customer experience, business development and account management as a single, coherent function, and rebuild the sales operation from the ground up over a sustained engagement.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and implement a proper sales pipeline, with stage definitions the whole business — and the board — can rely on
- Bring rigour and accuracy to revenue forecasting, replacing guesswork with a repeatable methodology
- Coach, develop and hold accountable the existing sales team, raising the standard of pipeline discipline and deal qualification
- Own and grow key account relationships with national utilities, infrastructure contractors and rental group customers
- Navigate complex, multi-stakeholder buying groups spanning engineering, procurement, operations, outsourced fleet management companies and asset finance providers
- Build a structured, professional customer experience across the full sales journey, not just the point of sale
- Free up the Managing Director from day-to-day sales oversight, providing the board with a credible, senior commercial partner
- Establish the reporting cadence, CRM discipline and commercial processes needed for the function to run consistently once you are not in the room
About you
You will be an experienced Sales Director or senior commercial leader with a track record in capital equipment, specialist manufacturing, plant, fleet or infrastructure-adjacent B2B sales. You will have sold complex, high-value propositions into multi-stakeholder buying groups over long cycles, and be comfortable operating fractionally — delivering senior-level impact within a limited number of days each month rather than needing volume of days to be effective.
We're looking for:
- A demonstrable track record leading sales functions selling £150k+ deals into complex, multi-stakeholder buying groups
- Experience of capital equipment, specialist manufacturing, plant/fleet, construction or infrastructure sectors
- Prior experience operating as a fractional, portfolio or interim Sales Director, or a clear ability to work in that model
- Strong pipeline management and forecasting discipline, and genuine CRM fluency
- A track record of coaching and developing sales teams, not just carrying a number personally
- Comfort working alongside intermediaries such as fleet management companies and asset finance houses is a strong advantage
- Credibility to operate at board level with a Managing Director who needs a genuine commercial partner, not simply an extra pair of hands
Package
Day rate circa £950–£1,250 per day, dependent on experience, on an initial engagement basis with scope to extend as the commercial function matures.
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