Sales Manager, UK Field Sales

Sales Manager, UK Field Sales at American Express

At American Express, our culture thrives on a 175-year legacy of innovation, shared values, and Leadership Behaviors. We are deeply committed to backing our customers, communities, and colleagues, ensuring world-class service and differentiated products are delivered with a strong risk mindset. As part of Team Amex, you will experience comprehensive support for your holistic well-being, alongside numerous opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and advance your career. Your voice and ideas contribute significantly, your work makes a tangible impact, and together, we will shape the future of American Express.

This is a pivotal Sales Manager position within the UK Field Sales Team. In this role, you will be instrumental in growing targeted merchant acceptance across the North of England and, as required, throughout the broader UK market for American Express.

How You Will Make an Impact

• Work directly with a pipeline of named merchant prospects.
• Manage American Express acceptance within a defined list of allocated postcodes, often referred to as your “patch.” You will proactively identify existing and non-accepting merchants, accelerating coverage by either signing prospects yourself or referring leads to other sales channels.
• Sell American Express acceptance to a diverse range of merchants, primarily within B2C industries.
• Audit and expand American Express acceptance coverage as required, focusing on the North of England (Field Sales North) and occasionally across the UK.
• Promptly follow up on leads identified by colleagues or senior leaders as non-accepting merchants.
• Collaborate closely with other UK sales managers to sign merchants, share leads, and enhance overall acceptance.

Key Responsibilities

• Achieve or exceed your annual sales target, prioritizing named list prospects and opportunities in key geographies. Drive engagement with American Express marketing channels to boost activation and BCV growth.
• Beyond managing an allocated pipeline, identify and add new prospects that meet defined criteria to your pipeline. Actively manage prospects through the sales cycle, maintaining updated information in Merchantforce.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of various merchant businesses and industries through thorough desk research, industry forums, and annual reports.
• Leverage your knowledge to expertly articulate the American Express value proposition and create tailored, compelling, high-quality, value-led sales presentations. Regularly utilize digital sales tools including Experian, digital onboarding platforms, Sales Navigator, FullCircle, Business Insights reporting, Tableau, Merchantforce, Sales Dashboards, and Merchant Insights Dashboard.
• Negotiate and sign merchants on custom contract terms, which may involve obtaining bespoke pricing, pay plans, or investment. This requires close collaboration with stakeholders such as Pricing, Risk GCO, and Marketing, while ensuring compliant contract capture in the Custom Contract Tool.
• Work closely with key American Express stakeholders, including Marketing, Pricing, GCO, Risk, Payment Consulting Group, Sales Enablement, and Business Insights. Cultivate a deep understanding of American Express's merchant acquiring and card issuing businesses and build an extensive network across the organization.
• Operate within a highly regulated environment, ensuring all sales and merchant onboarding activities fully comply with American Express policies and regulations. Compliantly complete all aspects of new account setup and POS technical enablement. When necessary, set up merchants on Payment Designation and enable multi-currency capabilities.
• Support welcome acceptance and provide ongoing merchant support for up to 13 months post-signing, if required.
• Contribute to acquisition, coverage, and employee engagement, and lead business development projects as identified by the business.
• Demonstrate excellent knowledge of the UK payments industry, articulating new trends and developments effectively.

Minimum Qualifications

• Proven background in sales management, with demonstrated ability to manage a robust sales pipeline, drive velocity, and progress through sales cycles. Highly results-focused, with a track record of meeting targets, signing named merchants and long-term holdouts, and securing wins over extended sales cycles through tenacity and flexibility.
• Demonstrated ability to work and problem-solve independently, while actively sharing learnings and best practices with colleagues. Proactively build a broad network of contacts across American Express to leverage expertise. Resilient and adaptable, capable of navigating complex processes and operating effectively within a large, matrixed global organization where decision-making can be intricate.
• Innovative and creative in approach, bringing a fresh, thoughtful, and proactive mindset to overcome barriers and challenges. Exhibits a growth mindset, volunteers for stretch projects, and remains open to learning new skills.
• Exceptional communication skills, enabling effective representation of American Express at board level within partner organizations and clear communication across all levels. Strong presentation, negotiation, and relationship-building abilities are essential.
• Ability to provide thought leadership and develop data-led insights to identify trends and opportunities. Leverage these insights to tailor the American Express value proposition to align with merchant business needs and clearly articulate merchant requirements back to the business to ensure consistent value delivery across industries.
• Highly collaborative, with a proven history of influencing across lines of business to achieve Blue Box results, underpinned by strong personal accountability and integrity.
• Excellent technical and IT skills. While this is primarily a face-to-face sales role, the candidate must efficiently execute multiple desk-based activities including research, sales presentation preparation, and merchant onboarding using a wide array of systems and navigating complex processes. Compliantly administering new merchant onboarding in line with company policy is fundamental.
• Strong commercial acumen, with a deep understanding of key profitability drivers for both the American Express acquiring business and a merchant’s business model, sales revenues, costs, and operating margins.
• Prepared for significant travel. While the primary sales focus is the North of England, the successful candidate must be willing to travel anywhere in the UK as required to accelerate coverage.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the UK is required, as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

Offer of employment with American Express is conditional upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.

Benefits

American Express supports your holistic well-being with benefits designed to help you thrive: competitive base salaries, bonus incentives, financial well-being and retirement support, comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (location-dependent). We offer a flexible working model (hybrid, onsite, or virtual based on role), generous paid parental leave (location-dependent), free access to global on-site wellness centers (location-dependent), free and confidential counseling through our Healthy Minds program, and extensive career development and training opportunities.

Key skills/competency

• Sales Management
• Merchant Acquisition
• Pipeline Management
• Business Development
• Negotiation Skills
• Stakeholder Collaboration
• Compliance & Regulation
• Market Analysis
• Strategic Selling
• CRM Software (Merchantforce)