Meet the NMBS Sales Team

As part of the service it offers members, NMBS has a dedicated sales team that helps merchants remain as profitable and competitive as possible. Dean Hayward, Head of Sales and Marketing, explains how his team assists independent merchants in making the most of their membership.

Because we believe in the value of broader market insights, we have structured our sales team into four regions to cover the whole of Britain. Our Business Development Managers cover large territories and each manages relationships with over 200 merchants. This allows them to provide informed recommendations about new products, offer insights into broader market conditions, and highlight unique opportunities across different areas.

Each BDM is supported by an Internal Business Development Executive based at NMBS’s head office. This steam stays in regular communication with members between in-person visits, and work closely with the relevant BDMs to provide ongoing customer support.

This approach ensures that every merchant has a familiar point of contact who understands their business whenever they need assistance. Our focus is on delivering the best possible customer service, comprehensive care, and the latest information.

Our growing team

This year, a few new positions have been added to the sales team: those of Internal Member Development Executive and External Business Development Executive.

The Internal Member Development Executive role is streamlined towards generating leads and directly contacting prospective members and affiliate members. Once the potential member or affiliate has expressed interest in joining NMBS, the lead is passed onto its external BDM, who will complete the application process.

This ensure that from the outset, the foundational relationship between the new members and their primary NMBS contact is firmly established. This strategic approach to onboarding has contributed to the acquisition of 50 new members this year alone, propelling us closer to our annual goal of 60 new members.

The External Business Development Executive role was designed as a developmental opportunity for an employee who had shown great performance internally and expressed a keen interest in progressing to a BDM position in the future. This multifaced position involves both in-person support to merchants on-site and engaging with customer through phone calls from the office, tailored according to customer needs.

The first individual to step into this new role was promoted from the internal sales team, showcasing NMBS’s commitment to fostering career advancement and professional growth from within.

Since 2019, we have seen 286 new merchant members join NMBS, which highlights the continued importance and success of the sales team for existing and new merchant members.

On the other side is the longest-standing member of the sales team, Alison Smith, who is the Sales Office Manager at NMBS. She has been with us for more than 37 years, having started her career in an Office Junior role, before working her way through the invoice preparation team and then into the sales team. Smith now supports the external and internal teams to ensure all members sales support runs smoothly.

Making merchants more profitable

The primary responsibility of the sales team is to enhance the competitiveness of NMBS members by assisting them to improve their profitability. The sales team identifies new suppliers that may be relevant to the merchant’s customer base.

Each merchant provides its existing supplier list, which our sales team uses to conduct a business health check. In particular, this allows the team to identify suppliers that could be invoiced through NMBS; resulting in additional rebates from the supplier and a more efficient invoicing process. The BDMs also highlight relevant promotional offers and upcoming NMBS events to the merchants. This dual approach not only helps in identifying potential new suppliers but also keeps the merchants informed about the latest opportunities for savings and growth.

We do not compel merchants to purchase through NMBS, but this process helps uncover opportunities that they may have overlooked, as new suppliers come on board and new promotions or events are announced.

By helping merchants sharpen their competitive edge and improve profits, our team is at the forefront of ensuring supplier and merchant relationships are as effective as possible.

Without the personal relationships that our sales team has with supplier and members, the independent merchant sector could miss out on significant savings and new product range awareness that could help diversify their offerings further.