Chris Simmons

A confident and experienced senior manager with a consistent track record of delivering clients’ requirements. Twenty years of experience in client services, B2B, business development, consulting and financial management.

Personal Attributes

Extensive strategic, operational and commercial

acumen

Expert at designing field marketing solutions

Tenacious attitude to problem solving

Logical and objective thinker

Strong people manager

Comprehensive market and channel experience

Broad cross-functional team player

High-level financial management skills

Results and goal orientated

Excellent interpersonal skills

Career Achievements

Successfully designed and implemented a diverse range of field operations for large FMCG clients, from initial concept to full programme rollout, including BT Sport and BT Business, Carphone Warehouse, O2, Red Bull, General Mills and Kimberly-Clark.

Generated in excess of £10m of revenue for Cosine between 2006 and 2015 through organic and new business development.

Won two gold awards at the 2011 Field Marketing and Brand Experience Awards for ‘Best Sales Campaign’ and ‘Most Effective Client Relationship’. Nominated for ‘Best Sales Campaign’ in 2014.

Won three awards for outstanding performance in the last 9 years.

Career History

COSINE UK LTD April 2006 – present Part of the Omnicom Group, Cosine is the third largest field marketing agency in the UK with an annual turnover of £25m.

Senior Business Manager Reporting to the Commercial Director BT Business and BT Sport

Successfully implemented a campaign to sell BT Sport into freehold pubs nationwide, turning a trial with 6 staff into a national operation with 40 field sales staff. Generated over £2.5m in revenue and 4,000 new BT Sport business customers in 18 months. Achieved 103% profit target in 2014.

Led the development of the BT Business B2B account selling telecoms into SME’s, taking it from an initial trial phase to full roll out employing 75 full-time field sales staff. Delivered 14,000 new customers and generated a turnover of £4m annually, creating Cosine’s second largest client. Exceeded BT’s expected lead-to-sales conversion rate by 50%.

Established a ‘live sales transfer’ process creating immediate sales order completion, thereby reducing non-compliance by 15%. This was a business first for Cosine.

Introduced a Salesforce CRM system as a data capture tool to provide real-time performance information, improving performance by 10%.

Introduced a call file segmentation mode, increasing field performance by 8%.

Other achievements

Weetabix – Cultivated and expanded the client relationship at a senior level to secure, maintain and develop business, growing the contract by 44% from £1.7m to £2.6m over one year. Increased the size of the grocery field team from 16 to 22. Negotiated and won two experiential activities for their Ready Brek and Alpen Bar brands worth £400k.

Sky/O2 – Solely responsible for sourcing Sky and O2 contracts, generating £300k of new revenue for Cosine. Further sourced two new telecoms clients in 2012 through pro-active marketing.

American Express – Established an integrated field and telesales campaign for AMEX Foreign Exchange Services, generating 300 high-quality business sales.

Sainsbury’s – Developed and implemented Cosine’s syndicated ‘Sainsbury’s In Store’ merchandising programme, working with clients such as Northern Foods, Bacardi, GSK and Arnold Wills.

PMI FIELD MARKETING January 2005 – March 2006 A privately owned field marketing company with a turnover of £10m, providing outsourced sales and merchandising support to FMCG clients.

Client Services Director Reported to the Managing Director Head of one of three business units, with a turnover of £2.8m. Clients included Red Bull (PMI’s largest client) and Heinz. Responsible for 4 head office and 50 field employees.

Red Bull – Negotiated an incremental budget spend of 19% with Red Bull growing the contract to £2.2m and generating an additional £400k of revenue. Initiated a grocery sector trial leading to the recruitment of 10 additional field sales staff.

Heinz – Transitioned ‘Always Available’ operation from a trial to full strategic roll out and generating an annual turnover of £660k.

CPM February 1994 – December 2004 The UK’s leading field marketing organisation with an £85m turnover. Progressive career in client service and new business roles, managing clients such as Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, GSK and Eastern Energy.

Business Unit Manager (2001 – 2004) Reported to the Commercial Director

Directed CPM’s Tactical Division of 17 staff and 4 senior managers, delivering over 100 tactical campaigns.

Successfully delivered the divisional sales forecast of £5m, exceeding the profit forecast by 9.5%.

General Mills/Kimberly-Clark – Established a Shared Service Operation within the grocery sector – a market first – with a value of £750k.

GSK – Instigated a grocery trial leading to a national roll out of 16 field employees.

Chep – Generated ROI of £2m from 5 asset-tracking tactical campaigns.

Business Development Manager (2000) Microsoft – Negotiated CPM’s first ever field marketing campaign with Microsoft worth £200k. Won the ‘CPM

Managing Director’s Award’ for outstanding performance for the work.

Client Service Manager (1994 – 1999) Eastern Energy – Led CPM’s expansion into direct sales. Doubled the annual budget of the Eastern Energy

residential sales account from £3m to £6m. Won the ‘CPM Manager of the Year Award’ in 1998.

National Marketing Services – Solely responsible for establishing NMS UK, a joint venture between CPM and NMS USA, offering a syndicated merchandising operation within Toys R Us stores for their suppliers.

HI-SHEAR FASTENERS EUROPE LTD. September 1990 – January 1994 Internal Sales Executive, Sales and Marketing Division

Professional Development

Cosine Impact and Influence (2014)

Cosine Coaching for Performance (2013)

CPM Leadership Course

CPM European Management Development Programme

DAS Breakthrough to Peak Performance

Scotwork Negotiation Skills Course

Education

University of Kent at Canterbury Bachelor of Arts, Urban Studies

Lawrence Sheriff School – Rugby 6 O levels, 2 A levels