Job Title: Head of Kent Express Department: Kent Express Reports To: Director, Sales & Marketing Location: Gillingham / Hybrid Purpose of the Role: The Head of Kent Express is a senior leadership role with full accountability for the commercial performance for one of the UK’s leading dental consumables distributors. The role leads all sales and marketing activities across the business, driving revenue, margin, customer growth, and brand impact. This includes direct leadership of a performance-driven sales organisation - covering account management, new business development, and inbound sales - alongside ownership of the marketing and ecommerce strategy. The ideal candidate will combine strong sales operations capability with modern marketing leadership to deliver a joined-up, data-led approach to customer acquisition, retention, and growth. You will play a pivotal role in evolving how Kent Express competes: retaining its strong service-led heritage while strengthening its digital sales channels and marketing sophistication. Key Responsibilities 1. Commercial Leadership • Define and deliver a joined-up commercial plan across sales, marketing, and ecommerce to hit revenue and gross margin targets. • Own customer segmentation, commercial targeting, campaign cadence, and performance tracking. • Collaborate with Category, Pricing, Digital, and Operations to optimise offer, execution, and profitability. 1. Sales Strategy & Execution • Lead a multi-functional sales team across: • Account Management (key customer retention and revenue protection) • New Business & Customer Development (acquisition, win-back, reactivation) • Inbound Sales (transactional order conversion, upsell) • Build a structured, insight-led sales operation: clear targets, activity KPIs, pipeline management, and performance coaching. • Embed a proactive, consultative selling approach using CRM and customer insights. • Evolve sales team capability in line with changing customer behaviour and digital tools. 1. Marketing & Brand Leadership • Lead the marketing function across campaign planning, brand, communications, product marketing, and supplier-funded activity. • Develop integrated, multi-channel marketing plans aligned to commercial goals, with measurable ROI. • Own the brand identity and messaging strategy, ensuring consistency across all customer touchpoints. • Maximise supplier partnerships to enhance category growth through co-branded promotions and campaigns. 1. Ecommerce & Digital Channel Ownership • Own ecommerce performance across traffic, conversion, basket size (AOV), and repeat usage. • Work closely with digital and UX teams to enhance the customer journey, improve site merchandising and optimise conversion funnels. • Use data-driven targeting, automation, and personalisation to enhance customer lifecycle marketing and frequency of purchase. • Define and lead commercial digital sales activity – promotions, landing pages, offers, and seasonal campaigns. 1. Customer Experience & Insight • Champion the customer voice across the business; drive action from NPS, churn, reactivation, and qualitative feedback. • Build frameworks to track performance by customer segment, channel, and behaviour. • Use insight to shape bundling, product range strategy, and campaign focus. 1. Leadership & Culture • Lead a diverse team of sales and marketing professionals with clarity, accountability, and high emotional intelligence. • Build a culture of performance, development, collaboration, and customer obsession. • Drive cross-team working, succession planning, and capability development to future-proof the organisation. Key Success Metrics • Revenue growth and gross margin performance by segment and channel • Digital sales and ecommerce performance (conversion rate, AOV, frequency) • Campaign effectiveness: leads generated, reactivation, ROMI • Customer retention, NPS, and lifecycle engagement • Sales team activity, conversion rates, and CRM discipline • Growth of strategic categories via sales and supplier marketing alignment Candidate Profile Essential Experience • Proven experience in senior commercial leadership, with accountability for both sales operations and marketing strategy • Strong track record of leading high-performing B2B sales teams with structured account management and new business disciplines • Hands-on experience leading multi-channel marketing, including campaign execution, supplier funding, and digital marketing • Commercial ownership of ecommerce performance and online trading metrics • Data-driven approach to commercial planning, performance improvement, and customer insight Desirable Experience • Background in healthcare, dental, medical, or other B2B distribution environments • Experience leading transformation in digitally evolving businesses • Familiarity with CRM (e.g. Salesforce), marketing automation, and ecommerce platforms Leadership Attributes • High emotional intelligence – leads with empathy, clarity, and resilience • Commercially astute – can balance customer needs, profit levers, and resource focus • Strategic operator with hands-on delivery mindset • Inclusive, empowering leader who builds strong internal and external partnerships • Capable of creating energy, urgency, and clarity in dynamic environments Our benefits include: • A competitive salary • Company car allowance • 25 days holiday a year, with ability to buy up to 5 days holiday each year • Life Insurance • Cycle to Work scheme • Subsidised gym membership • Access to Health & Wellbeing Apps • Employee discounts • A hybrid, flexible working culture About Kent Express: At Kent Express, our mission is to provide innovative, integrated health care products and services; and to be trusted advisors and consultants to our customers - enabling them to deliver the best quality patient care and enhance their practice management efficiency and profitability. We know that our Team are integral to bringing our mission to life and our success has been built on the commitment of our team, a highly motivated and diverse group of professionals who are dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers. Every team member shares a singular focus, fostering an environment that allows each of us to achieve our goals. Kent Express offers a diverse range of career opportunities, and we firmly believe that by fostering an environment built on ethics, open communications, mutual benefits, creativity, and recognition of the contributions of all team members-at all levels-we can help ensure that our best years are yet to come. As such, we are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and our integrated approach to diversity and inclusion ensures success by cultivating our Culture, recruiting, and retaining diverse Talent, supporting our Marketplace, and continuing our commitment to Society. As a business we are committed to fulfilling our responsibilities as a Corporate Citizen, and we’ve been recognised for nine consecutive years by Ethisphere as one of the Worlds Most Ethical Companies.