Nathan Lovegrove

Moreham Wood was established in 2023 after the successful purchase of Mark Harris Furniture. Some of the Founders of Oak Furnitureland led the purchase and several of the senior team members that grew Oak Furnitureland are now in key management positions.

As Commercial Director, my primary tasks were to increase sales and design the sales process for rapid growth. I worked very closely with the Sales Manager, Marketing Director and Operations Manager to streamline processes, increase online conversions and drive operational efficiency. Beyond this, the business wanted to open a business-to-business division which I was tasked with developing.

• Repurposed the incumbent sales team into a sales support function to improve customer service and improve retention of customers
• Re-designed the sales process and KPI's to focus on productivity, effectiveness and results
• Using Excel, I built templates to measure in real time the productivity of each salesperson, the call quality (effectiveness) and the overall results
• Built and rolled out a new uncapped commission structure to support and motive the new sales team
• Created new job descriptions and adverts and implemented a new recruitment process to maximise a pipeline of strong candidates
• This included a task-based component
• Built a new induction programme and selected an education platform (EdApp) to provide ongoing microlearning opportunities for the team
• Introduced a monthly appraisal which combined both qualitative and quantitative elements
• Within two months of starting, I had already implemented all the above and hired the new sales team
• Over the next 12 months, our results outstripped the previous year by over 100%
• Introduced and implemented value additions to orders with the offer of an extended warranty
• I led this project, negotiated with the suppler, agreed the commercials and rolled them out to the team
• On top of offering this to all inbound customers, I also built an outbound team to maximise this opportunity
• Researched and presented a 10,000-word feasibility study for business to business
• Having presented this internally, the business reluctantly decided that they were not ready and needed 2-3 more years before being able to focus on this which meant the role became untenable
• Personal reference from CEO available on request which will corroborate the above.

FourthRev is focused on partnering with leading global universities such as The London School of Economics and Cambridge to deliver post-graduate career accelerator for people that want to upskill or reskill in data / digital careers.

When I joined, the business had no business-to-business function, and I was hired to build and lead this division.

• Tasked with building corporate partnerships. There were three key areas – recruitment partnerships (designed to hire learners that had successfully completed the career accelerators), industry partnerships (businesses to build live projects and partner with FourthRev on delivery) and sponsorship partnerships (businesses that want to sponsor employees onto one of the programmes)
• As this was a brand-new division, I was the sole employee and upon joining there was no collateral or infrastructure in place. Over the first two months, I implemented HubSpot to track sales, designed the sales decks and marketing materials and built a pipeline of over 1,000 names individuals based on our target customer profiling. The pipeline included 4 key sectors where there was a significant shortage of talent and demand
• Over the next few months, I approached and closed several clients in each of the categories including Ebury, MOD, Booking.com, Vodafone and PwC. The biggest deal was PwC estimated to be worth over 250k
• Unfortunately, despite our success, the wider business was in financial difficulty and the decision was made not to invest further in the B2B area for the foreseeable future. When joining the business, I agreed based on further investment to build a team once there was proof of concept. As this was no longer going to happen, I decided to leave the business as I did not want to wait another 2/3 years in a solo sales position
• Reference from CPO on request to corroborate this.

SITU is a global corporate accommodation agency. They specialise in helping companies and organisations to accommodate their people when on the move for business.

As Commercial Director, my role was multifunctional and included management and ownership of sales, operations, marketing and supply chain.

• Conducted a full analysis of the business, the customer journey, existing clients, lapsed clients, the personnel, the marketing strategy, the supplier acquisition strategy and day to day operations
• The biggest issues to come from this were a lack of belief and a lack of salesmanship as the team felt they were more there to provide support for customers than sell
• To combat this, I redesigned the structure so that we had a verticalised approach to our customers rather than grouping them all together. This resulted in specialist areas for our main client types – insurance, construction, production, travel management companies, relocation companies, financial services and so on
• Within each vertical, we had a Senior Account Manager who was responsible for the day-to-day management of the team alongside growth of the vertical. Each team also had several operational staff responsible for responding to and fulfilling customer needs
• In addition, we segmented our clients into tiers so that tier 1 clients who booked more often were serviced ahead of other clients which meant an immediate uplift in revenue
• The marketing team regularly produced around 100 inbound leads per month. Over the next 3 years, we put a plan in place to increase this to 500 per day, which was realised. We also implemented Salesforce and built and executed a combined sales and marketing process so that all leads on the system were nurtured alongside the sales process to maximise conversion
• The supply chain had onboarded around 70,000 suppliers globally and the onboarding process was weak. We reimagined the entire function and set goals to reach 1,000,000 supplies within 5 years. We also added Account Managers to manage the relationships with our suppliers. By the time of leaving, we had over 470,000 suppliers globally and the team had grown to include people in APAC and The Americas
• During Covid, we immediately lost around 75% of our revenue due to travel restrictions. I managed to convince all the supply chain team, marketing and even HR to become temporary business development as we knew there were still needs in the UK for key workers, construction and infrastructure projects and so on. Over a six-month period, we won over 75 new clients and managed to replace more of the lost revenue which meant only 2 people losing their jobs (out of around 50 people)
• I played a key role in managing and winning several key accounts including The London Stock Exchange, ICAB, Sterling Lexicon and K2 during my time with SITU and always maintained a semi-active sales role
• Over the entire period, our turnover increased by over 400%. Net profits remained flat, but we invested significantly in developing our own technology, new premises and increasing our headcount
• I left the business because they wanted me to commit to full time in Exeter even though I was hired on a hybrid model. With a young family this was not possible.

TheSqua.re is a hybrid serviced accommodation provider and corporate accommodation agent. They specialise in helping businesses to provide accommodation on long term business trips / projects.

As Sales Director, I was responsible for the management of sales, marketing and reservations teams based in London and Delhi.

• Having audited the business, the biggest barrier to sales was the overall apartment quality and customer service processes. Many of the apartments had maintenance issues and long wait times for guests. To resolve this problem, we created a road map for recycling existing units as soon as possible and replacing them with higher quality stock in more desirable locations over a 24-month period
• To maintain high occupancy and profitability during this period, I focused on building our relationships with serviced apartment agents, travel management and relocation management companies and OTA's such as Booking.com and Airbnb
• By close management of these channels and by providing consistent training to our reservation teams based in India (with regular visits), we managed to maintain over 90% occupancy and grew our ARR by 18%
• To maintain our corporate relationships, we opened our agency model so that we could outsource enquiries to other serviced apartment companies for a commission. This model proved so successful that it became the focus of the business
• Built new sales teams in India and London alongside the implementation of Salesforce and a redesign of the sales process, KPI's, commission structures and so on
• Increased the overall percentage of our direct corporate business and ARR by focusing on direct corporate wins alongside improved quality of products and the agency model
• Directly involved in winning major corporate clients including HSBC, Grant Thornton, Simpson Thatcher Bartlett, Clifford Chance and The American Embassy
• Represented the business at numerous corporate events, roundtables and industry networking events
• Left the business to join SITU as had been working full time in London with a six hour overall commute each day and this role offered both progression and more flexibility with some remote work.

Portland Brown is a family owned and operated serviced apartment company with properties in Bristol and London. The business model is 100% direct corporate business into Portland Brown managed apartments with a minimum stay and no OTA's or agents.

As Business Development Director, my role was to manage all of sales and reservations with a focus on new client acquisition.

• When I joined the business, they had 30 apartments in Bristol and 20 in London with a turnover of £2.2m and net profits of around £250k per annum. Over the five years I worked there, we grew to 50 apartments in Bristol and 500 in London with a turnover of £20m and net profits of around £2m per annum
• All of our acquisitions came because of telephone-based sales followed by face-to-face meetings and ongoing client management
• I built and maintained a high performing sales team to deliver this growth and am pleased to say that the spine of the team is all still there in 2024 with my number 2 now overall Head of Sales
• In the first month, I had to let go of the Bristol sales team as they were not capable of delivering results. I took personal control of Bristol sales (the entire process from cold call to ongoing client services) and within 3 months broke the company record for monthly Bristol sales delivering over £100k
• I played a key role in closing HSBC, Commerzbank, UniCredit, BP, Herbert Smith Freehills, Arcelor Mital and numerous others
• I acted as the elevation point for client issues and was available 24/7. I often dealt with issues in the early hours or at weekends
• I left the business after 5 years to join TheSqua.re.