Sales Manager

The Opportunity

We are looking for an ambitious, commercially driven Sales Manager to join Pentawards, the world's leading platform and community dedicated to packaging design — and a role sitting at the heart of a genuinely creative, fast-moving industry.

You'll drive sponsorship, exhibition stand and digital marketing revenue across the Pentawards portfolio, including its annual packaging design competition and associated events, working with a genuine hunter mentality to open new doors while also growing an established client base.

Pentawards is part of a fast-growing division running market-defining trade shows across the UK, France and Italy — including Packaging Première (Milan), London Packaging Week and Paris Packaging Week — offering plenty of opportunity to work across borders. This role suits an experienced Account Manager/Key Account Manager looking for a commercially focused position, backed by one of the industry's strongest commission structures and clear progression within Easyfairs.

Key Responsibilities

New Business Development

• Identify, research and engage prospective sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers across the global packaging community.

• Build and convert a strong pipeline through outbound prospecting, networking and market research.

• Generate revenue through year-round sponsorship, exhibition stands and digital packages, consistently exceeding targets.

Account Management & Retention

• Grow a portfolio of existing sponsors and clients, maximising retention and rebook revenue.

• Build consultative relationships with key decision-makers across brands, agencies and suppliers.

• Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities across sponsorship, stands and digital.

Event & Industry Engagement

• Attend the Pentawards’ networking and paid-for events, as well as other industry events and client meetings in the UK and internationally.

• Represent Pentawards as a trusted industry ambassador and stay close to market trends.

• Work with marketing, operations and content teams to support successful delivery.

Collaboration & Portfolio Growth

• Share market intelligence to support Pentawards' continued growth.

• Collaborate with teams across the UK, France and Italy, and take full ownership of your pipeline and revenue.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently hitting and exceeding revenue targets.

• Securing new sponsors, exhibitors and advertisers, and maintaining strong retention.

• Building a strong network across the global packaging design community.

• Becoming a recognised, trusted face within the industry.

Essential Criteria

• 3–4+ years in sales, ideally in exhibitions, events, conferences or media.

• Proven track record of hitting or exceeding sales targets, with strong new business skills.

• Experience managing client accounts and building long-term commercial relationships.

• Excellent communication, negotiation and presentation skills.

• Self-motivated, target-driven, and comfortable in a fast-paced, KPI-led environment.

• Willingness to travel internationally.

Preferred Criteria

• Experience selling sponsorship, exhibition space, advertising or digital media.

• International sales or key account experience with complex sales cycles.

• Exposure to design, packaging, branding or the creative industries.

• Recruitment consultants with strong new business and relationship skills also considered.

• CRM and sales reporting tool experience.

What We Offer

• Competitive base salary plus an industry-leading commission structure.

• International travel across our fast-growing UK, France and Italy portfolio.

• Strong onboarding, sales training and access to Easyfairs' L&D programmes.

• The chance to work on a globally recognised brand at the centre of the packaging design world.

• A collaborative, ambitious team environment.

About Us
Easyfairs is a global event company based in Europe and the USA. We organise and host more than 200 events across the world (Austria, Algeria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA) and we manage eight venues in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Our passion is to bring business communities and communities of interest together. We strive to “easify” the life of our customers and increase the return on their investment of time and money through all-in formulas, advanced technology and a customer-centric approach. The Easyfairs Group employs over 900 highly committed talents. Our commitment to excellence has been recognised several times. We were named Belgium’s “Entrepreneur of the Year®” in 2018 and Deloitte has named us a “Best Managed Company” seven years running (2019-25). The company is ranked 11th in the list of the world’s leading exhibition companies. We are also proud of being on the "Sunday Times Best Place to Work" list in 2025 & 2026!

Benefits

Birthday Day off

Flexible working as well as hybrid working

Enhanced family pay (maternity & paternity)

Cycle to work scheme

Interest free travel loans

Free online academy to focus on professional development and upskilling

Specialist external performance coach services available to all employees

Employee assistance programme

‍⚕️ 24/7 access to our virtual GP service

Long service awards

Pension as well as offering salary sacrifice

Life cover

Group income protection

Fully stocked beer & wine fridge in the office

Regular company socials organised throughout the year

We understand that applicants can be put off applying for a job if they feel they don't fit all of the requirements. If you're excited about working for us and have most of the skills/ experience we're looking for, please go ahead and apply! Here at Easyfairs, we are passionate about the power of fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment for our team to thrive in. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.