Area Manager (Northern, Southern & Greater Belfast regions)

The Area Manager will be expected to:

• Support the Senior Manager – Direct Sales and Society’s Senior Leadership Team in achieving the Society’s strategic objectives, including involvement in strategic projects and working groups.

• Lead, manage, coach and support the Managers of the branches within the region to deliver performance, recruitment support, onboarding, capability development and succession planning. Support these Managers in the management of their team members.

• Lead and manage sales performance across all branches within the region, with responsibility for achieving mortgage and savings sales targets, identifying and executing opportunities for existing and new direct sales business.

• Drive direct mortgage growth by ensuring branches identify customer opportunities, generate quality referrals and support clear routes from enquiry to appointment, application and completed business.

• Lead local mortgage activity, including customer trigger prompts, mortgage clinics, community events and partnerships, with focus on first-time buyers, home movers, remortgage and retention opportunities.

• Deliver area savings and funding plans through maturity management, retention contact, withdrawal insight, product campaign activity and conversion of customer conversations into measurable funding outcomes.

• Support business savings growth through branch referrals, business account champions, online account adoption and targeted local prospecting with the Business Relationship Manager.

• Develop and maintain relationships with key employers, businesses, community organisations and professional connections within the region to create mortgage and savings sales opportunities and increase awareness of the Society.

• Monitor sales and branch performance, pipeline activity, KPIs, conversion metrics and follow-up standards, taking timely and effective action where performance is below expectation.

• Lead regular sales reviews, branch visits and sales meetings across the region, making sure actions are followed up and branches are clear on what they need to deliver for mortgages, savings and business development.

• Support Society-led sales campaigns and customer contact activity across mortgages, savings and business accounts, ensuring branch execution is aligned to priority products, retention opportunities and approved communication controls.

• Ensure adequate resourcing across branches, reviewing workloads, capacity, and skill mix to maintain high-quality service levels and sales effectiveness.

• Actively promote a strong “customer first” culture, ensuring excellent customer outcomes and service standards are consistently achieved.

• Identify high-potential colleagues and support the development of future managers and leaders across the region.

• Use area MI, customer data, sales analytics and competitor insight to identify opportunities, trends and performance gaps, and prepare targeted sales action plans.

• Prepare and maintain area sales plans covering branch objectives, prospecting, referrals, retention, community engagement, coaching, campaign delivery and reporting cadence.

• Use local market, research and competitor insight to identify opportunities, inform regional sales plans and provide feedback to relevant teams on customer, product and service trends.

• Work collaboratively with Head Office teams to support campaign delivery, product visibility, customer journey improvements and proposition development.

• Champion digital adoption and customer journey improvements across the region, using branch feedback to support online savings, business account opening, appointment booking and direct mortgage enquiry improvements.

• Oversee community engagement activity across the area, ensuring each branch has a clear plan that supports brand presence, relationship building and business generation.

• Identify, document, manage and maintain operational/branch/sales risks and controls within the area, escalating issues as appropriate.

• Identify inefficiencies and improve branch processes, escalating issues to the Senior Manager – Direct Sales and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Maintain a strong working knowledge of the Society’s lending and savings policies, procedures, products, online products and functionality, ensuring consistent application and processes across branches.

• Ensure compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements, including FCA/PRA rules, MCOB, Consumer Duty, Conduct Rules, and the Society’s policies and procedures.

• Ensure all sales activity is carried out responsibly and in line with Consumer Duty, with appropriate oversight of referral quality, customer needs identification, vulnerable customer considerations and sales conduct standards.

• Provide regular updates to the Senior Manager – Direct Sales on area performance, risks, people, campaign activity and leading indicators across mortgages, savings, business accounts and customer outcomes.

• Where applicable, ensure oversight and development of agency activity, ensure alignment with Society standards.

To apply for this role, please submit your CV as an expression of interest. Your CV should set out how you meet the requirements of the role and should be no more than 3 pages long.

Please note that, as part of your application, you will be asked to rank the three regional locations in order of preference. Please indicate your preferred region as 1, your second choice as 2, and your third choice as 3. Regions will be allocated in order of merit following the selection process. While every effort will be made to accommodate individual preferences, it may not be possible to allocate all successful applicants to their first-choice region.

Progressive Building Society is committed to providing equal opportunities for all.