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Sales Executive Apprentice
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This role exists to bring dedicated commercial energy to Purple Story's sales function: identifying the right prospects, nurturing them properly, and growing into a position where you own the full journey from first contact to contracted client and beyond.
Purple Story is a well-established consultancy with a strong reputation and a strong returning client base. The challenge isn't the quality of what we do — it's making sure enough of the right people know we exist consistently. Karen currently leads much of the relationship-building personally, but as the business scales, we need a dedicated sales function that keeps the pipeline flowing with focus and regularity.
You'll be joining a business that moves fast, communicates directly, and expects everyone to bring their brain to work. There's no rigid playbook handed to you on day one. There's HubSpot, a growing LinkedIn presence, a suite of proven programmes, and a founder who knows exactly what good looks like — and will invest in helping you get there.
You won't be making final calls on pricing, proposals, or contracts (Yet) — those sit with Karen. What you WILL own is the CRM, the prospecting activity, event preparation and follow-up, and the relationship-nurturing in the early stages of the pipeline. As your confidence and competence grow, so does your responsibility. The long-term expectation is that you take a client from their very first interaction with Purple Story all the way through to delivery and the ongoing relationship.
You'll have access to HubSpot, LinkedIn, and a range of AI tools. You'll be expected to get genuinely good at all of them — not just use them, but understand how to make them work harder for the business.
We are a small business. Every person counts and every action has a ripple effect. You will be visible — to Karen, to prospects, and to the wider Purple Story network. You represent the brand every time you send a message, pick up the phone, or walk into a networking event in your Purple Story kit.
You'll work hybrid across three environments: our co-working base in Warrington, from home, and at client-facing events and locations. You need to be someone who can manage their own time and energy across all three without needing to be managed. Purple Story branded merchandise is provided for all client-facing days — wear it with pride, not compliance.
Requirements
- GCSE in English (grade C/4/Pass)
- GCSE in Maths (grade C/4/Pass)
- A Level in any subject (grade Pass)
- A Level in Business (grade Pass)
- Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
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Responsibilities
- HubSpot CRM Quality: Clean, current, and genuinely useful at all times — no chasing required. Reviewed monthly.
- New pipeline prospect: Minimum 10 qualified new prospects added to the pipeline each month.
- Event follow up speed: All follow-ups from events completed and logged within 48 hours of attendance.
- LinkedIn Outreach Activity: Consistent, trackable volume of meaningful outreach weekly — volume agreed with Karen, reviewed monthly.
- Pipeline Reporting: Accurate pipeline report delivered on time every week. Karen opens it and immediately knows where things stand.
- Apprenticeship Milestones: All learning milestones met on schedule with no chasing from the provider.
- Sales planning and preparation: Set effective targets using sales forecasts. Prioritise customers and activities to grow account value and maximise return-on-investment in line with your organisation’s strategy. Formulate or refine customer plans and objectives. Create efficient territory plans where appropriate.
- Customer engagement: Effectively communicate and interpret customer information exchanged through written, verbal and non-verbal communication. Develop a customer engagement style that effectively opens sales conversations, builds rapport, enhances customer relationships, and adapts to different customer’s social preferences.
- Customer needs analysis: Be highly skilled at effective questioning and active listening techniques to understand the customer’s needs, guide the sales conversation appropriately, create mutual understanding, and build trust and affinity with customers.
- Propose and present solutions: Develop sales proposals and deliver them using a presentation style and technique appropriate for your customer. Present relevant products and/or services, explain features and their advantages, and clearly articulate the value and benefit of the solution for the specific customer. Use and adapt a range of techniques to draw-out and overcome common sales objections.
- Negotiate: Research the customer’s likely desired outcomes and negotiating stance. Develop responses to likely objections. Identify your own organisation’s needs, such as minimum price and acceptable terms. Negotiate or trade variables effectively.
- Closing Sales: Be attuned to verbal and non-verbal buying-signals and move to close at an appropriate point in sales conversations. Develop ethical techniques to close sales and confirm customers’ purchase agreement.
- Gathering Intelligence: Collect, analyse and interpret market intelligence and share it appropriately and effectively within your organisation.
- Time Management: Use and adapt appropriate tools and techniques to prioritise and manage your time effectively.
- Collaboration and team work: Contribute effectively within a team environment. Work collaboratively with both internal and external stakeholders. Manage communications with the cross-functional team in relation to the effective delivery of your sales, such as finance and service delivery. Support continual business improvement by sharing best practice with sales team colleagues and assist the marketing team to develop new marketing collateral.
- Customer experience management: Deliver a positive customer experience. Manage customer enquiries and issues effectively. Take proactive action to prevent and minimise customer concerns and complaints. Handle all customer interactions professionally to the customer’s satisfaction.
- Digital skills: Effectively use digital tools to conduct research and target customers in line with the overall sales strategy. Able to deliver presentations and meetings using digital communication. Complete accurate records and process sales in accordance with your organisation’s policies, procedures and digital CRM systems.
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Benefits
- Your earnings can increase over time with an apprenticeship. Find out about potential future pay.
- The potential for this role is to grow with. The bigger we grow though the sales function the greater the opportunities will be – this person should be working towards becoming a sales manager in the future.
About Purple Story At Purple Story, we’re not your average training provider. We help businesses identify how to make more money through their people. We are the heroes who transform workplaces, the rebels who disrupt the status quo, and we do it all with a side of fun!
Contact You'll work directly with Karen Turton, which means you'll be close to real commercial decisions, real client conversations, and the real pace of a growing consultancy. This isn't a support role that hides behind a screen. It's a launchpad for a serious sales career — in a business where what you sell actually changes how organisations work.
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