The role oversees sales strategy, pricing, reporting and team leadership across Soho Theatre’s venues and wider activity.
Duties & Responsibilities
Sales & Revenue Growth
- Lead Soho Theatre’s sales and revenue strategy across venues and channels, ensuring ticketing, memberships, donations, merchandise and other earned income support organisational targets and audience growth.
- Monitor ticket income and secondary spend against targets, identifying risks, opportunities and interventions to maximise revenue, attendance and customer value.
- Oversee pricing, inventory, allocations, offers, packages and upsell approaches, balancing commercial return, audience access and Soho Theatre’s charitable objectives.
- Use sales, audience and customer data to inform campaign priorities, audience retention, reattendance, memberships, donations, merchandise and wider income opportunities.
- Work with teams across the company so sales insight supports planning, forecasting, customer experience, secondary spend and income generation.
- Oversee sales channels and customer propositions, including ticketing, website, agencies, group sales, memberships, offers, packages, merchandise and donations.
- Improve customer journeys and purchase paths so audiences can discover, book, donate, join, buy and engage with Soho Theatre’s wider offer easily.
- Grow earned and contributed income through memberships, merchandise, donations, packages, cross-promotions and other initiatives, working with the F&B team to maximise customer spend.
Insight, Data & Reporting
- Provide senior-level sales and audience insight to the Senior Management Team presenting clear analysis that supports strategic planning, organisational reporting and evidence-based decision-making.
- Establish reporting frameworks that track ticket income, audience behaviour, sales channel performance and audience development activity across Soho Theatre’s venues and platforms.
- Contribute to insight-led approaches to audience segmentation, loyalty, reattendance, first-time booker conversion and local audience growth, particularly across Soho Theatre and Soho Theatre Walthamstow.
- Work with Communications colleagues to ensure communication campaigns are informed by robust audience insight and evaluated against sales and engagement objectives.
- Ensure ACE, funder and organisational data requirements are met accurately and on time, working with colleagues to embed robust data collection and interpretation across relevant teams.
Staff Management
- Line manage, support and develop the Ticketing Manager, setting clear objectives, delegating effectively and ensuring strong operational delivery through the team.
- Set standards for ticketing operations, sales practice, customer service, data quality, audience communications, access and inclusive working, ensuring these are delivered consistently.
- Ensure the ticketing team has the structure, training, systems, information and capacity to deliver accurate, resilient and audience-focused service.
- Oversee key operational processes, including show builds, on-sales, allocations, reporting, rotas and day-to-day delivery, ensuring they are accurate, robust and appropriately resourced.
- Act as senior escalation point for significant ticketing, sales, customer, systems or financial issues, ensuring risks are managed and learning is embedded.
Systems Management
- Lead the strategic management of Soho Theatre’s ticketing, CRM and related sales systems, ensuring they support revenue growth, audience insight, customer experience and organisational efficiency.
- Work with the programming and producing teams to support the settlement process for visiting shows and companies, ensuring that box office revenue information is provided promptly and accurately.
- Own senior relationships with ticketing, CRM, website and agency partners, ensuring supplier performance, service levels, development priorities and contract arrangements meet Soho Theatre’s needs.
- Lead the ticketing and CRM systems roadmap, identifying improvements, integrations and process changes that future-proof Soho Theatre’s sales infrastructure across venues and platforms.
- Ensure ticketing and customer databases are integrated, accurate and insight-led, providing a robust foundation for CRM, reporting, segmentation, campaign activity and organisational decision-making.
- Work with relevant colleagues to ensure customer data, permissions, access controls and system processes comply with data protection requirements and organisational policy.
- Work with the Co-Communications Directors and website provider to ensure the website supports sales, marketing, programming, access and engagement objectives, with a strong focus on conversion and customer experience.
- Oversee the evaluation of system performance and digital sales journeys, using evidence and user insight to prioritise improvements that increase efficiency, revenue and audience satisfaction
Management
- Lead and support your team through clear expectations, regular feedback, appraisals and development, addressing concerns promptly and promoting a respectful, inclusive working environment.
- Plan workloads across the ticketing team and support ticketing manager to run staffing and rotas effectively, ensuring appropriate cover and a fair distribution of responsibilities.
- Apply Soho Theatre’s people policies consistently, managing attendance, leave and performance, and seeking advice from the People team where needed.
- Support recruitment, induction and probation reviews, ensuring team members receive the training, guidance and resources needed to succeed.
- Manage departmental budgets responsibly, monitoring expenditure, forecasting costs and identifying efficiencies, raising any anticipated overspend promptly with your line manager and the Finance team.
- Attend and contribute to management and cross-departmental meetings, sharing relevant updates, communicating decisions to your team and following through on agreed actions.
Sustainability
- Support Soho Theatre’s environmental and sustainability objectives across production activity.
- Encourage sustainable approaches to production and visiting-company activity.
- Support the reuse, recycling and responsible disposal of scenery, props and production materials where appropriate.
- Contribute to Soho Theatre’s implementation of Theatre Green Book principles.
General
- Work collaboratively across Soho Theatre to support audience growth, income generation and excellent customer experience.
- Support the aims and objectives of Soho Theatre, both internally and externally.
- Build positive working relationships across departments and contribute to effective communication across the organisation.
- Uphold Soho Theatre’s policies, including those relating to equality, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, Health & Safety and safeguarding.
- Maintain appropriate confidentiality and comply with Soho Theatre’s data protection requirements.
- Be fully aware of Soho Theatre’s programme and activities.
- Undertake any other duties appropriate to the nature and level of the post.
This is a guide to the nature of the work required of the role. It is not wholly comprehensive or restrictive and may be reviewed with the post holder and the line manager from time.
Person Specification
Qualities & Skills
- A strategic, commercially aware and audience-focused leader who can balance income generation, access, customer experience and organisational values.
- Highly organised, proactive and self-motivated.
- Calm and effective when working in a fast-moving environment.
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Friendly, approachable and confident working with a wide range of people, with the judgement, credibility and communication skills to influence partners and suppliers.
- Strong communicator who understands the importance of sharing information clearly and promptly.
- Collaborative and comfortable working across different teams and disciplines.
- A practical, positive and solution-focused approach to problems.
- Able to work independently and use initiative.
- Flexible in approach to working hours there may be some evening and weekend work required.
- An interest in and enthusiasm for theatre, comedy, cabaret and live performance.
Essential Experience
- Significant experience in a senior ticketing, sales, CRM, box office or audience-focused role within live performance, arts, culture, entertainment or another high-volume customer environment.
- Experience leading ticketing or sales strategy, including responsibility for income performance, forecasting, reporting and sales analysis.
- Ability to develop and deliver sales, ticketing and CRM strategies that support income targets, audience growth and organisational priorities.
- High level of financial confidence, including experience working with income targets, forecasts, reconciliations, budgets and sales reporting.
- Experience working with pricing, inventory, allocations, discounting, access schemes, offers or other approaches to balancing revenue generation and audience access.
- Experience managing supplier or partner relationships connected to ticketing, CRM, website, agencies or digital sales platforms.
- Comfortable taking ownership, using initiative and acting as a senior escalation point when significant sales, customer or systems issues arise.
- Strong leadership and people-management skills, including the ability to set objectives, delegate effectively, support managers and build resilient team practice.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, complex workflows and time-sensitive activity across a busy multi-venue performance programme.
Desirable
- Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to produce clear, meaningful reports for senior colleagues, Board members, funders and other stakeholders.
- Good understanding of data protection, permission-based communications and responsible use of customer data.
- Practical experience of Spektrix or a comparable ticketing/CRM system is desirable.
- Knowledge of London’s live performance scene, particularly new theatre, comedy and cabaret, is desirable.