ABOUT AVANT ARTE

Avant Arte wants to make art radically more accessible for a new generation.

The company began as a cult blog of contemporary artists, initially inspired through rap lyrics and hip-hop album covers. That blog grew organically into the world's biggest online art community, with over 2.1m followers, 1.7m of which are under the age of 35.

With digital engagement more than 4x the rest of the art world and in line with the biggest youth fashion brands of today, the company’s vision is to inspire a generation of millions of young people who love art like they love music and who collect works like they build their wardrobe.

The company collaborates with iconic contemporary artists like Jenny Holzer, Cai Guo-Qiang and the Chapman brothers, making their work more accessible to younger collectors through sculpture editions, print editions and unique works on paper. Avant Arte’s launches are heavily oversubscribed, with many behaving more like fashion drops than art sales, selling out in under 30 seconds.

OUR CULTURE

We’re a small team with really big ambitions, both for what we want to achieve and also the environment we’re building. We want to create a company that remains thoughtful as we scale and that tries to be genuinely progressive in how we operate; we want people to really own what they do and be given the autonomy and freedom to make mistakes, learn, and create something meaningful. We all work incredibly hard, and really care about what Avant Arte is here to do – we’re looking for exceptional people that are proactive, hungry to learn, and want to put their pride in our collective achievements.

WHAT WE NEED

We are looking for a highly motivated and organised Collector Development Executive to join our London team. You will be responsible for supporting the sales team as well as developing your own relationships with our collectors.

Working closely with our Collector Community Manager & Director of Collector Experience, the core of this role is sales and collector experience, and you will develop a unique skill set in engaging, developing and building long-term relationships with collectors.

We’re looking for someone with with strong customer service and sales skills, as well as a passion for contemporary culture, who is driven to help the sales team in achieving our targets. A hunger to learn combined with a proactive and positive attitude is key to this role and to your development within the business. We really do encourage everyone to proactively step outside of their job description if they see something that could be improved, but the core of your role will involve:

• Responding to collector queries across multiple channels: from website instant messaging to Instagram, emails and WhatsApp messages. You will liaise with different departments to ensure our collectors’ needs are met promptly
• Qualifying sales inquiries and translating these into transactions & meaningful collector relationships
• Providing exceptional service to ensure that our collector experience is best-in-class
• Building and managing your own client base - engaging with existing collectors, reactivating lapsed collectors and introducing Avant Arte to new collectors with the aim of developing lasting collector relationships and helping us achieve our sales target for each launch
• Collector outreach & development before and after each launch
• Working closely with Collector Community Manager to create and send email campaigns to targeted collectors
• Assisting our Collector Community Manager with all operational and functional tasks surrounding sales and collector relations
• Researching our artists and creating internal cheat sheets for launches

The skills and experience we’re looking for are:

• At least 2 years of experience in customer service or sales, ideally in luxury, ecommerce or culture sectors; solid experience in clienteling is advantageous
• Strong interest in contemporary culture
• Proven ability to hit difficult targets and a commercially-focussed mindset
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to delight customers through your use of language. A second language (especially Chinese, Korean or Japanese) is highly desirable
• Proactive and able to take the initiative to develop ideas for constantly improving customer experience and driving sales
• Adaptability and ability to communicate with collectors from different cultures and backgrounds
• Strong computer literacy particularly in Excel and Google Sheets; previous experience in CRM and email marketing is desirable (we currently use Hubspot and MailChimp)
• Social media savvy and confident learning new platforms and tools
• Flexibility with a proven ability to multitask and work under tight deadlines and embrace change in fast-paced work environment
• Excellent eye for detail and organisational skills

Our collectors are based in different time zones around the world, you may be required to work outside regular hours in peak times.

BENEFITS

• You’ll get to be part of building one of the fastest growing tech companies in culture, backed by leading early investors in companies like Skype, Farfetch, Glossier & Facebook
• We offer competitive salary, equity & holiday allowance, as well as flexible working hours 


• We have a learning & development budget for every person at the company

INTERVIEW PROCESS

We take hiring incredibly seriously, and as such our interview process is relatively in-depth, typically consisting of around 4-5 interviews and a couple of practical tests before we’re ready to make an offer. We believe this is important for both sides - as well as assessing your suitability for the role, we also want to make sure that you have the chance to meet with people across the business and ask plenty of questions throughout.

For this role:

• If we’re impressed by your application, we’ll ask you to complete a quick task before progressing to a phone interview with the hiring manager for the role. This first call will be focussed around your background, skills and experience.
• After the first stage, we’ll ask you to complete a slightly more in-depth practical test, which we’ll then feed back on in a short 20-30 minute call.
• After this, you’ll have the opportunity to meet with a few more colleagues from our sales & marketing team - this interview will be focussed on testing your sales skills and ability to perform in the role.
• The final stages of our process will be with members of the wider team - nothing to prepare, these will be casual calls focussed on your experience & motivation.