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Headshot of Chris Whitehall, Head of Sales & Marketing

Chris Whitehall

Head of Sales & Marketing · he/him

Chris leads sales and marketing at CDS. That means working out who we want to work with, making the case for why they should want to work with us, and staying alongside clients from a first conversation through to work that's actually underway.

Most of it starts with an actual conversation. That's the thread running through how Chris works, and it shapes how the commercial side of CDS operates.

Little of that happens on his own. Chris works alongside colleagues across pre-sales, bids and delivery, and with our technology partners, from first opportunity through to handing won work over to the team who will deliver it.

In Chris's words

I believe in the power of conversation. If a challenge needs understanding, a problem needs solving, a question needs answering, a relationship needs maintaining or, importantly, trust needs building, it's best to have a conversation rather than firing out exchanges over Teams or email. That has always served me well and I believe it's critical to business and personal success. I'd welcome such a conversation with you.

I'm married to Rosie, whose free-spirited, spontaneous and adventurous side keeps me young, and our Jack Russell, Skip, keeps me in equal parts laughing and annoyed.

I used to run pretty successful club nights, booking internationally renowned underground house and techno DJs, as well as DJing myself. Those days are sadly behind me, but when I can find the time I still live them vicariously through my decks and an ever-growing record collection.

What Chris leads

  • Sales and marketing strategy, covering who we want to work with, why they should want to work with us, what we want to talk to them about, and the business objectives behind it
  • Customer engagement and opportunity management from end to end, building the relationship, identifying the problem, defining the solution, collating the proposal, aligning commercially, justifying the business case, and coordinating the buying process alongside the client
  • Marketing planning and budget allocation
  • Public sector procurement pipeline strategy, and the bids that come out of it
  • Partnerships with complementary service partners and strategic technology vendors

Background

Chris has worked in sales for 18 years, starting out as an outbound appointment generator and moving through enterprise sales into sales and marketing leadership. The first 13 of those were spent agency-side in marketing, latterly leading new business at the digital agencies IDHL and twentysix. The last five have been in technology services and consultancy sales, joining CDS in 2022 as Head of New Business before taking on sales and marketing.

Sales is the primary focus, but marketing is where Chris started. He read Marketing at Sheffield Hallam University and completed the Mini MBA in Marketing in 2025, and market and customer centricity sit at the core of how he approaches the role.

A good deal of his recent work has gone into technology partnerships, most notably with Cloudflare. He is accredited at both levels of Cloudflare's sales programme, which sits behind CDS's Cloudflare work as an Authorised Service Delivery Partner.

Strengths

Proposition development · executive leadership · sales pipeline development · enterprise and public sector sales · customer engagement and opportunity management · bid and procurement strategy · partner and vendor relationships · marketing strategy

Qualifications

Cloudflare Accredited Sales Professional Level I (ASP I) · Cloudflare Accredited Sales Professional Level II (ASP II) · Mini MBA in Marketing · BA (Hons) Marketing, Sheffield Hallam University

Get in touch

Chris is CDS's Head of Sales & Marketing. Reach Chris at chris.whitehall@cds.co.uk, or connect on LinkedIn.