UK

United Kingdom · Sales · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

B2C Sales Manager

As a B2C Sales Manager, you transform individual sales efforts into a thriving, cohesive team success story.

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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Free to start: a plan built for this role, and a Future Fluency module to try first. No card.

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One email: what AI is changing in this job, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

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  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Direct reports8-12 reports
  • Reports toDirector of Sales
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Sales Team Leader · Regional Sales Manager (B2C) · Sales Group Manager

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 1 of 9 standards
Level 5 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 1 of 9 standards
Level 5 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 1 of 9 standards
Focus Awards Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (RQF) Focus Awards Limited · Level 4 · covers 1 of 9 standards
ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 2 · covers 1 of 9 standards
ISP Level 2 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 2 · covers 1 of 9 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems
Manage direct sales operations in a contact centre Focus Awards Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (RQF)
Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
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Your Plan Illustration

Built for B2C Sales Manager

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Manage Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 9 standards Level 5
  2. Manage direct sales operations in a contact centre Focus Awards Limited · covers 1 of 9 standards Level 4
  3. Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 9 standards Level 2
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a B2C Sales Manager?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

How the AI economy is changing work like this

A broad read on this kind of work, not an analysis of this job on its own. Roles that share a pattern get the same answer here.

Fading: AI does more of this

AI is taking over the repetitive tasks of data entry and initial sales script drafting, freeing you to focus on strategic leadership.

→
Rising: worth more because of AI

Your ability to interpret nuanced sales data and coach your team with empathy becomes more valuable as AI handles the routine analytics.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven Sales Enablement Strategy
  • Data-Led Coaching & Behavioural Economics
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your B2C Sales Manager plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

Start my B2C Sales Manager plan, free Ready to pay? Subscribe for £70 a month

3What this role really is

We see you

You feel the tension between embracing AI's potential and worrying it might overshadow the human touch in sales. There's a quiet confidence in knowing your leadership can bridge this gap effectively.

A B2C Sales Manager leads a sales team, coaching reps and making sure the team hits its targets.

4A day in the life

Not a job advert. A real day, built from what this role actually holds.

08:45
You start your day reviewing the sales forecast, ensuring the numbers align with the team's targets before your morning meeting.
11:00
You conduct a role-play session with a sales rep, providing immediate feedback to refine their pitch and boost their confidence.
14:30
You join a call with Marketing to discuss lead generation strategies, sharing insights on what your team needs to convert leads effectively.
16:00
You have a one-on-one with a team member, celebrating their recent win and setting new goals for the next phase.

5What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Strategic

Managing CRM integration projects, defining data governance policies for your team, building executive-level forecasting dashboards, evaluating new CRM features or platforms for team efficiency.

Outreach / Salesloft Architect

Setting the overall sales engagement strategy for your team, purchasing and implementing the platform, ensuring compliance with regulations (e.g., GDPR) across all rep activities.

Gong / Chorus.ai Strategic

Analysing team-wide call data to identify skill gaps, validating product feedback for R&D, presenting data-backed insights on customer conversations to leadership, building 'best practice' call libraries for coaching.

Aircall / RingCentral Architect

Selecting and negotiating contracts with VoIP providers, managing phone number provisioning for your team, analysing call metric reports for capacity planning and performance insights.

Calendly / Chili Piper Strategic

Implementing advanced routing rules for team scheduling (e.g., round-robin), managing team-wide scheduling policies, and ensuring seamless integrations with CRM for lead creation and follow-up.

Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets (and Anaplan/Adaptive Planning) Strategic

Building complex forecast models, using Power Query for advanced data cleaning, presenting detailed performance data to leadership. For enterprise-level forecasting, managing and interpreting data from tools like Anaplan or Adaptive Planning.

6What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Team Quota Setting No involvement, just executes personal quota. No involvement, just executes personal quota. Provides input on individual capacity and market conditions, but doesn't set the final target.
Hiring New Reps No involvement. No involvement. May participate in final interview rounds as a peer interviewer.
Performance Management Receives performance feedback and acts on it. Receives performance feedback and acts on it. May provide informal feedback to junior reps, but no formal authority.
Territory & Lead Allocation Receives assigned leads/territory. Receives assigned leads/territory. May request specific lead types, but doesn't decide allocation.
Discounting & Pricing Follows strict pricing guidelines, escalates any discount requests. Follows strict pricing guidelines, escalates any discount requests. Can approve small, pre-authorised discounts (e.g., 5%) within strict limits.

7How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Team Quota Attainment
The percentage of the total sales target your team achieves each month/quarter.
Target · Consistently 100%+ (aim for 110-120% to really shine)

Your team's target for Q1 was £1.5M, and they closed £1.65M, hitting 110% attainment. That's what we're looking for.

Sales Forecast Accuracy
How close your team's projected sales are to the actual deals closed. Getting this right is crucial for business planning.
Target · Within +/- 10% of committed number

You committed £500K for next month, and your team closed £480K. That's a 4% variance, which is spot on.

Rep Attrition Rate
The percentage of sales representatives who leave your team within a given period. High turnover is costly and disruptive.
Target · Below 15% annually (ideally much lower)

Out of 10 reps, only one left last year. That's a 10% attrition rate, showing you're building a stable, happy team.

Average Deal Size (Team)
The average revenue generated per closed deal across your entire team. This indicates effective value selling.
Target · 10% increase year-on-year for your team

Last year, your team's average deal was £500. This year, it's £550, meaning you've coached them to sell bigger packages.

Sales Cycle Length (Team)
The average time it takes for a lead to become a closed customer for your team. Shorter cycles mean faster revenue.
Target · Maintain or reduce by 5-10% year-on-year

Your team's average sales cycle was 25 days, and you've managed to bring it down to 23 days through better qualification.

Team Morale & Engagement
How happy, motivated, and engaged your team members are. This isn't just a 'nice to have'; it directly impacts performance.
  • High participation in team meetings, positive feedback in anonymous surveys, reps actively helping each other, low absenteeism, spontaneous team social events, individual reps asking for more responsibility.
Coaching Effectiveness
The observable improvement in your reps' skills and performance due to your coaching efforts.
  • Reps consistently applying feedback from call reviews, individual rep performance improvements (e.g., conversion rates, talk tracks), reps proactively seeking your advice, successful implementation of new sales techniques you've taught, positive feedback from reps during 1-on-1s.
Process Improvement & Adoption
Your ability to identify bottlenecks in the sales process, propose solutions, and ensure your team adopts new, more efficient ways of working.
  • Proactive suggestions for CRM enhancements, successful roll-out of new sales tools or methodologies within your team, documented improvements in team efficiency (e.g., less time on admin), other teams adopting processes you've championed.
Cross-functional Collaboration
How effectively you work with other departments (Marketing, Product, Operations) to remove blockers and improve the overall customer experience.
  • Positive feedback from Marketing on lead quality discussions, Product team actively seeking your team's customer insights, successful resolution of customer issues by coordinating with Operations, joint initiatives with other departments that improve sales outcomes.

8Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building a Winning Team

You'll spend your days coaching reps, celebrating their successes, and strategising how to get the most out of each individual. Seeing your team hit their targets and grow their skills will be your biggest reward.

You're buzzing after a team meeting where everyone shared their biggest win of the week, and you saw two junior reps you've been coaching consistently hit their numbers for the first time.

Achieving Ambitious Targets

The challenge of hitting big revenue numbers for your team, and then pushing past them, is what gets you out of bed. You love breaking down a huge goal into actionable steps and then executing that plan.

You're deep in the numbers, figuring out exactly what each rep needs to close to hit the team's stretch target for the quarter, and you feel a real sense of purpose in driving that success.

Strategic Problem-Solving

You enjoy analysing market trends, competitor moves, and internal data to figure out how to optimise your team's approach. You're always looking for a better way to do things, whether it's a new pitch or a more efficient process.

You've just spent an hour with Sales Ops, dissecting why a certain lead source isn't converting well, and you're already brainstorming a new qualification script for your team to test next week.

What frustrates people
  • Dealing with underperforming reps who aren't responding to coaching, and having to make tough decisions about their future.
  • The constant pressure of hitting team targets, especially when market conditions or lead quality are challenging.
  • Spending a significant amount of time on administrative tasks, reporting, and internal meetings, which takes away from coaching time.
  • Having to justify budget requests for new tools or training to senior leadership.
  • The post-sale hand-off nightmare, where a customer you worked hard to acquire has a poor experience with another department, and it reflects badly on your team.
What this role does not give you
  • The opportunity to be the top individual earner on the sales floor – your focus shifts to team earnings.
  • A predictable, 9-to-5 routine; sales management often means late nights or early mornings supporting your team.
  • Complete autonomy over strategic direction – you'll contribute, but the ultimate decisions sit higher up.
  • A role where you can avoid difficult conversations about performance or behaviour.

9Who you work with

This role is absolutely critical for our revenue growth. You're directly responsible for a significant chunk of our sales pipeline and customer acquisition. Your team's performance directly impacts our market share and overall profitability. A strong Sales Manager means a strong sales team, which means a strong business. You'll also play a big part in shaping our sales culture and developing the next generation of sales leaders here.

Inside the business
  • Director of Sales (your boss, basically)
  • Other Sales Managers (your peers, you'll share war stories)
  • Sales Operations (they'll help with data and process)
  • Marketing Team (they send you leads, you give feedback)
  • Product Team (you'll share customer feedback with them)
Outside the business
  • Key B2C Customers (for escalations or high-value deals)
  • Training Providers (for rep development)
  • Recruitment Agencies (when you're hiring new talent)

10What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven track record of consistently exceeding individual B2C sales targets for at least 3-5 years as a Senior Sales Specialist.
  • Demonstrable experience in informally mentoring or coaching junior sales reps, with tangible examples of their improvement.
  • A solid understanding of sales metrics, pipeline management, and basic forecasting principles.
  • Strong experience using CRM systems (ideally Salesforce) for pipeline management, reporting, and data entry.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a natural ability to build rapport and influence others.

11What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced CRM Customisation & Data Governance

As sales processes become more complex, you'll need to understand how to customise CRM fields, workflows, and reporting to support your team's needs, while also ensuring data quality and compliance.

Custom Objects & Fields · Workflow Automation · Reporting & Dashboard Design · Data Validation Rules

  • This month: Take an advanced Salesforce Admin course (Trailhead modules are great).
  • Next quarter: Work with Sales Ops to identify one area of CRM inefficiency and propose a customisation solution.
  • Month 4-6: Lead a project to clean up outdated data or standardise a key data field across your team.
  • Month 7-9: Design and implement a new, high-impact dashboard for your Director of Sales.

Quick win: Identify a common data entry error in your team's CRM usage and implement a simple validation rule or provide targeted training.

12Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attend sales leadership conferences and workshops to stay current on best practices and emerging trends.
  • Participate in peer-to-peer sales manager forums or mentorship programmes.
  • Read industry publications, books, and thought leadership on sales management, coaching, and behavioural economics.
  • Actively seek feedback from your Director, peers, and direct reports to continuously improve your leadership style.
  • Engage in public speaking or presenting on sales topics, building your personal brand and influence.

13The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Sales Enablement Strategy

AI isn't just for individual reps anymore; it's transforming how we train, coach, and support entire sales teams. Managers who can strategically use AI to build better enablement programmes will have a massive competitive advantage.

  • Personalised Learning Paths
  • AI-Generated Sales Playbooks
  • Predictive Coaching Insights
  • Content Optimisation with AI

Data-Led Coaching & Behavioural Economics

While AI handles the 'what' of performance, the 'why' and 'how to change' still rely on human insight. Managers who can combine deep data analysis with an understanding of human psychology will be exceptional coaches.

  • Behavioural Nudges in Sales
  • Gamification for Motivation
  • Cognitive Biases in Selling
  • Advanced A/B Testing for Sales Processes

14What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Advanced Consultative Selling (as a coach)
  • Objection Handling (LAER Framework mastery)
  • Team Pipeline Management & Velocity Optimisation
  • Sales Forecasting & Reporting
  • BANT Qualification (Coaching & Strategy)

15The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Senior B2C Sales Specialist (Internal Promotion)

    3-5 years as a Senior Specialist

    Skills to master

    • Consistently exceeding quota, informal mentoring of junior reps, taking on leadership responsibilities for specific projects or initiatives, deep product and market knowledge, strong objection handling.

    You're ready to move on when

    • You're the go-to person on your team for advice and problem-solving.
    • You've actively participated in training new hires or leading team-wide best practice sessions.
    • You consistently hit 125%+ of your individual quota and handle the most complex deals.
    • You've shown initiative in identifying process improvements or new sales strategies for the team.
  2. 2

    Team Lead / Lead Sales Rep (Internal or External)

    2-4 years as a Team Lead

    Skills to master

    • Directly coaching 3-5 reps, running daily huddles, conducting call reviews, hitting team-level targets, basic performance management, conflict resolution within a small group.

    You're ready to move on when

    • You've successfully led a small 'pod' or sub-team to achieve their targets for multiple quarters.
    • You're adept at providing constructive feedback and seeing tangible improvements in your team members.
    • You're comfortable with the administrative aspects of tracking team performance and reporting.
    • You've shown the ability to motivate and unify a small group towards a common goal.
  3. 3

    Sales Manager (from another B2C company)

    5-8 years in a similar B2C Sales Manager role

    Skills to master

    • Proven track record of managing 8-12 reps, hitting team quotas, hiring and firing, strategic territory planning, advanced sales forecasting, cross-functional collaboration.

    You're ready to move on when

    • You can articulate specific examples of how you've built and developed high-performing sales teams.
    • You have a deep understanding of B2C sales dynamics and market challenges.
    • You're comfortable stepping into a new environment and quickly building credibility with a new team.
    • You've successfully managed teams through periods of growth and challenge.

16How people get here · where they go next

Came from
Senior B2C Sales Specialist (Internal Promotion)
3-5 years
You mastered mentoring junior reps and consistently exceeded your sales targets, preparing you to lead a team.
You are here
B2C Sales Manager
Principal/Manager (12-16 years)
A B2C Sales Manager leads a sales team, coaching reps and making sure the team hits its targets.
Goes to
Director of Sales (L6)
3-5 years
This role involves managing multiple sales teams, setting strategic directions, and driving regional sales growth.

The long view: This role can lead to VP of Sales or Chief Revenue Officer, running sales for a whole company, or to General Manager, taking charge of a full business unit.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how B2C Sales Manager is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

Also named as a next step, with no page in the catalogue yet:

  • Head of Sales Operations (L6)

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Manage Sales Technology Systems, worked against B2C Sales Manager.

Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5

Applied to your work in B2C Sales Manager

This unit aims to equip learners with the knowledge of functional requirements of sales technology systems and how to support users for effective adoption. Learners will be able to monitor system effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and ensure the effective usage of sales technology to optimise sales performance.

The Navigator Last time, we discussed how AI could enhance your team's sales playbooks. How has that been going?

You I've started integrating AI suggestions, and it's showing promise.

The Navigator Great! Let's build on that by identifying which specific playbook elements AI can refine further, focusing on your next quarter's goals.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

Start my B2C Sales Manager plan, free
A year from now

A year from now, you confidently lead your team with a blend of human insight and AI-driven strategy, making you a pivotal force in the company's growth.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
B2C Sales Manager
  • Advanced Consultative Selling (as a coach)
  • Objection Handling (LAER Framework mastery)
  • Team Pipeline Management & Velocity Optimisation
  • Sales Forecasting & Reporting
  • BANT Qualification (Coaching & Strategy)
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

17The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

B2C Sales Manager is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Director of Sales (L6)

    3-5 years as a Sales Manager

    Manages multiple Sales Managers, owns a larger business unit, sets regional or segment strategy, reports to the VP of Sales.

    • Go-to-market strategy development
    • Sales operations optimisation across multiple teams
    • Vendor management & contract negotiation (larger scale)
    • Market expansion strategy
    • Advanced sales technology evaluation & implementation

  2. Head of Sales Operations (L6)

    4-6 years as a Sales Manager

    Leads the entire Sales Operations function, optimising processes, technology, and data for the entire sales organisation.

    • CRM architecture & administration (enterprise level)
    • Sales enablement platform management
    • Compensation plan design & modelling
    • Lead scoring & routing optimisation
    • Sales reporting & dashboard automation
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, as a Sales Manager, your plate is overflowing. You're coaching, forecasting, hiring, firing, and trying to hit ambitious targets. Imagine getting back 10-15 hours a week, not by working less, but by letting AI handle the grunt work. That's what we're doing.

We're embedding AI into our sales processes to free you up for what truly matters: coaching your team, strategising, and driving revenue. Think less admin, more impact. Here's a glimpse of how AI can transform your day-to-day.

Automated Coaching Insights

AI tools like Gong or Chorus don't just transcribe calls; they analyse team-wide call data to pinpoint common objections, successful talk tracks, and individual rep skill gaps. You'll get automated summaries highlighting exactly where each rep needs coaching, saving you hours of manual call reviews and helping you focus your 1-on-1s.

Smart Forecast Generation

Instead of manually rolling up individual rep forecasts, AI can crunch historical data, pipeline stages, and external market signals to provide a highly accurate team forecast. This gives you a much clearer picture of what's coming, allowing you to proactively adjust strategy or identify risks, rather than just reacting.

Optimised Lead Distribution

AI can analyse lead quality, rep performance, and territory saturation to automatically distribute leads to your team in the most efficient way. This ensures every rep gets the best chance to close, reduces 'lead quality roulette' frustrations, and maximises your team's conversion rates without you spending hours on manual allocation.

Performance Review Assistant

Drafting performance reviews can be a huge time sink. AI can pull data from CRM, call recordings, and activity logs to generate initial drafts of performance summaries, highlighting achievements and areas for improvement. You'll then refine and personalise them, cutting down your writing time significantly.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a B2C Sales Manager?

Common routes in include Senior B2C Sales Specialist (Internal Promotion) (3-5 years as a Senior Specialist), Team Lead / Lead Sales Rep (Internal or External) (2-4 years as a Team Lead) and Sales Manager (from another B2C company) (5-8 years in a similar B2C Sales Manager role). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a B2C Sales Manager progress to?

This role can lead on to Director of Sales (3-5 years as a Sales Manager) and Head of Sales Operations (4-6 years as a Sales Manager), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a B2C Sales Manager?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Sales Enablement Strategy and Data-Led Coaching & Behavioural Economics. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

Or try another one

18Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in sales

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

Leadership, coaching, strategic planning and driving revenue are skills that carry across industries. A B2C Sales Manager could move into B2B sales management, lead sales teams in retail, finance or tech, or move into wider business development or general management. Building and motivating a sales team is useful almost anywhere.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my B2C Sales Manager plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.