Market Director of Sales

JOB SUMMARY

 

Functions as the business leader of the property’s sales department for properties with bookings exceeding parameters of the Group Sales teams within the Sales Office. Provides day to day leadership to a small team of on-property sales associates and pulls through a number of above-property sales channels (e.g., Market Sales, Sales Office) in order to achieve hotel sales objectives, booking goals and property revenues. Develops strategic working relationships with leaders of these sales channels in order to proactively position and drive sales to the property. Interfaces with the Regional Marketing & eCommerce team to review collateral and execute the property’s marketing plan as well as pull through regional and national promotions. Develops and implements property–wide strategies that deliver products and services to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of the brand’s target customer profile and property associates and provides a return on investment to the owner and Marriott International.

 

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

 

Required:

• 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; 4 years experience in the sales and marketing or related professional area.

OR

• 4-year bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; 2 years experience in the sales and marketing or related professional area.

 

Preferred:

• 4 year college degree.

• Demonstrated skills in supervising a team.

• Lodging sales experience.

• Hotel industry work experience, demonstrating progressive career growth and a pattern of exceptional performance. 
 

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

 

Managing Sales Activities

• Executes the sales strategy and verifies that individual booking goals are met for both on-property staff and off-property sales channels.

• Partners with the Market Sales & Sales Office teams to establish successful account deployment and execution.

• Serves as the sales contact for the General Manager, property leadership team, Market Sales Sales and Sales Office leaders.

• Serves as the sales contact for customers; serves as the customer advocate.

• Serves as the property sales liaison with Market Sales, Sales Office, Revenue Management, Event Management, Regional Marketing Communications and other hotel departments as appropriate.

• Provides customer intelligence in evaluating the market and economic trends that may lead to changes in sales strategy to meet or exceed customer expectations.

• Reviews the Smith Travel Research STAR report, competitive shopping reports and uses other resources to maintain an awareness of the hotel’s market position.

• Researches competitor’s sales team strategies to identify ways to grow occupancy and RevPAR and increase market share.

• Attends sales strategy meetings to provide input on weekly and overall sales strategy.

• Participates in business planning with the Regional Marketing & eCommerce team.

• Suggests innovative marketing ideas and proactively develops deployment strategies to continue to grow market share.

• Determines and develops marketing communication activities.

• Participates in sales calls with members of the on-property and/or off-property sales team to acquire new business and/or close on business.

• Identifies public relations opportunities and works with the Regional Marketing & eCommerce Team to coordinate activities that augment the overall marketing communication strategy.

• Supports the General Manager by coordinating crisis communications.

• Executes and supports Marriott’s Customer Service Standards and hotel’s Brand Standards.

• Executes and supports the operational aspects of business booked (e.g., generating proposal, writing contract, customer correspondence).

• Participates in and practices daily service basics of the brand.Verifies that the property implements a seamless turnover from sales to operations and back to sales while consistently delivering high level of service.

• Maintains successful performance by increasing revenues, controlling expenses and providing a return on investment for the owner and Marriott International.

• Interfaces with the Regional Marketing & eCommerce team to review collateral and execute the property’s marketing plan as well as pull through regional and national promotions.

• Performs other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs.

 

Building Successful Relationships

• Develops strong partnerships with local organizations to further increase brand/product awareness.

• Develops and manages internal key stakeholder relationships.

• Develops strong community and public relations by obtaining property participation in local, regional and national tradeshows and client events.

• Executes exemplary customer service to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty by assisting the customer and monitoring their satisfaction before and during their program/event.

• Serves the customer by understanding their needs and recommending the appropriate features and services that best meet their needs and exceed their expectations, while building a relationship and loyalty to Marriott.

• Gains understanding of the hotel’s primary target customer and service expectations; serves the customer by understanding their business, business issues and concerns, to offer better business solution both prior to, and during the program/event.

• Monitors the effective resolution of guest issues that arise as a result of the sales process by creating mechanisms to channel issues to property leadership and/or other appropriate stakeholders.

• Develops strategic working relationships with leaders of these sales channels in order to proactively position and drive sales to the property.

 

Leadership

• Functions as the business leader of the property’s sales department for properties with bookings exceeding parameters of the Group Sales teams within the Sales Office.

• Coaches leaders of revenue generating departments in developing effective revenue strategies and setting aggressive goals that will drive the property's financial performance.

• Develops sales goals and strategies and creates alignment with the brand business strategy.

• Verifies that Sales team understands and is leveraging Marriott International (MI) demand engines to full potential.

• Works with Human Resources, Engineering and Loss Prevention to maintain compliance with local, state and federal regulations and/or union requirements.

• Partners with Human Resources to attract, develop and retain the right people in order to support the strategic priorities of the market.

• Verifies that effective structures, processes, jobs and performance management systems are in place.

• Sets goals and expectations for direct reports using the Leadership Performance Process (LPP), aligns performance and rewards, appropriately address performance issues and holds staff accountable for successful results.

• Forecasts talent needs and manages talent acquisition strategy with Human Resources (HR) to minimize lost time due to turnover.

• Keeps an active list of the competition’s best sales people and executes a recruitment and acquisition plan with HR.

• Champions leadership development and workforce planning priorities by assessing, selecting, retaining and developing diverse, high-caliber talent that can lead the organization today and strengthen the leadership bench for the future; continues to upgrade the sales talent; works with HR to anticipate future talent needs based on business growth plans.

• Identifies, trains and mentors group sales associates; utilizes all available on the job training tools for associates.

• Transfers functional knowledge and develops group sales skills of other discipline managers.

• Provides day to day leadership to a small team of on-property sales associates and pulls through a number of above-property sales channels (e.g., Market Sales, Sales Office) in order to achieve hotel sales objectives, booking goals and property revenues.