Director, Member Development | Full-Time | University of Kansas Social Club

Oak View Group•Lawrence, KS

10d

About The Position

The Director, Member Development leads membership sales and market development for the new University of Kansas Social Club. This entrepreneurial, hands-on role builds the membership base, prospect pipeline, community presence, and sales infrastructure from the ground up. The Director leads pre-opening membership acquisition, Founding Member recruitment, business development, prospecting, tours, events, partnerships, and conversion, while establishing systems, communications, processes, and market relationships to support a successful Club launch. During the pre-opening and early opening phases, the Director also takes an active role in membership communications, promotional execution, prospect and member updates, and local marketing coordination until additional Club and marketing support is established. Success is measured by member acquisition and revenue, Founding Member and opening targets, pipeline growth, conversion rates, market awareness, partnerships, CRM execution, and membership readiness. The role pays an annual salary of $65,000–$85,000 and is commission eligible.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Hospitality, Sports Management, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
5–7+ years of experience in sales, business development, membership sales, hospitality sales, fundraising, sponsorship sales, or relationship-based revenue generation.
Demonstrated success meeting or exceeding sales, revenue, and growth goals.
Strong proactive prospecting, networking, relationship-building, presentation, negotiation, and closing skills.
Ability to build a sales pipeline and market presence from the ground up rather than relying primarily on established inbound lead flow.
Ability to identify priorities, create a plan, and execute independently without significant day-to-day direction.
Strong written communication skills, including the ability to draft polished prospect, member, event, and stakeholder communications.
Experience developing strategic partnerships and converting relationships into measurable business opportunities.
Experience managing a sales pipeline and maintaining accurate CRM records.
Ability to manage multiple workstreams in a fast-moving opening environment with evolving timelines, information, and priorities.
Strong judgment, follow-through, accountability, attention to detail, and sense of ownership.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings and weekends, as required for networking, tours, Club events, university activities, and member engagement.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM platforms.
New business, new venue, pre-opening, grand opening, or market-launch experience.
Experience in private clubs, hospitality, university athletics, alumni relations, fundraising, sponsorship sales, chambers of commerce, or membership-based organizations.
Experience establishing community and corporate partnerships.
Experience planning and executing lead-generation events, open houses, tours, or experiential sales initiatives.
Experience writing and executing customer, prospect, or member communications.
Experience working across multiple departments and external stakeholders in a deadline-driven environment.
Knowledge of consultative or relationship-based sales methodologies.

Responsibilities

Achieve pre-opening, monthly, quarterly, and annual membership sales, initiation fee, dues, and net growth goals.
Own the membership sales cycle, from lead generation and prospecting through tours, consultation, closing, enrollment, and initial onboarding.
Conduct Club tours, hard-hat tours, presentations, virtual consultations, community presentations, and sales appointments.
Maintain consistent outbound prospecting through calls, emails, texts, networking, LinkedIn, referrals, and other lead-generation channels.
Maintain an accurately forecasted pipeline, establish prospect follow-up strategies, and improve conversion rates at each stage of the sales process.
Build the Club’s presence within the university, alumni network, business community, and surrounding market before opening.
Develop relationships with university departments, athletics, alumni organizations, donors, faculty and staff groups, corporate partners, chambers of commerce, professional organizations, local businesses, and community leaders.
Develop partnerships and corporate or department membership opportunities that generate measurable leads and revenue.
Create prospecting lists and targeted outreach strategies, and represent the Club at university, alumni, athletics, business, networking, and community events.
Lead pre-opening membership communications, including prospect and early-member updates, emails, invitations, event communications, follow-up messages, sales campaigns, and promotional outreach.
Coordinate with regional and corporate marketing partners on creative development, digital advertising, social media, public relations, and university communications.
Own membership strategy and sales execution for pre-opening events, open houses, preview events, community activations, hard-hat tours, and Founding Member events.
Set event objectives, audiences, invitation and registration plans, staffing, sales touchpoints, lead capture, and post-event conversion strategies.
Coordinate events with operations, culinary, marketing, university partners, athletics, and other stakeholders; track results and refine event strategy based on performance.
Represent membership priorities throughout the Club opening process and coordinate with Club leadership, operations, culinary, marketing, regional leadership, university partners, athletics, and other stakeholders.
Communicate changes affecting sales, prospects, or members; own membership action items; and identify and resolve gaps in the prospective and new-member experience.
Build relationships with early and Founding Members, support loyalty and advocacy, and ensure members understand their benefits, Club access, programming, and next steps.
Support the transition from pre-opening acquisition to sustainable post-opening membership growth and retention.
Maintain accurate prospect, membership, revenue, and sales activity records in Salesforce and other required systems, including lead stages, sources, activity history, next steps, and follow-up dates.
Report sales activities and KPIs, maintain forecasts, identify risks to goals, track acquisition channels, and provide pipeline, sales, conversion, revenue, event, and launch-readiness updates to Club and regional leadership.
Use performance data to adjust prospecting, follow-up, events, partnerships, and marketing efforts.