Director of Sales

Legacy Ventures•Gatlinburg, TN

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Sales will lead the hotel's sales department. This position will report to the General Manager and work closely with the hotel's department heads. The role involves planning, leading, managing, and selling to drive sales and catering revenues to reach and exceed annual goals. This includes developing strategic and promotional plans, establishing sales objectives, creating sales action plans, and monitoring performance. The Director of Sales will also manage customer contracts, ensure billing and credit procedures are followed, and provide leadership to the sales department, including hiring, training, coaching, and performance management of sales staff. A significant portion of the role involves proactively soliciting new business, retaining existing business, building and generating new leads, and conducting various sales activities such as calls, presentations, and site visits. Attending trade shows and participating in sales blitzes are also key responsibilities.

Requirements

Minimum of two years’ work experience as a branded hotel Director of Sales is required, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Must have exceptional customer service skills.
Demonstrate ability to perform multiple tasks in a busy environment and remain flexible.
Ability to work well in a team environment.
Must possess excellent written, verbal, and organizational skills.
Computer literacy and financial management a must.
Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos.
Ability to write simple correspondence.
Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other associates of the organization.
Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.
Ability to apply commonsense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form.
Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.

Nice To Haves

Degree from a four-year college or university preferred.
Market, BT and pre-opening experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Assist in the production of annual business and marketing plans as well as revenue and sales department expense budgets.
Develop and execute strategic and promotional plans to drive sales and catering revenues to reach/exceed annual goals.
Establish both annual and monthly sales objectives in coordination with the Company's business plan.
Develop sales action plans; continuously monitor performance to plan and make effective adjustments in order to meet and exceed targets.
Keep up-to-date with industry knowledge as well as the competitive positioning of the hotel and fully integrate into local CVBs to capitalize business that comes into the local market.
Develop forecasts and budgets in accordance with prescribed schedule and Company standards that maximize revenues through the most effective mix of business.
Monitor and influence revenue channels to ensure the proper market segmentation and rate/occupancy and catering rooms-to-space and free sell strategies are in place to reach/exceed revenue goals.
Perform as the driver of all revenue and ensure quarterly and annual revenue goals are achieved.
Coordinate with front office team to assist with an “everybody sells” culture, obtain leads, recognize key accounts and frequent travelers.
Monitor, respond to and/or direct sales leads as appropriate.
Maintain efficient sales office procedures for productive use of time and ensure the maintenance of accurate and updated account files and follow-up procedures and to ensure the hotel is easy for clients to do business with.
Manage customer contracts to ensure that all contracts are executed according to Company standards, ensuring that standard contract language remains intact and contracts are executed appropriately to protect Company interests.
Ensure that billing, credit procedures and audit guidelines are followed.
Provide leadership to the day-to-day operations of the sales department, while maintaining focus on the company's strategic goals.
Lead, train and mentor sales staff including hiring, coaching development, performance evaluations, disciplinary actions and terminations.
Provide motivation, support, encouragement, and direction to all members of the sales department.
Hold sales team accountable to results and celebrate successes.
Proactively solicit new business opportunities by conducting effective sales calls, make out-of-the-office sales and presentations to potential clients in keeping with assigned market segment.
Resolicit and retain existing business by maintaining good client relationships and ensuring the hotel provides best-in-class meetings experiences.
Leverage reader board and agency subscriptions to identify opportunities.
Build/generate new leads to increase size of potential client database from cold calls and market prospecting to include, but not limited to: conventions, corporations, DMCs, tour operators, meeting planners, associations, film companies, political affiliations, SMERF (Social, Military, Educational, Religious and Fraternal) groups, concierges, organizations (i.e. Chamber of Commerce, MPI, etc.) etc.
Identify and penetrate new accounts.
Conduct inquiry calls, account maintenance, qualification calls, outside sales calls, site visits, concierge visits, and other sales activities; ensure that these activities are timely updated and logged in the Sales Database.
Attend local trade-shows, participate in sales blitzes and other off-site sales efforts.
Participate in executing all company-wide marketing initiatives.