Director of Sales

Marriott•Woodinville, WA

32d•$160,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

This position is for a Director of Sales at an Autograph Collection hotel, which is part of the Marriott International portfolio. The hotel is owned and operated by an independent franchisee, Columbia Hospitality. The Director of Sales will be responsible for preparing strategic plans and departmental budgets, aligning with the General Manager to achieve property goals. This role involves driving vision and purpose through department objectives, revenue strategies, team deployment, and individual goal targets. The position requires exceptional leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and the ability to manage through subordinates, diffusing and resolving conflict. The Director of Sales will conduct regular one-on-one meetings and quarterly evaluations with team members, and must meet and exceed expectations for department gross revenue, making quick adjustments if targets are not being achieved. Responsibilities include conducting industry research, analyzing property data, forecasting business volume, ensuring accurate production of financial reports, and managing group yielding efforts. The role also involves upholding departmental standards, implementing management systems, and providing overall direction, coordination, and leadership for team members. The Director of Sales will be the primary support for all group sales outreach, negotiations, contractual review, planning, and service, and will serve as the direct liaison to community organizations, city officials, industry associations, and public relations entities. Additionally, the Director of Sales will develop and maintain favorable working relationships and open communication with all departments. The role also includes hiring, developing, mentoring, and training department team members, developing a monthly department training program, conducting monthly department meetings, and implementing corrective action and reward programs.

Requirements

Minimum of 4-6 years of hospitality sales experience, or similar environment.
Possess extensive knowledge and expertise in sales and/or event management with extensive sales and negotiation skills.
The ability to solve practical problems when limited information is available.
Requirement for strong emotional intelligence and critical thinking capabilities.
Ability to lead and influence managers and large teams while placing a high priority on developing others.
Anticipates customer needs and provides services that are beyond customer expectations.
Takes an initiative-taking approach to address issues and avert conflict, resolve practical problems, and conflict resolution with limited standardized solutions.
Promotes a sense of urgency and establishes and enforces individual accountability in the team. Assumes the responsibility for the outcome of others.
Working knowledge of applicable laws, codes, and regulations.
Excellent communication skills, including proficiency in writing contracts, reports, business correspondence, and operations manuals, with the ability to present information effectively and respond to inquiries from team members, managers, clients, guests, or the public.
Ability to think creatively and develop innovative solutions or approaches.
Strong personal skills, including time management, information analysis, problem-solving, planning and organizing, decision making, problem solving, and delivery of results.
Strong interpersonal communication with the ability to identify, understand, and anticipate the emotions, concerns and thoughts of others.
Strong interpersonal influence skills, including coaching, motivating, delegating, and relationship-building.
Demonstrates a strong grasp of mathematical operations. Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all applicable units of measure, using whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, and percentages.
Analytical mindset and can utilize mathematical skills to assess data, identify trends, and draw meaningful insights that drive strategy and decision-making.
Creates strategy and is able to shift with immediacy based on market conditions.
Technical proficiency in Microsoft Office; Word, PowerPoint, Teams, OneNote, and Excel.
Proficiency in conducting client research, gathering relevant information, and staying updated on industry trends and developments.
Strong financial acumen understanding and creating various financial reports (P&L statement, PACE, budget) with knowledge of dynamic pricing and profitability.
Strong presentation skills in a clear and effective manner to a variety of stakeholders; owners, leaders, clients, and team members.
Ability to travel (including air or car, hotel overnight stays, and client entertainment.)

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of hospitality sales platforms a plus.

Responsibilities

Annually prepares internal prework, group strategic plans, and departmental revenue and expense budgets, aligning closely with the General Manager to achieve overall property goals.
Drives vision and purpose through department objectives, revenue driving strategies, team deployment and production goals, and individual goal targets.
Creates departmental objectives, team deployment strategies, production goals, and individual performance targets.
Conducts regular one-on-one meetings and quarterly evaluations with team members.
Meets and exceeds expectations for department gross revenue and is able to make quick adjustments if targets are not being achieved (examples; guest rooms, banquet, catering, misc. revenues).
Conducts industry research and property data analysis to forecast future business volume effectively.
Ensures the accurate production of monthly closing reports, owner’s reports, pace analytics, and forecasting reports.
Ensures the department adheres to accounting standards, including deposits, direct billing, and pre-payments.
Reports weekly achievements for prospecting, inquiries, activities, and industry events.
Reports monthly achievements ensuring financial accuracy across P&L, sales and event platforms, and deposits/accounts receivable.
Manages group yielding efforts with support from General Manager and Revenue Manager.
Maintains department standards and implements systems, including sales & event platform administration/management.
Provides overall direction, coordination, and leadership for team members.
Primary support for all group sales outreach, negotiations, contractual review, planning and service.
Direct liaison to all community organizations, city officials, industry associations and public relations entities.
Upholds departmental standards and implements management systems, including the administration of sales and event platforms.
Develops and maintains favorable working relationships and open communication with all departments.
Hires, develops, mentors, and trains department team members to ensure comprehensive competency in all relevant areas and identifying growth potential.
Develops a monthly department training program.
Conducts monthly department meetings.
Implements corrective action and feedback, when necessary, in a respective and constructive manner.
Implements reward programs.
Achieves departmental goals and objectives.
Contributes to revenue growth across assigned segments at a higher level.
Engages in client relationship building, including new business development and networking.
Meets prospecting and sales activity targets.
Responds to incoming RFPs (Requests for Proposals) within 24 hours.
Responsible for revenue forecasting.
Cultivates and maintains positive working relationships and open communication with all stakeholders.
Must adhere to Columbia Hospitality Policies and Procedures.