VP, Business Development, Exhibits & Sponsorship Sales

American Bar Association

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The American Bankers Association (ABA) is seeking a VP, Business Development, Exhibits & Sponsorship Sales to lead the sales of conference sponsorships, exhibit space, and online opportunities. This role is part of ABA’s Member Experience division, which focuses on designing and delivering educational opportunities for bankers, including conferences, training, certifications, schools, and vendor relationships. The VP will lead a team responsible for maximizing revenue from exhibits and sponsorships at ABA events and will be a member of the ABA Partner Network. This position is accountable for bottom-line results and customer satisfaction within assigned core market segments, focusing on building profitable, long-term relationships with industry suppliers.

Requirements

12 - 15+ years’ experience working with vendors serving financial institutions.
12 - 15+ years’ experience selling conference and exhibit hall space; demonstrated success generating $5 million + in revenue required.
Extensive experience leading exhibit and sponsorship sales required.
12 - 15+ years’ experience designing unique experiences for corporate events.
12 - 15+ years’ experience managing a team to meet or exceed sales goals.
12 - 15+ years’ experience managing or providing delivery of services to vendors in a corporate event setting.
12- 15+ years’ experience successfully developing and managing annual budgets for multiple corporate events.
Strong familiarity experience selling to and servicing vendors serving financial institutions.
Experience selling and overseeing multiple events simultaneously.
Formalized sales training/use of established sales methodologies.
Experience leading a team required.
Vendor management required.
Ability to manage time effectively and successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Excellent relationship building, communication and collaboration skills, both in writing and orally.
Must have strong interpersonal skills and negotiation skills.
Highly creative and innovative.
Strong financial aptitude.
Excellent customer service skills and capabilities.
Ability to travel (20% – 50%) required.

Nice To Haves

Experience marketing events strongly preferred.
Experience with CRM tools, Salesforce strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead Business Development Sales Team – Create and manage a team of sales professionals who consistently meet or exceed commercial goals for sponsorships and exhibit space at ABA events. Manage team to milestones, coach to build upon strengths, ensure consistent performance as a unit.
Relationship Management and Sales - Establish and grow business relationships with companies and key industry providers in assigned segments. Serve as the primary point of contact for a small number of industry providers with large commercial relationships with ABA. Coordinate with the Leader of the Partner Network to ensure collaboration and an extraordinary member experience.
Create original experiences – Deliver a continuous stream of inventive, unique experiences in ABA meetings to keep bank members engaged in the exhibit hall. Develop new and creative approaches to creating exposure points for vendors to educate and interact with bank members.
Manage Vendor Relations - Manage ABA’s decorating company relationship. Develop exhibit hall floor plans, signage plans, experience zones, etc. Also manage ABA’s a2z relationship, this is our selling and contractual platform for exhibit and sponsorship sales.
Develop annual budget – Set aggressive but attainable revenue and expense goals as they pertain to revenue from sponsorship and exhibiting at ABA events. Prepare budgets. Analyze financial reports. Ensure that spending and budgeting are in line with business objectives and are relevant. Collaborate with individual event Program Managers to ensure a cohesive member experience and a consistent strategy within and across events. Develop processes to track and manage opportunity pipeline and streamline sales cycle. Monitor financials and report to management in a timely fashion.
Collaborate internally – Work with the ABA’s Partner Network, Large Accounts, and Office of Innovation to ensure awareness of vendor relationships across ABA.
Marketing – Clearly articulate marketing messages and priorities to drive attendance, participation, and support team effectiveness. Manage the marketing/communications function in assigned core segments.