Director of Sales & Marketing

JOB SUMMARY

Functions as the leader of the property’s sales department for properties with bookings over 300 peak rooms and significant local catering revenue. Manages the property's reactive and proactive sales efforts. Provides day to day leadership to sales associates to achieve property sales objectives with overall responsibility for achieving booking goals and property revenues. Implements the brand’s service strategy and applicable brand initiatives in all aspects of the sales process and focuses on building long-term, value-based customer relationships that enable achievement of the hotel’s’ sales objectives. Evaluates the property’s participation in the various sales channels (e.g., Area Sales, Group Sales within the Sales Office, electronic lead channels, etc.) and develops strong working relationships to proactively position and market the property. Manages the marketing budget to enable development of property specific campaigns, promotions and collateral to drive revenue and meet property objectives. Interfaces with regional marketing communications for regional and national promotions pull through. 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

• Prior experience with Marriott is highly desirable 
• Experience leading the sales and marketing function for an international hotel chain
• Local Christchurch knowledge would be an advantage 
• New Zealand working rights preferred
   

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

Managing Sales Activities

• Manages the development of a strategic account plan for the demand generators in the market.

• Manages the property's reactive and proactive sales efforts.

• Determines and develops marketing communication activities, in conjunction with Regional Marketing Communications.

• 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 Strategic Alignment Review (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.

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

• Evaluates and supports participation and account deployment with Area Sales and Group Sales within the Sales Office.

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

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

• Serves as hotel authority on sales processes and sales contracts.

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

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

• Identifies public relations opportunities and coordinates activities to 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 (e.g., , Marriott Hotels and Resorts (MHR) Spirit to Serve Daily Basics, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts (RHR) Savvy Service Basics, Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn Basics of the Day, Residence Inn Daily Huddle, or TownePlace Suites Morning Meeting).

• Implements a seamless turnover from sales to operations and back to sales while consistently delivering high level of service.

• 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.

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

• Implements the brand’s service strategy and applicable brand initiatives in all aspects of the sales process and focuses on building long-term, value-based customer relationships that enable achievement of the hotel’s’ sales objectives.

• Interfaces with regional marketing communications for regional and national promotions pull through.

• 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 maintaining 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.

Leadership

• Functions as the leader of the property’s sales department for properties with bookings over 300 peak rooms and significant local catering revenue.

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

• Executes the sales strategy in order to meet individual booking goals for both self and staff.

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

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

• Works with Human Resources, Engineering and Loss Prevention to monitor 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.

• Creates 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, addresses 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.

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

• Supports tools and training resources to educate sales associates on winning catering solutions.

• 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 & marketing 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 sales associates to achieve property sales objectives with overall responsibility for achieving booking goals and property revenues.

• Evaluates the property’s participation in the various sales channels (e.g., Area Sales, Group Sales within the Sales Office, electronic lead channels, etc.) and develops strong working relationships to proactively position and market the property.

• Manages the marketing budget to enable development of property specific campaigns, promotions and collateral to drive revenue and meet property objectives.