JOB SUMMARY
The Director of Sales and Marketing is the leader of the sales and marketing strategy for the hotel. This role leverages a deep undstanding of the marketing and sales channesl that drive business in order to maximize property sales from an occupancy, market share, profit, customer engagement, and overall best stay experience for our guests. This leader should have in-depth understanding of proactive and reactive sales strategy, and take initiative to create programs that maximize sales in relevant channels. The Director of Sales and Marketing monitors property participation in and yield from sales channels (e.g., Property Sales, Marriott.com, Online Travel Agencies, and other Intermediaries) and develops strong working relationships to proactively position and market the property.
The Director of Sales and Marketing provides oversight to marketing and communication resources for the hotel, and is chiefly responsible for planning, building, and enabling their team to execute on its brand(s) marketing strategy. This leader takes care to ensure his/her team effectively promotes the hotel in traditional, online, and PR channels. This role serves as a key point of connectivity for the global sales strategy and the global brand marketing and ecommerce strategies; balancing the execution of these plans in a way that drives profit for the owners and awareness for the brand.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
Education and Experience
Required:
• 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; 6 years experience in the sales and marketing or related professional area
OR
• 4-year bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; 4 years experience in the sales and marketing or related professional area.
Preferred:
• Demonstrated skills in supervising a team
• Lodging sales experience
• Hotel industry work experience, demonstrating progressive career growth and a pattern of exceptional performance
• Marketing, communications, public relations, and/or digital marketing experience strongly preferred
CORE WORK ACTIVITIES
Strategic Sales Leadership
• Evaluates the property’s participation in the various sales channels (e.g., Property Sales, Marriott.com, Online Travel Agencies, and other Intermediaries, Group Sales within the Sales Office) and develops strong working relationships to proactively position and market the property.
• Manages the property's reactive and proactive sales efforts.
• Sets online sales goals at the property level (M.com RNs, OTA RNs, and up-to-date eAction Plan), hold teams accountable for achieving them, and supports the administration of incentive plans to reward performance.
• Executes the sales strategy in order to meet individual booking goals for both self and staff.
• Uses customer insights 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, RevPAR, market share, and drive a healthy mix of sales through digital and voice channels.
• Attends sales strategy meetings to provide input on weekly and overall sales strategy.
• Evaluates and supports participation and account deployment with Global Sales teams.
• Serves as the sales contact for the General Manager, property leadership team, Group Sales and Area Sales leaders, customers, and owners.
• Serves as hotel authority on sales processes and sales contracts.
• Serves as a property sales liaison with Area Sales, Group Sales, Revenue Management, Event Management, Regional Marketing Communications, eCommerce 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.
• Executes and supports the operational aspects of business booked (e.g., generating proposal, writing contract, customer correspondence).
• 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.
Marketing Strategy
• Aligns property-level efforts with the overall Regional and Corporate Marketing strategy .
• Oversees the creation and execution of marketing communication campaigns to drive property business in conjunction with Regional Marketing Communications and PR.
• Suggests innovative marketing ideas and develops deployment strategies to continue to grow market share and online bookings/business.
• Interfaces with regional marketing communications for regional and national promotions pull through.
• Advises and guides the Director of Marketing Communications on the development of the annual marketing plan and budget.
• Manages the marketing budget to enable development of property specific campaigns, promotions and collateral to drive revenue and meet property objectives.
• Develops an integrates digital and traditional plans for all direct consumer contact (e.g, mailing; emailing) activities.
• Works with cluster eCommerce to determine and develop eCommerce activities.
• Verifies that the hotel is taking part in approved eChannels and verifies that marketing resources on property work with cluster eCommerce to execute eChannel marketing tactics
• Critiques online performance of the hotel using available tools (ECM Reports, eAction Plan and eCommerce Evaluation Tool).
• Manages property social media content for local area promotions.
• Drives alignment and integration between the different sales & marketing departments.
Communication and PR Activities
• Identifies public relations opportunities and coordinates activities to augment the overall marketing communication strategy.
• Supports the General Manager by supporting the coordination of crisis communications.
• Develops strong community and public relations by maintaining property participation in local, regional and national tradeshows and client events.
Building Successful Relationships
• Develops strong partnerships with local organizations to further increase brand awareness.
• Develops and manages internal key stakeholder relationships across sales, marketing, digital, and operations organization.
• Builds strong property relationships with the top Online Travel Agency (OTA) accounts for the hotel.
• Executes exemplary customer service to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty by assisting the customer and monitoring their satisfaction before and during their program/event.
• Gains understanding of the hotel’s primary target customer and service expectations.
General Leadership Activities
• Functions as the leader of the property’s Sales and Marketing department and provides day to day leadership to associates to achieve property sales and marketing objectives.
• Partners with leaders of revenue generating departments in developing effective revenue strategies and setting aggressive goals that will drive the property's financial performance.
• Verifies Sales and Marketing team understands and is leveraging Marriott International (MI) demand engines to full potential.
• Partners with Human Resources to attract, develop and retain the right talent 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.
• Maintains an active list of the competition’s best sales and marketing people and executes a recruitment and acquisition plan with HR.
• Works with HR to anticipate future talent needs based on business growth plans.
• Identifies, trains and mentors Sales and Marketing associates; utilizes all available on the job training tools for associates.
• Transfers functional knowledge and develops sales & marketing knowledge of different discipline managers.
• Executes and supports Marriott’s Customer Service Standards and hotel’s Brand Standards.
At Marriott International, we are dedicated to being an equal opportunity employer, welcoming all and providing access to opportunity. We actively foster an environment where the unique backgrounds of our associates are valued and celebrated. Our greatest strength lies in the rich blend of culture, talent, and experiences of our associates. We are committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis, including disability, veteran status, or other basis protected by applicable law.