Sales Specialist
At Marriott we can make it happen – with opportunities for building new skills, co-workers who share your enthusiasm and clear career paths that offer experience for growth and promotion. Whether you are a seasoned hospitality professional or just beginning to plan your career, we invite you to discover Marriott.
Position:
Full Time, Employee
Location:
Louisville, Ky 40201
Job Description
Marriott International offers you the opportunity to find the hospitality job and career journey that's right for you. With more than 1100 managed properties and 17 brands you'll find us in your neighborhood and in more than 71 countries across the globe. Find Your World™ at Marriott.
This position will be based in Kentucky but will involve travel with in the Northern Mid-America Region (60% Travel)
JOB SUMMARY
The Sales Specialist is responsible for providing temporary sales support to the Area Sales organization as well as individual hotels. The position will serve a bench function to account for staffing changes resulting from turnover, leaves of absence, or extended vacation leave for property and area sales executives. Assignments may also include: sales support for new hotel openings, renovation and repositioning support, and temporary sales support for priority hotels identified by the regional team. The incumbent is responsible for driving customer loyalty by delivering service excellence throughout each customer experience. This position requires excellent selling skills, strong communication skills, and a detailed understanding of each sales channel and the business processes that support the overall sales organization.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
Education and Experience
Required:
· High school diploma or GED; 4 years experience in the sales and marketing, guest services, front desk, or related professional area.
OR
· 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; 2 years experience in the sales and marketing or related professional area.
Preferred:
· 4-year bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management.
· Lodging sales experience.
· Account management experience.
· Multi-brand experience
· Marriott sales systems experience (e.g. SFAWeb|CI, MRDW, MarRFP)
CORE WORK ACTIVITIES
The Sales Specialist has overall responsibility for providing temporary support for the Area Sales team as well as individual hotels at the direction of Area Sales leadership. Overall, the position is accountable for the following:
Hotel Responsibilities
· Perform all duties of the Senior Sales Executive or Destination Sales Executive based on assignment due to absence/vacancy at the hotel.
Senior Sales Executive Duties
· Achieve group revenue goals by responding to incoming group opportunities for the hotel that are over sales office peak room parameters.
· Understand the overall market - competitors' strengths and weaknesses, economic trends, supply and demand etc. and know how to sell against them.
· Close the best opportunities for the hotel based on market conditions and hotel needs.
· Use negotiating skills and creative selling abilities to close on business and negotiate contracts.
· Partner with Area Sales to identify new group/catering business and achieve personal and hotel revenue goals.
· Work collaboratively with off-property sales channels (e.g., Sales Office, Area Sales, EST) to ensure the property needs are being achieved and the sales efforts are complementary, not duplicative.
· Assist with selling, implementation and follow-through of group sales promotions.
· Attend pre- and post-convention meetings to understand group needs, obtain feedback on quality of product (e.g., rooms, meeting facilities and equipment, food and beverage), service levels and overall satisfaction.
· Partner with Event Management and/or Operations in providing a customer experience that exceeds the customer's expectations.
· Serve 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.
Destination Sales Executive Duties
· Coordinate and execute all site inspections/visits on property for Account Executives, Sales Office Managers, and Remotes
· Provide coordination support for site inspections executed by on-property sales associates
· Partner with account/selling manager to develop creative aspects of site visit
· Gather all important customer data from account/selling manager in order to plan appropriately (e.g. customers goals, specific needs, key account info, etc.)
· Prepare all sales and operational staff for upcoming site inspections
· Understand competitor's strengths and weaknesses in order to differentiate Marriott from the competition during the site visit
· Provide expert knowledge on local destination (i.e. local attractions, events, etc)
New Hotel Opening/Renovation/Repositioning Support Duties
· Provide sales support for individual hotels during pre-opening and renovation timelines.
· Coordinate with all sales channels to educate selling engines on property attributes and business needs
· Ensure echannels and websites are updated with accurate detail about the property.
· Provide other sales support as needed, upon direction from GM or sales leadership, within the overall sales strategy
Sales Support for Priority Hotels
· Under direction of sales leadership, drive sales to identified property
· Partner with Business Development and Area Sales team to pull-through local business from neighborhood targets and small business accounts
· Coordinate with account executives to pull-through business from out-of-market accounts to identified hotel
· Understand competitive market and identify share shift opportunities
· Work collaboratively with Area Sales Leader and Sales Office opportunity management team to ensure sales efforts are coordinated, complementary, and not duplicative.
· Perform other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs.
Area Sales Responsibilities
· Provide temporary support for account executives and senior account executives based on assignment due to absence/vacancy on the team.
· Understand segment strategy and customer accounts to be covered.
· Execute strategy for assigned accounts to achieve goals of stakeholder hotels while growing revenues for Marriott outside the market.
· Retain, expand and grow account revenue of existing accounts through total account penetration, margin management, and implementation of sales and marketing initiatives. Penetrate assigned accounts for group, transient, extended stay and catering sales business. Maintain current business relationships for new business within accounts.
· Gain understanding of the hotel's primary target customer and service expectations; serve the customer by understanding their business, business issues and concerns, to offer better business solutions both prior to, and during the program/event.
· Leverage appropriate corporate (e.g., Sales Marketing Planning and Support) and market resources (e.g., area leadership, sales office, property leadership) to ensure account saturation, pull-through of account strategies and selling solutions at the local property level. Partner with EST stakeholders, as required, to identify sales strategies for potential new accounts.
· Develop a close working relationship with operations to ensure execution of strategies at the hotel level
· Maintain accurate and up-to-date customer, account and opportunity data in SFAWeb//CI and in SAPP.
· Perform other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs.
Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture.
To begin your journey. go to www.marriott.com/careers
Marriott is consistently recognized as an employer of choice by Working Mother, DiversityInc.and LatinaStyle magazines among others. FORTUNE magazine recognized Marriott as one of its “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the twelfth consecutive year.
Marriott is an equal opportunity employer committed to employing a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture