Director Catering Sales

About the Role

The Ritz-Carlton is seeking a Director Catering Sales to lead the property's Catering Sales Department. This full-time role involves managing both reactive and proactive catering sales efforts, with shared responsibility for achieving revenue goals, ensuring guest and associate satisfaction, and overseeing the financial performance of the department. The Director will implement the brand’s service strategy and applicable initiatives throughout the sales process, providing daily leadership to a team of on-property catering sales associates.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage catering sales efforts for the hotel, including local and group/convention business.
• Solicit and book local catering business, and develop group business opportunities.
• Develop and manage catering sales revenue and operational budgets, providing forecasting reports.
• Collaborate with the management team to create and implement a catering sales/marketing plan focused on revenue, customers, and market.
• Develop menus that drive sales and assist with the selling, implementation, and follow-through of catering promotions.
• Execute and support Marriott’s Customer Service Standards and the hotel’s Brand Standards.
• Oversee the operational aspects of booked business, including generating proposals, writing contracts, and managing customer correspondence.
• Coordinate and deploy on-property catering sales resources to ensure the pull-through and sustainment of catering sales strategies and solutions.
• Ensure a seamless turnover from sales to operations and back to sales, consistently delivering a high level of service.
• Monitor the effective resolution of guest issues arising from the sales process.
• Maintain successful performance by increasing revenues, controlling expenses, and providing a return on investment.

Building Relationships

• Interact effectively with guests/clients, sales and kitchen teams, vendors, competitors, the local community, catering associations, and other hotel departments to monitor guest satisfaction.
• Provide exemplary customer service to drive satisfaction and loyalty by assisting customers and monitoring their satisfaction before and during their program/event.
• Understand customer needs and recommend appropriate features and services that meet and exceed expectations, fostering loyalty to Marriott.
• Partner with key stakeholders within Area Sales to receive warm leads for in-depth qualification.
• Collaborate with Event Management and hotel operations to sell products and services that the hotel can successfully execute.

Leadership and Team Management

• Manage and direct on-property catering sales managers to achieve hotel revenue goals by targeting high-value accounts and implementing effective sales deployment strategies.
• Partner with Human Resources to attract, develop, and retain talent that supports strategic priorities.
• Set goals and expectations for direct reports, align performance and rewards, address performance issues, and hold staff accountable for results.
• Forecast talent needs and manage talent acquisition strategy with HR to minimize turnover.
• Support tools and training resources to educate sales associates on catering solutions.
• Champion leadership development and workforce planning by assessing, selecting, retaining, and developing diverse, high-caliber talent.
• Identify, train, and mentor catering sales associates, and transfer functional knowledge to other discipline managers.

Qualifications and Experience

• 2-5 years of experience in a relevant field.
• Demonstrated ability to manage sales activities and achieve revenue goals.
• Experience in developing and managing budgets and providing forecasting reports.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to manage and develop a team.
• Strong interpersonal skills for building successful relationships with guests, clients, and internal teams.

Company Culture

The Ritz-Carlton is committed to delivering exceptional luxury service, guided by its "Gold Standards." Associates are empowered to be creative, thoughtful, and compassionate, contributing to a culture that values diverse backgrounds and experiences. This role offers the opportunity to be part of a global brand leader in luxury hospitality within the Marriott International portfolio.