About the Role
Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts is seeking a Director of Sales & Marketing to lead sales efforts for properties with substantial booking volumes and local catering revenue. This leadership position is integral to achieving property sales objectives, meeting booking goals, and maximizing hotel revenues. The role involves implementing brand service strategies, cultivating long-term customer relationships, and strategically positioning and marketing the property across various sales channels.
The Director of Sales & Marketing will manage the marketing budget to develop targeted campaigns and promotions, ensuring alignment with regional marketing communications and overall brand initiatives. This position is key to developing and executing property-wide strategies that meet customer expectations, deliver a strong return on investment for owners, and uphold Marriott International's standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the property's sales department, particularly for properties with over 300 peak rooms and significant local catering revenue.
- Manage reactive and proactive sales efforts to achieve sales objectives and booking goals.
- Provide day-to-day leadership and coaching to sales associates to ensure they achieve property sales objectives and contribute to revenue targets.
- Implement the brand's service strategy and applicable brand initiatives throughout the sales process.
- Build long-term, value-based customer relationships to achieve hotel sales objectives.
- Evaluate participation in various sales channels and develop strong working relationships to position and market the property.
- Manage the marketing budget to develop property-specific campaigns, promotions, and collateral to drive revenue and meet objectives.
- Interface with regional marketing communications for the pull-through of regional and national promotions.
- Develop and implement 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.
- Ensure a return on investment for the owner and Marriott International.
- Develop a strategic account plan for market demand generators.
- Determine and develop marketing communication activities in conjunction with Regional Marketing Communications.
- Provide customer intelligence by evaluating market and economic trends that may lead to changes in sales strategy.
- Review the Strategic Alignment Review (STAR) report and competitive shopping reports to maintain awareness of the hotel’s market position.
- Research competitor sales team strategies to identify opportunities to grow occupancy, RevPAR, and increase market share.
- Attend sales strategy meetings to provide input on weekly and overall sales strategy.
- Suggest innovative marketing ideas and develop deployment strategies to grow market share.
- Evaluate and support participation and account deployment with Area Sales and Group Sales within the Sales Office.
- Serve as the primary sales contact for the General Manager, property leadership team, Group Sales, and Area Sales leaders.
- Act as the sales contact for customers and serve as the customer advocate.
- Serve as the hotel authority on sales processes and sales contracts.
- Act as the property sales liaison with Area Sales, Group Sales, Revenue Management, Event Management, Regional Marketing Communications, and other hotel departments.
- Participate in sales calls with members of the Sales and Marketing team to acquire new business and/or close on business.
- Identify public relations opportunities and coordinate activities to augment the overall marketing communication strategy.
- Support the General Manager by coordinating crisis communications.
- Execute and support Marriott International's Customer Service Standards and the hotel’s Brand Standards.
- Execute and support the operational aspects of business booked, including generating proposals, writing contracts, and customer correspondence.
- Participate in and practice daily service basics of the brand.
- Implement 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 by channeling issues to property leadership or other appropriate stakeholders.
- Maintain successful performance by increasing revenues, controlling expenses, and providing a return on investment.
- Develop strong partnerships with local organizations to further increase brand/product awareness.
- Develop and manage internal key stakeholder relationships.
- Develop strong community and public relations by maintaining property participation in local, regional, and national tradeshows and client events.
- Execute exemplary customer service to drive customer 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 best meet their needs and exceed expectations, while building loyalty to Marriott.
- Gain an understanding of the hotel’s primary target customer and service expectations, offering better business solutions to customers.
- Develop sales goals and strategies and verify alignment with the brand business strategy.
- Execute the sales strategy to meet individual booking goals for self and staff.
- Coach leaders of revenue-generating departments in developing effective revenue strategies and setting aggressive goals.
- Verify that the Sales team understands and is leveraging Marriott International (MI) demand engines to their full potential.
- Work with Human Resources, Engineering, and Loss Prevention to monitor compliance with local, state, and federal regulations and/or union requirements.
- Partner with Human Resources to attract, develop, and retain talent to support strategic market priorities.
- Ensure effective structures, processes, jobs, and performance management systems are in place.
- Set goals and expectations for direct reports using the Leadership Performance Process (LPP), align performance and rewards, address performance issues, and hold staff accountable for successful results.
- Forecast talent needs and manage the talent acquisition strategy with Human Resources to minimize lost time due to turnover.
- Maintain an active list of the competition’s best sales people and execute a recruitment and acquisition plan with HR.
- Support tools and training resources to educate sales associates on winning catering solutions.
- Champion leadership development and workforce planning priorities by assessing, selecting, retaining, and developing diverse, high-caliber talent.
- Identify, train, and mentor group sales associates, utilizing all available on-the-job training tools.
- Transfer functional knowledge and develop group sales skills of other discipline managers.
- Perform other duties as assigned to meet business needs.
Qualifications and Requirements
- A 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or a related major, coupled with 4 years of experience in sales and marketing or a related professional area.
- OR A 4-year bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or a related major, coupled with 2 years of experience in sales and marketing or a related professional area.
- Demonstrated skills in supervising a team.
- Lodging sales experience.
- Hotel industry work experience, demonstrating progressive career growth and a pattern of exceptional performance.
Required Skills
- Sales
- Marketing
- Leadership
- Customer Relationship Management
- Budget Management
- Marketing Budget Management
- Revenue Generation
- Customer Service
- Sales Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Team Supervision
Work Environment and Location
This is a full-time, management position located in Said Bin Al Aas, Al Jamiah, Almadinah Almunawwarah, Saudi Arabia, 42351. The role is not remote.
Marriott International is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We value the unique backgrounds of our associates and foster an environment where all are welcomed and provided access to opportunity. We are committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis, including disability, veteran status, or other basis protected by applicable law.