Business Travel Sales Manager | JOB DESCRIPTION

LodgeWorks is actively hiring for a Business Travel Sales Manager

Who we are

LodgeWorks is a privately held hotel development and management company. While our name isn’t on the hotels themselves, our extraordinary culture is at the heart of our 18 hotels — including our award-winning Archer Hotel boutique collection and our portfolio of other great brands with familiar names, such as Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Aloft, Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton Inn.

We’re thrilled to be considered industry innovators with a rich 35 year history. Yet, what we are most proud of is the strong family culture we have developed and maintained while growing to 950 employees nationwide. At LodgeWorks, hospitality is more than just the industry in which we work; it defines everything we do. Maybe it’s because we’re grounded in Midwestern hospitality (our home office is in Wichita, Kansas, while our hotels are scattered across the U.S.). Or maybe it’s because we actively work to make hospitality (with each other, our guests, our clients and partners) the foundation upon which everything is built.

Job overview

The Business Travel Sales Manager is savvy, loves making new connections and is responsible for becoming familiar with all accounts in their market area and effectively maintaining those accounts while soliciting new accounts, which impacts hotel revenue. The Business Travel Sales Manager actively develops superior service skills in dealing with clients, guests and team members.

As a leader in the department, the Business Travel Sales Manager guides the team alongside the Director, assists with developing and implementing sales strategies to increase the company’s profit and motivates employees to hit sales goals.

In addition, the Business Travel Sales Manager ensures that sales activities and bookings are focused to yield maximum revenue per available guest room and any meeting or event space where applicable.

Your day-to-day

• In conjunction with the General Manager (GM) and/or Director of Sales, participate in regularly scheduled sales meetings that focus on the number of prospecting and existing calls to be made and the potential business results of these calls.
• Solicit assigned accounts to achieve or exceed budgeted rooms revenue and to improve performance of the brand in the marketplace.
• Oversee sales-related negotiations, including but not limited to concessions and contracted rate negotiations.
• Spends time prospecting and cold calling for new accounts and thoroughly saturating existing accounts.
• Meet or exceed all established sales goals.
• Monitor production of all top accounts and evaluate trends within the marketplace.
• Make sales appointments and cold calls to consistently prospect accounts for all direct sales segments (i.e., long-term business, short-term business and leisure).
• Successfully perform the sales process (i.e., establishing rapport, qualifying, meeting needs, handling objections and closing).
• Close new business from prospecting calls.
• Maintain a good working relationship with the existing client base and explore ways to increase revenue from this base.
• Invite clients to the hotel for site tours, lunches, etc., as well as traveling to off-site sales calls, meetings, conventions, activities, etc.
• Meet and greet on-site clients.
• Assist in implementing special promotions relating to direct sales segments (e.g., parties, sales blitzes).
• Abide by prime-time selling activities to optimize revenue-generating activities.
• React to negative trends in the marketplace by implementing blitzes and special corporate promotions.
• Develop extensive knowledge of the marketplace.
• Develop telemarketing and maintenance calls and trace appropriately.
• Accept the opportunity to change or give up established accounts for the good of the hotel.
• Participate in maximizing ADR and revenue by contributing in the rate mix meetings.
• Understand and utilize the sales tracking program.
• Keep all files current and organized.
• Follow up on all requests in a timely manner.
• Carry through all assigned tasks within the approved timeline.
• Assist with the completion of the hotel’s annual budget.
• Travel to meet clients and attend trade shows.
• Work a schedule of at least 40 hours per week, which may occasionally include weekends.
• Maintain and monitor production on assigned accounts.
• Monitor inventory and rate availability.
• Perform any other task or duties as requested by the GM.

Who you are

• A team player with a heart for hospitality.
• Entrepreneurial at heart and innovative in mind.
• A long-term thinker.
• Customer-focused, with guests, clients and employees at the forefront of your thinking.
• Nimble and able to adapt to change quickly.
• Committed to sharing and togetherness and value the family mindset of our organization.
• Aware that a good reputation is a huge asset to a hotel and committed to being a representative of that great reputation.
• Able to maintain composure and objectivity under pressure.
• A strong and confident negotiator.
• Comprehensively aware of how important relationships are and find joy in growing and maintaining new ones with clients and employees.
• An excellent communicator with stellar time-management skills.

· A self-starter with a strong work ethic who can work both individually and with a team.

• A leader by example, ready to motivate and inspire others.
• Passionate about closing the business and thinking creatively in order to win it.
• Ethical, with high integrity, respect and sense of community.
• Capable of exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally and up to 10 pounds of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.
• Fluent in English.
• A plus: Three years’ experience in hotel sales or a relevant field.
• A high school graduate with a diploma or equivalent.
• Able to drive, with a valid driver’s license for the applicable state.

Benefits

We are proud to offer competitive wages and the following benefits for full-time employees:

• PTO
• Hotel and restaurant discounts available at select LodgeWorks properties
• Health, vision and dental benefits 
• 401(k) plans with matching contributions 
• Paid holidays 
• Short-term and long-term disability (company sponsored) 
• Referral bonuses 
• Flexible spending accounts 

LodgeWorks is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.