Sales Specialist

JOB SUMMARY The Sales Specialist is responsible for providing temporary sales support to theArea 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. BUSINESS CONTEXT In early 2005, C3 was initiated by senior Sales & Marketing Leadership to assess the value of theSales & Marketing activities to better allocateresources (people, technology, sales engines) to drive preference, premiums and profits. This initiative was driven to support the Sales & Marketing vision to be the most innovative, world class team focused on leveraging core values and culture to drive profitable revenue, customer preference and loyalty,market share to create and maintain sustainable competitive advantage. A major recommendation of C3 is to develop a sales model to better leverage the sales resources and extend reach to more customers. The new model, called Sales Force One, reflects the common mission of one sales team, Global and Area Sales working together to serve the needs of customers. The fundamentals of the new model include 1) shifting more reactive leads to the Sales Offices to free property sales resources to play a more proactive role in customer relationship management, 2) redeploying off-property and on-property sales resources againsthigh-value opportunities, 3) sharing sales resources, when appropriate, to eliminate intra-Marriott competition and duplication of effort, and 4) ensuring compensation and incentives are aligned with the needs of the hotels. The Sales Force One model was launched in Washington D.C. in 2007 with implementation in other markets to follow during 2008 and beyond. JOB SPECIFIC TASKS 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, theposition 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 roomparameters. - 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. - Usenegotiating 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 ensurethe property needs are being achieved and the salesefforts are complementary, not duplicative. - Assist with selling, implementation and follow-through ofgroup 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 salessupport 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 - Workcollaboratively 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. Penetrateassigned 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 SFA and in SAPP. - Perform other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs. CANDIDATE PROFILE Education and Experience Required: - High school diploma or GED; 4years experience in the sales and marketing, guest services, front desk, or related professional area. OR - 2-year degree from an accredited universityin 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 andRestaurant Management. - Lodging sales experience.- Account management experience. - Multi-brand experience - Marriott sales systems experience (e.g. SFAWeb, MRDW, MarRFP) Skills and Knowledge - Analytical/Critical Thinking - The ability to gather and organize information using a logical and systematic process; recognize patterns and relationships in complexdata; examine data to identify implications, problems and draw appropriate conclusions; generate alternative solutions to problems; evaluate strengths, weaknesses and consequences of alternative solutions and approaches to solving problems. - Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. Thisincludes customer needs assessment, meeting qualitystandards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. - Economics and Accounting - Knowledgeof economic and accounting principles and practices, P&L statements, operating budgets, forecastingand scheduling, and the reporting of financial data. - Management of Financial Resources - Determines how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures. - Revenue Management- Knowledge of total hotel revenue management concepts, processes and strategies (including sales cycles and trends, account management, pricing, and inventory management). - Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems. Knowledgeof ecommerce and marketing solutions. - Technology Solutions - Familiarity with and ability to sell technology solutions. - Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents. - Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience. - Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. - Basic Computer Skills - Using basic computer hardware and software (e.g., personal computers, word processing software, Internet browsers, etc.). - Number Facility - The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly. - Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems. - Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about products, services or situations, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.