Located within the heart of Europe and one of the Brussel's most vibrant areas, Cardo Brussels Hotel is the new and trendy landmark in the neighborhood and the most distinctive luxury lifestyle hotel in the city, catering to both selective leisure guests and business travelers. The hotel will offer contemporary wellness and dining experiences, 532 stylish rooms & suites, as well as 1500m2 of MICE facilities and amenities.

Overall Job Purpose

• Oversees the performance management, coaching, recruiting and selection of the sales workforce, as well as any third-party contract services.

• Provides day-to-day leadership to the team of on-property active sales associates (e.g. sales manager(s) and sales coordinator(s)).

• Works with the Revenue Director, Marketing Director and General Manager to develop and manage the hotel’s sales and marketing budget.  Participates in revenue management strategies. 

• Implements the brand's strategy and applicable brand initiatives in all aspects of the sales process and focuses on building long-term, value-based customer relationships that enable achievement of the hotel's sales objectives.

• Evaluates the property's participation in the various sales channels (OTAs, Group, brand.com, RFPs, etc.) and develops strong relationships to proactively position and market the property.

 Competencies

• Action orientated with a drive for results

• Flamboyant personality

• A people-person

• Very effective communicator

• Influencer

• Positive approach

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

• Fluent in both English and French

• Strong understanding of MICE environment

• Internationally experienced

• Affinity with a more refined lifestyle

Candidate profile

Education and Experience

Minimum 4-year experience in similar role in comparable hotel property with sizeable rooms and meeting spaces.

Preferred:

• Has demonstrated the ability to always work on behalf of Guests

• Has demonstrated the ability to work with other Team Members

• Experience in presenting sales plans, presentations, etc. to senior level executives and constituent groups

• Strong commercial understanding including Sales, E-Commerce, and Finance

• Successful track record of working in a collaborative/matrixed environment

• Ability to evaluate and identify business opportunities for a business

Principal Accountabilities

Managing Sales Activities

1. Execute the hotel sales strategy and manages the property's sales effort.

2. Create and implement short-term and long-term sales goals with knowledge of the market.

3. Ensure the development of a strategy account plan for the demand generators in the market.

4. Develop, maintain, and implement the budgeting and forecasting process for your business unit.

5. Create a strategic plan for the Pre-opening, opening and positioning of the hotel.

6. Ensure focus is on proactive selling as well as reactive selling.

7. Manage Sales team - decide on the account deployment.

8. Attend revenue meetings to provide input on weekly and overall sales strategy.

9. Understand and contribute to overall revenue management initiatives and strategies to ensure we maximize every single revenue opportunity.

10. Serve as authority on sales processes and sales contracts.

11. Serve as the sales contact for customers; serves as the customer advocate.

12. Align with the Director of Marketing on communication activities based on need periods, booking patterns, feeder markets, and target customers.

13. Suggest innovative sales ideas and proactively develops deployment strategies to continue to grow market share.

14. Proactively participates in hotel direct sales effort by conducting sales calls with members of the Sales team to acquire new business and/or close on business.

15. Participate in main industry tradeshows, events, and FAM trips.

16. Execute and support Marriott's Brand Standards.

17. Execute and support the operational aspects of business booked (e.g., generating proposal, writing contracts, customer correspondence).

18. Participate in and practices daily service basics of the brand.

19. Verify that the property implements a seamless turnover from sales to operations.

20. Actively identify and engage key accounts to generate direct sales.

21. Maintain current and accurate information on clients through databases and sources.

22. Define, develop, and maintain contact with present and future clients to ensure repeat and new business.

23. Produce and deliver presentations as needed to clients and third-party partners.

24. Perform other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs.

Hotel Performance

1. Ensure successful performance by increasing revenues, controlling expenses, and providing a return on investment for the owner and investors.

2. Ensure all required reports and thorough and completed in a timely manner.

Leadership

1. Set goals and expectations for direct reports, aligning these with the overall business forecast and budgets.

2. Motivate high-performance teamwork and productivity through your inspiring leadership/sales skills.

3. Create a challenging and exciting environment to encourage personal and professional development and achievement of sales goals.

4. Appropriately address performance issues and hold staff accountable for successful results.

5. Collaborate with Human Resources, keep an active list of the competition’s best sales people, and executes a recruitment and acquisition plan.

6. Champion leadership development and workforce planning priorities by assessing, selecting, retaining and developing diverse, high-caliber talent.

Building Successful Relationships that Generate Sales Opportunities by:

1. Working collaboratively with off-property sales channels to ensure sale efforts are proactive, coordinated, complementary and not duplicative.

2. Building and strengthening relationships with existing and new customers to drive future bookings.

3. Develops strong partnerships with local organizations to further increase brand/product awareness.

4. Developing relationships within the community to strengthen property participation in local, regional and national tradeshows and client events.

5. Managing and developing relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

6. Executes exemplary customer service to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty by assisting the customer and monitoring their satisfaction before and during their program/event.

7. Gains understanding of the hotel's primary target customer and service expectations; serves the customer by understanding their business, business issues and concerns, to offer better business solution both prior to, and during the program/event.

8. Monitors the effective resolution of guest issues that arise because of the sales process by creating mechanisms to channel issues to property leadership and/or other appropriate stakeholders.

9. Develops strategic working relationships with leaders of these sales channels in order to proactively position and drive sales to the property.

Knowledge of Market Trends and Target Customer Information to Maximize Revenue by:

1. Understanding the overall market - competitors' strengths & weaknesses, economic trends, supply & demand etc. and knows how to sell against them.

2. Closing the best deals for the property, based on market conditions and location needs.

3. Gaining understanding of the location's primary target customer and service expectations.

4. Anticipating customer needs by understanding their core business model, issues, and concerns in order to offer better business solutions.

5. Review STR report, shopping reports and other resources to maintain awareness of the hotel’s market position.

6. Research competitor's sales team strategies to identify ways to grow RevPAR and increase market share