POSITION SUMMARY


The position is accountable for proactively soliciting all business segments (Transient, Group, and Catering) and handling sales & catering opportunities both locally and internationally. Ensures business is turned over properly and in a timely fashion for proper service delivery. Assists in leading all day-to-day activities related to sales with a focus on building long-term, value-based customer relationships that enable achievement of sales objectives. Achieves personal sales goals. Proactively soliciting all local business segments; to include new business from small business accounts, sourcing new accounts, identifying new targets, and re-soliciting past business leads. Ensure compliance with Ritz-Carlton Standard Operating Procedures to maintain brand integrity.


CANDIDATE PROFILE


Education and Experience
Required:

• High school diploma or GED; 2 years experience in the sales and marketing, guest services, front desk, or related professional area.

OR

• 2-year degree from an accredited university in Business Administration, Marketing, Hotel and Restaurant Management, or related major; no work experience required.

Preferred:

• Previous experience in proactive lead generation in hospitality and sales discipline; knowledge of property-specific business segments (e.g. group, catering, transient); knowledge the hospitality industry.
• Previous experience selling luxury brands and experiential services preferred.

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES
Managing Sales Activities

• Solicits new business from non-deployed small local business accounts, and leads sent through internal referral mechanisms.
• Solicits potential new accounts or business opportunities by leveraging business intelligence provided by Sales & Marketing Planning and Support or other third-party data sources to generate leads.
• Re-solicits non-deployed realized opportunities, including turndowns, lost opportunities, and actualized business when appropriate.
• Drives customer satisfaction through daily interactions (e.g., solicitations, re-solicitations, account calls, site inspections, new business calls, face to face activities, Sales Blitz, etc.).
• Conducts customer facing sales activities on behalf of the hotels in partnership with Property Coordinator/Resource as appropriate. (e.g., lunch and learns, social hours, company of the month activities, local industry events, Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Activities, etc.).
• Conducts site inspections for customer accounts as appropriate.
• Designs, develops and sells creative catered events.
• Maximizes revenue by up-selling packages and creative food and beverage.
• Develops menus that drive sales.
• Assists with selling, implementation and follow-through of catering promotions.
• Maintains complete and up-to-date lead information on each account in Opera System to verify accurate reporting and customer base information.
• Attend BEO meeting to ensure operational alignment of all attending departments for next events. Attend weekly Customer Engagement Meeting.
• Qualifies and maintains customer’s long-term business potential and refers customers to market, field, hotel or national sales office, as required.
• Verifies accurate and timely lead turnover to other Sales Channels and partners closely with the Multi-Hotel Sales to ensure qualified leads are entered into Opera System.
• Leverages MI Leads for Out of Org, Non-Deployed Accounts.
• Presents stakeholder hotel benefits and features based on customer needs.
• Understands and utilizes all business processes written in support of the sales organization.
• Utilizes negotiation skills and creative selling abilities to uncover new business.
• Uses all information systems (e.g., Opera, MRDW, Mar RFP-SAPP, Hoteligence, Account Relationship Management (ARM) to research the deployment and value of the accounts deemed important for stakeholder hotel.
• Understands the overall market (e.g., competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, economic trends, supply and demand etc.) to sell effectively against the competition.
• Communicates trends, opportunities, and market changes to appropriate parties, as needed.
• Leverages all available sales channels, (e.g., marriott.com, group and transient intermediaries, field sales, worldwide reservation offices, etc.), to optimize sales revenues.
• Understands and actively utilizes company marketing initiatives/incentives to convert cold leads to warm leads.
• Tracks weekly activities and relationship to revenue and room night production.
• Sets day-today priorities to complete assigned responsibilities
• Actively participates and contributes to Sales Strategy Meetings as appropriate.
• Adjusts to significant variation in daily workload through independent prioritization.
• Drives revenue from local non-deployed accounts for the hotels the Sales Executive represents by proactively soliciting new business from small business accounts, sourcing new accounts, identifying new targets, and re-soliciting past business leads.
• Activate local tactics for deployed accounts to pull-through local buyer needs. Communicate best practices for generating creative revenue opportunities.
• Performs other duties as appropriate.
  
  Building Successful Relationships
• Leverage deployed account resources to drive business for properties for identified hotels to pull-through business to grow account share.
• Participates in community and hotel networking events (e.g., Rotary Clubs, Social Hours, Chamber of Commerce, etc).
• Visits neighborhood target and local small business accounts and coordinate follow up efforts.
• Coordinates with Property Sales Leader to understand needs and priorities of stakeholder hotels to identify focus areas.
• Works collaboratively with all sales channels (e.g. the Multi-Hotel Sales, Account Sales and Global Sales) to establish coordinated sales efforts that are complementary, and not duplicative.
• Handles customer care issues and as necessary, refers them to the appropriate owner.
• Supports the company’s service and relationship strategy, driving customer loyalty by delivering service excellence throughout each customer experience.
• Services customers to obtain and grow share of the account.
• Executes and supports the company’s customer service standards.
• Engages in property related events that support the development of new accounts (e.g., General Manager (GM) Reception etc.).
• Performs other duties, as assigned, to meet business needs.

Skills and Knowledge
Fluent in Arabic language, an advantage.
Aggressive negotiating skills and creative selling abilities to close on business with a high conversion ratio.
Possesses software knowledge (Microsoft Office, etc).
Possesses systems knowledge (OPERA Sales & Catering, Meeting Matrix) and building business blocks.
Must be able to “Knock on doors” to get the business
Knows how to conduct research on the Internet.
Weekly prospecting and soliciting goals
Uncovering new customers (Local and Social)
Effective sales skills to up-sell products and services
Ability to manage guest room and meeting space inventories
Broad understanding of facility management (sanitation, maintenance, operations)
Strong customer development and relationship management skills
Knowledge of overall hotel operations as they affect department
Knowledge of Event Technology products and services
Knowledge of contract management and legalities
Strong communication skills (verbal, listening, writing)
Strong problem-solving skills
Strong customer and associate relation skills
Strong presentation and platform skills
Strong organization skills
Strong “Closing skills”
Strong “persuasion” skills
Effective decision making skills
Valid Driving License (Preferably in GCC)

Every day, we set the standard for rare and special luxury service the world over and pride ourselves on delivering excellence in the care and comfort of our guests.

Your role will be to ensure that the “Gold Standards” of The Ritz-Carlton are delivered graciously and thoughtfully every day. The Gold Standards are the foundation of The Ritz-Carlton and are what guides us each day to be better than the next. It is this foundation and our belief that our culture drives success by which The Ritz Carlton has earned the reputation as a global brand leader in luxury hospitality. As part of our team, you will learn and exemplify the Gold Standards, such as our Employee Promise, Credo and our Service Values. And our promise to you is that we offer the chance to be proud of the work you do and who you work with.

In joining The Ritz-Carlton, you join a portfolio of brands with Marriott International. Be where you can do your best work, begin your purpose, belong to an amazing global team, and become the best version of you.