Assistant Director of Sales, Europe, Russia, CIS

A luxury hospitality brand for modern travellers, Anantara connects guests to genuine places, people and stories through personal experiences and providing heartfelt hospitality in the world’s most exciting destinations. From pristine islands and tropical beaches to cosmopolitan cities, tranquil deserts and lush jungles, Anantara welcomes guests for journeys rich in discovery.

Job Purpose:

You will be one of the principal pillars of the hotel, passionately and enthusiastically directing day-to-day activities of the sales team by inspiring and coaching them to drive results. Further you will drive the preparation of the annual departmental operating budget, the hotel sales, marketing and business plan. As Assistant Director of Sales, Europe, RUS, CIS you will be involved in sales forecasting with the Revenue Manager and also developing special events and sales blitzes to showcase the hotel to potential clients. You will develop rapports with key clients and feel comfortable taking risks by entering into new markets. You will have a presence at trade shows and major market events, locally and nationally, to promote new business and increase sales for the hotel.

Main Responsibility:

• Ensure that you fully understand the business strategy and positioning of the Minor Hotels brand, and that you can effectively articulate this positioning in the marketplace.
• Maintain a personal up-to-date knowledge on all Minor Hotels product and service offerings, and the products, services, rates and new developments of key competitors, and an awareness of general industry trends.
• Approach personal sales activities from a strategic perspective, understanding the relative importance and priority of the current account base, and directing personal sales efforts accordingly.
• Continually review the actual production of each account against the potential for that account, and review suggestions for improvement with department leadership.
• Focus on assertively establishing new client contacts and developing detailed information on the potential revenues from these accounts.
• Lead and manage the on-resort sales team on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that the team fully understands the relative importance and priority of its current account base and prioritizes efforts accordingly.
• Ensure that the department is focused on assertively establishing new client contacts and developing detailed information on the potential revenues from these accounts.
• Ensure that all new team members are properly oriented in the strategy and positioning of the trio of resorts, collectively known as Anantara Maldives, and can articulate this positioning in the marketplace.
• Assign individual account responsibilities and targets with reference to the above points.  Keep account responsibility under continual review.
• Set the financial objectives for each member of the team and manage them to ensure these objectives are met.
• Ensure that all members of the team have the appropriate face-to-face selling skills to successfully do their job.
• Manage the performance of team members, identify gap in skills necessary to perform their duties and recommend program to meet the skills gap of the team.
• Maintain accurate management status reporting on business results, and Team Member action planning.
• Ensure all salespeople maintain a personal up-to-date knowledge on all Minor Hotels product and service offerings, including promotions.  In addition, to be familiar with the products, services, rates new developments of our key competitors.
• Act as the single point of contact for each assigned key account, specifically for the Russia, CIS, UK, and the European market.
• Produce and implement an account development plan for each assigned account to achieve maximum revenue in both the short and long term.
• Execute the annual commercial action plan within area of responsibility.
• Monitor and feedback market activities and respond to them appropriately.
• Maintain high profile network across designated area of coverage, actively prospects and hunt new business opportunities.
• Business development, continuously source new business through research of local media and market intelligence.
• Attend overseas trade shows, key client events, FAM trips and sales trips as planned and submitted at the beginning of each year and updated calendar at each quarter.
• Be fully up to date with budgeted/actual/forecast targets of the property as well as own segment and individual target.
• Responsible to continuously secure below and above the line marketing opportunities to position the brand and drive sales.
• Develop and maintain a close working relationship with CSO, GSO and affiliated representative partners.
• Participate in client familiarization trips, site inspections, sales trips and roadshows as required to meet the sales targets of the resorts.
• Participate and contribute to weekly Sales Strategy Meetings (SSM) to identify occupancy gaps, generate action plans and strategies to drive the business.
• Manage reporting on a predetermined basis and contribute with reporting and intel for the annual budget process.
• Achieve personal financial and non-financial performance objectives, working with department leadership to ensure these objectives are met.
• Take responsibility for your own professional development, ensuring that you have the financial literacy, negotiation and face-to-face selling skills needed to successfully do your job.
• Maintain accurate management status reporting on business results, and Team Member action planning.
• Practice effective cost control and adhere to internal procedures for approval of expenditure.
• Actively participate in client familiarization trips, site inspections, sales trips and roadshows as required to meet the sales targets of the hotel.
• Liaise effectively with all operational colleagues, providing support and information to ensure accurate delivery of our promise.
• Drive opportunities to upsell and cross-sell Minor Hotels products.
• Maintain a full working knowledge of the IT support tools used in the world of sales today, including sales-specific software, property PMS, the Microsoft Office toolset.
• Ensure that all administration is processed quickly and efficiently.

• Groups / MICE / Weddings specialist
•  OPERA working knowledge
•  Previous commercial experience in Reservations, Sales or Revenue
• Previous experience in the destination
• Familiarity with wholesale segment
• Min. 2 years working experience in a field sales role for a reputable resort/hotel as a Sales Manager (or higher designation)
• DE and/or RU language skill