Sales Director

Crain's Cleveland Business is looking for a dynamic Sales Director to bring innovative thinking and strong analytical skills to help grow our business. This person will help drive revenue generation across our portfolio of media assets by identifying growth opportunities. Our Sales Director will be a player/coach with their own territory while managing a sales team. In this role, the incumbent will interface with business leaders across multiple functions, both inside and outside Sales, including regular meetings with the heads of various departments to brainstorm regarding product launches or proposals and manage a team of Account Executives. They are also accountable for meeting the business's monthly/quarterly/annual sales goals, including tracking and managing the advertiser pipeline.

Success in this role will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Maximize all brand revenues:
   1. Manage their own accounts/book of business and be responsible for growing business.
   2. Identify new revenue opportunities via internal analytics/market/sales feedback.
   3. Develop and execute strategic plans to achieve sales targets and expand our customer base.
   4. Conduct regular top-level sales calls to clients and agencies.
   5. Analyze pipeline and lead data, delivering periodic reporting to the sales and marketing teams providing key business insights.
   6. Collaborate with Associate Publisher to establish proper spending levels to achieve ad page, online, custom content and event revenue goals.
   7. Provide competitive feedback to Associate Publisher to develop marketing strategies.
2. Managing the Sales Team:
   1. Oversee the day-to-day leadership of the department, staffing, tracking against departmental and business goals, and team motivation.
   2. Motivate the sales force through personal involvement, consultation, and support.
   3. Ensure customer service standards are high and continually improving.
   4. Drive the successful implementation and adoption of the sales CRM, Salesforce.
   5. Maintain up to date prospects, clients, agencies, and promotion lists.

The Sales Director must also handle client complaints incurred by production errors, campaign errors, and any disputes that might arise from clients. The Sales Director should recommend solutions to the Associate Publisher for any make-good or credit requests coming from client disputes and work collaboratively to see disputes are settled amicably and quickly.

The Associate Publisher will regularly review (e.g., at least monthly) the performance of all sales personnel. A minimum of 8 years' experience in selling with a minimum of 2 years' experience managing a sales team is required. They must be a good judge of people and character, demonstrate strong leadership qualities, and possess superior communication skills. Additionally, they should have the ability to spot and respond to problems effectively.