Director of Sales

The Group Travel Leader is seeking a strategic sales leader for its family of travel industry magazines. The Director of Sales will take primary responsibility for sales of multi-channel media advertising across four established brands and will oversee a team of other sales representatives.

• Sell multi-channel media advertising for several well established national and international travel industry magazines. This includes developing and maintaining relationships with current and prospective clients; creating proposals and advertising packages; making cold calls to prospect new clients; and managing client ad orders.
• Set strategy, create accountability and provide day-to-day leadership for a small team of sales professionals. This may include account managers and admin/support personnel.
• Work with the executive team and creative staff to build and implement marketing plans.
• Attend industry events to meet current and prospective clients (some overnight and weekend travel required).
• Build custom publishing partnerships with tourism organizations and oversee execution of client publications.
• Plan and promote special events for clients at certain conferences.
• Use our CRM to track sales activities, update client records and add records for new clients and leads.
• Sell, oversee and attend familiarization trips with clients to various travel or meeting destinations throughout the year.
• Work with the company’s editorial and production departments to ensure that clients’ ads are submitted on time and run correctly.
• Use MailChimp or other blast e-mail provider to send advertising opportunities and/or readership event notifications.
• Navigate the back end of the company’s Wordpress websites to generate advertising reports for clients and pull applicant lists for familiarization tours.
  
  

Key Qualifications

• A proven track record as a sales professional (experience in media sales or travel industry sales is a plus).
• A bachelor’s degree or 3-4 years of successful sales experience.
• Proficiency with digital technologies, CRM systems and standard software tools.
• A teachable attitude and the ability to learn new concepts and systems very quickly.
• A high degree of self-motivation and initiative-taking.
• A cooperative mindset, with the ability to both lead and follow as necessary.
• An outgoing personality.
  
  

Other Details

Job Type: Full-time

Compensation: Base + Commissions

Schedule: On-site M–R, remote optional on Friday

Travel: Up to 20% of the time throughout the course of a calendar year

Benefits

• Retirement account with company match.
• Flexible schedule.
• Paid Time Off.
  
  

About The Group Travel Leader

About Us The Group Travel Leader Inc. is a Lexington, Kentucky-based publishing company that currently owns and publishes three national travel industry publications. Founded by publisher Mac Lacy and his partner, Charlie Presley, The Group Travel Leader Inc. was created to identify specific niches in the travel industry and deliver key readerships in those niches to prospective advertisers. Conferences and marketplaces for these travel industry niches are managed by Presley in Salem, Ohio, through the offices of the Group Travel Family. These meetings serve to complete the marketing loop for these influential readers by bringing buyers and sellers of travel face to face annually for education, entertainment, sponsorship opportunities and sales sessions. Our Magazines The Group Travel Leader Regarded as the industry’s most trusted voice since 1990, The Group Travel Leader is published 10 times per year and is read by more than 30,000 travel buyers and industry professionals in print and digital editions. Select Traveler America’s only magazine for bank, alumni and chamber travel planners, Select Traveler is published quarterly and reaches more than 11,000 top-tier decision-makers for affluent groups in print and online. Formerly Bank Travel Management, Select Traveler serves as the official magazine of the Select Traveler Conference. Going On Faith Since 1997, Going On Faith has been the voice of faith-based travel across the globe. Read by more than 11,000 qualified travel planners for churches and religious organizations in print and online, Going on Faith serves as the official magazine of the Going On Faith Conference. Small Market Meetings Our sister company, Pioneer Publishing Inc, publishes Small Market Meetings, America’s only magazine dedicated to second- and third-tier cities and their venues. More than 22,000 qualified meeting planners read Small Market Meetings every month to learn about distinctive venues and towns outside the country’s largest cities.