Vice President of Sales North America, Global Partnerships
Apply NowCompany: IRONMAN
Location: Tampa, FL 33647
Description:
Job Type
Full-time
Description
The IRONMAN Group operates a global portfolio of events that includes the IRONMAN Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN 70.3 Triathlon Series, 5150 Triathlon Series, the Rock 'n' Roll Running Series, IRONKIDS, World Triathlon Championship Series, Epic Series mountain bike races including the Absa Cape Epic, road cycling events including UTMB, and other multisport races.
The IRONMAN Group is the largest operator of mass participation sports in the world and provides more than a million participants annually with the benefits of endurance sports through the company's vast offerings. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN brand and its first event in 1978, athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE by crossing finish lines around the world. Beginning as a single race, The IRONMAN Group has grown to become a global sensation with hundreds of events across 55+ countries. For more information about The IRONMAN Group visit: www.ironman.com.
Summary
The IRONMAN Group is seeking a smart, creative, and results-oriented sales leader to drive the acquisition of marquee and premier sponsorships with North American companies and accelerate the growth of the organization. IRONMAN partners with highly visible, global corporations with exceptional brand recognition and consumer followings. Understanding the IRONMAN platform and how to successfully promote it in the eyes of corporate partners will be essential for success.
The VP of Sales will have a proven track record of selling innovative partnerships in traditional sports but also preferably in non-traditional mass participation sports and have exhibited creativity in devising platforms and activations for blue-chip brands. The executive will also have an established network of relationships at the C-suite and boardroom levels across the region and will exhibit the solutions-based approach and high-touch professionalism that properly reflect the culture of and opportunities within The IRONMAN Group. S/he will approach sales with a thoughtful, thorough, and structured process and will have notable experience assembling and leading a global high-performing sales team to develop creative partnerships platforms and devise compelling solutions to meet partner objectives.
This individual will work hand-in-hand with the EVP Global Partnerships, Chief Business Officer, Chief Merchandising Officer, Regional Managing Directors and other key leaders to evolve The IRONMAN Group. The uniqueness of the Group's brands, its committed following of athletes, and the growing nature of endurance sports provide an exceptional opportunity to break new ground in global sports.
Through a combination of improving and expanding the core series and events, as well as unlocking new revenue opportunities by furthering The IRONMAN Group's reputation as a best-in-class, direct-to-consumer (D2C) business, the VP of Sales North America will contribute to drive performance and create value in an environment ripe with opportunity. This individual will have responsibility for the leadership of the Global Partnership sales team. Reporting to the EVP Global Partnerships, s/he will build trust internally with the Global Partnerships team, Regional Teams and externally with prospects, through excellent communication and ethic, and strong management and results.
The role can be based at The IRONMAN Group's office in Tampa, FL and will involve extensive (and fun) travel to the company's events, operating hubs and prospects' locations all over the world.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Requirements
Preferred Qualifications:
Driving Performance and Results
Creative and Strategic Thinking
Motivated and capable of quickly learning the specificity of each sports community and culture, the specificities of the athlete journey by product and the competitive landscape in each sport
Keen Relationship Building Skills
Leading People
Background Requirements:
Industry Experience
Consumer and/or media broadly with special consideration given to those with experience in lifestyle brands, sports, live entertainment and events, and/or hospitality in North America.
Broad-based Leadership
Experience, preferably as a Senior Director/VP of sponsorship sales in North America, with full functional oversight of a sales budget and management of at least one or two junior sales staff, as part of multifunctional team and matrixed organization of relevant size and scale (15-20 FTEs / $50 million in partnerships revenue).
Global
Has a strong global perspective from having worked in an organization with global rights and sold rights globally to North American prospects. Highly attuned to challenges and opportunities associated with diverse cultures.
Stakeholder Management Skills
Proven stakeholder management skills, including with internal business partners.
The above declarations are not intended to be an "all inclusive" list of duties and responsibilities of the job described, nor are they intended to be such a listing of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Rather, they are intended only to describe the general nature of the job and are a reasonable representation of its activities.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.
Full-time
Description
The IRONMAN Group operates a global portfolio of events that includes the IRONMAN Triathlon Series, the IRONMAN 70.3 Triathlon Series, 5150 Triathlon Series, the Rock 'n' Roll Running Series, IRONKIDS, World Triathlon Championship Series, Epic Series mountain bike races including the Absa Cape Epic, road cycling events including UTMB, and other multisport races.
The IRONMAN Group is the largest operator of mass participation sports in the world and provides more than a million participants annually with the benefits of endurance sports through the company's vast offerings. Since the inception of the iconic IRONMAN brand and its first event in 1978, athletes have proven that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE by crossing finish lines around the world. Beginning as a single race, The IRONMAN Group has grown to become a global sensation with hundreds of events across 55+ countries. For more information about The IRONMAN Group visit: www.ironman.com.
Summary
The IRONMAN Group is seeking a smart, creative, and results-oriented sales leader to drive the acquisition of marquee and premier sponsorships with North American companies and accelerate the growth of the organization. IRONMAN partners with highly visible, global corporations with exceptional brand recognition and consumer followings. Understanding the IRONMAN platform and how to successfully promote it in the eyes of corporate partners will be essential for success.
The VP of Sales will have a proven track record of selling innovative partnerships in traditional sports but also preferably in non-traditional mass participation sports and have exhibited creativity in devising platforms and activations for blue-chip brands. The executive will also have an established network of relationships at the C-suite and boardroom levels across the region and will exhibit the solutions-based approach and high-touch professionalism that properly reflect the culture of and opportunities within The IRONMAN Group. S/he will approach sales with a thoughtful, thorough, and structured process and will have notable experience assembling and leading a global high-performing sales team to develop creative partnerships platforms and devise compelling solutions to meet partner objectives.
This individual will work hand-in-hand with the EVP Global Partnerships, Chief Business Officer, Chief Merchandising Officer, Regional Managing Directors and other key leaders to evolve The IRONMAN Group. The uniqueness of the Group's brands, its committed following of athletes, and the growing nature of endurance sports provide an exceptional opportunity to break new ground in global sports.
Through a combination of improving and expanding the core series and events, as well as unlocking new revenue opportunities by furthering The IRONMAN Group's reputation as a best-in-class, direct-to-consumer (D2C) business, the VP of Sales North America will contribute to drive performance and create value in an environment ripe with opportunity. This individual will have responsibility for the leadership of the Global Partnership sales team. Reporting to the EVP Global Partnerships, s/he will build trust internally with the Global Partnerships team, Regional Teams and externally with prospects, through excellent communication and ethic, and strong management and results.
The role can be based at The IRONMAN Group's office in Tampa, FL and will involve extensive (and fun) travel to the company's events, operating hubs and prospects' locations all over the world.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Contribute to and execute the strategic plan to grow corporate sponsorship revenue for the various series. Effectively market global partnership opportunities, with a strong focus on non-endemic categories, leveraging events across all regions to global brands based in North America.
- Manage the North American Global Partnership and Expo sales teams in a supportive and effective manner to achieve and exceed the annual targets and grow the sponsorship revenues of the Group.
- Canvas the brand sponsorship market in North America to contribute to the creation of new and innovative platforms around IRONMAN events and through the athletes' journey which fit their unique needs.
- Understand and leverage technology, live streaming, and digital content as important aspects of the partnership platforms.
- Identify potential new sales strategies, including tenders in key categories and new streams of sponsorship revenue, and strategically develop the relationships and resources necessary for success.
- Bring clarity and insight to each prospect's financial and promotional objectives by leveraging relevant analytics and metrics and utilizing these to build partnerships which will demonstrate tangible ROI.
- Develop, implement and maintain sales dashboards to provide clear reporting of sales activities vs. goals and budget
- Ensure that partnerships are closed in a way which ensure that the series and events remain best in class in each of their respective sport segments by providing exceptional experiences to the athletes through the partner activations.
- Work closely with the Business Intelligence team in order to identify the best way to engage with prospects and present them with partnership proposals that will drive value for their business.
- Collaborate with BI on sales reporting, pipeline management and budget tracking.
- Build excellent working relationships with the Partnership Management and Partnership Activation teams to ensure they feed into the creation and implementation of new global partnership deals.
- Build, develop, manage, and retain a strong sales team in North America of talented and passionate individuals who are committed to IRONMAN.
- Build the sales team in North America through the development and retention of talented people across all functions.
Requirements
Preferred Qualifications:
Driving Performance and Results
- Executing on an assertive but also "white-glove", partner-focused strategy that brings in and maximizes sponsorship revenue.
- Exhibiting a high propensity to listen to prospects and develop solution-based approach that maximizes the value proposition.
- Having the ingenuity and commitment to "getting the deal done." as well as a willingness to travel to events, pitches and sales meetings.
- Managing a sales team and understanding how to maximize the capability of each member in order to achieve targets.
- Understanding the nuances and complexity of sponsorship sales and working successfully within such an environment.
- Benchmarks own performance against industry best practices.
Creative and Strategic Thinking
Motivated and capable of quickly learning the specificity of each sports community and culture, the specificities of the athlete journey by product and the competitive landscape in each sport
- Focus on finding ways to elevate the athlete journey providing solutions through equipment and services through authentic and successful partnerships with endemic and non-endemic brands.
- Maintaining The IRONMAN Group's level of excellence and innovation when partnering with first class organizations.
- Bringing the mentality of a classically-trained brand executive to convey what the IRONMAN brand stands for and how it can accomplish the partners' objectives.
- Delivering a disciplined approach to sponsorship sales while remaining acutely aware of the uniqueness of the IRONMAN Group culture.
- Understands The IRONMAN Group's unique areas of competitive advantage and crafts strategies and tactics to leverage them.
Keen Relationship Building Skills
- Nurturing and managing strong relationships with high-level executive partners, prospective partners and key stakeholders across the region.
- Having a high touch, responsive personal style and communicating in an articulate, open, and sincere manner that engenders trust with all constituencies.
- Demonstrating a willingness to make tough decisions, but always treating people fairly and with respect.
- Projecting an unflappable and even-keeled style characterized by openness, approachability, and confidence without arrogance.
- Displaying the highest personal integrity and ethics.
Leading People
- Identifies and leverages individual strengths and potential within the team while maintaining a team-first, collaborative environment.
- Communicates long-term direction and collaborates with team on how to reach it, providing enthusiastic guidance for the next growth phase.
- Demonstrates high emotional intelligence in interactions with all constituents - employees and partners; knows how to challenge team members to inspire performance without sacrificing a nourishing and collaborative culture.
Background Requirements:
Industry Experience
Consumer and/or media broadly with special consideration given to those with experience in lifestyle brands, sports, live entertainment and events, and/or hospitality in North America.
Broad-based Leadership
Experience, preferably as a Senior Director/VP of sponsorship sales in North America, with full functional oversight of a sales budget and management of at least one or two junior sales staff, as part of multifunctional team and matrixed organization of relevant size and scale (15-20 FTEs / $50 million in partnerships revenue).
Global
Has a strong global perspective from having worked in an organization with global rights and sold rights globally to North American prospects. Highly attuned to challenges and opportunities associated with diverse cultures.
Stakeholder Management Skills
Proven stakeholder management skills, including with internal business partners.
The above declarations are not intended to be an "all inclusive" list of duties and responsibilities of the job described, nor are they intended to be such a listing of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Rather, they are intended only to describe the general nature of the job and are a reasonable representation of its activities.
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.