The Director of Digital and Strategic Sales will serve as an advertising sales leader for The Post and Courier focused on driving digital revenue and strategic level account acquisition and growth within the department. This position will be serve as a key member of The Post and Courier's sales leadership team, leading department meetings, sales training and supervising a team of account executive and digital marketing leads. The position will partner with the VP of Revenue and the Director of Revenue Operations in the day-to-day management of The Post and Courier's advertising department. The Director of Digital and Strategic Sales will be charged with the continued transformation of the advertising department to successfully compete in the present day digital-first media landscape.
Reporting to the VP of Revenue, the Director of Digital and Strategic Sales will be expected to maintain strong relationships with publishers and sales directors of the company's other markets/newspapers to assess and quickly seize joint revenue opportunities. This position will lead in identifying opportunity for strategic level accounts, often presenting solutions from multiple of The Post and Courier's markets statewide.
Involvement in community festivals, chamber events and other networking opportunities are a must. An entrepreneurial mindset and strong leadership skills are critical. This position should demonstrate sales success at all levels including building relationships and working collaboratively with internal and external customers.
The candidate's areas of expertise should include: directing advertising sales across media platforms; sales management experience, event sponsorship sales experience, forecasting, tracking and budgeting; staff development; pricing and profitability modeling and execution; maintaining and growing relationships with strategic accounts, and developing partnerships with the local business community.
Responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:
Achievement of monthly and annual departmental revenue goals, growing total revenue as creatively and rapidly as possible.
Emphasis on new business development in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties, managing account executives in consistent cold calling, cold emails, client needs assessments and long-term partnership presentations.
Continually evaluate The Post and Courier's advertising department's go-to-market strategy and internal operations to ensure its competitiveness and identify needs for growth or transformation.
Co-lead The Post and Courier advertising division's weekly sales meetings.
Conduct 1x1s weekly with all direct reports.
Lead sales trainings and manage sales initiatives as directed by the VP of Revenue.
Planning and executing creative ideas and sales strategies for events, promotions, and digital advertising campaigns.
Exhibit strong desire to drive new business acquisition for the department.
Exhibit strong understanding of digital marketing offerings, including but not limited to PPC, social, streaming TV, streaming audio, SEO, website development, etc.
Partner with the President of King & Columbus, The Post and Courier's internal full service marketing agency to identify and secure agency clients.
Continual learning of digital advertising capabilities and the digital landscape.
Participate in internal white-boarding discussions, build sales proposals, and deliver client presentations.
Build relationship with P&C clients/partners and provide strategic oversight and guidance to our strategic level accounts.
Collaborate with fellow sales leadership at The Post and Courier to identify growth opportunities locally.
Accountability for maintaining department records on a regular basis. This includes documentation of successful results and/or attempted effort for special emphasis selling projects assigned.
Maintain a thorough understanding of competitive media, market research and market share growth opportunities.
Monitoring and analyzing competitive advertising rates. Recommending adjustments to rating strategies to remain competitive in the marketplace.
Analyze workflow and make recommendations to streamline operations to create the best experience for internal and external customers.
Input all client/prospect information and sales activity into Hubspot CRM and manage team to do the same.
Onboard new hires in direct report roles.
Participate in Evening Post Publishing advertising management meetings.
Attending related community and business meetings and events to meet and engage with key stakeholders and decision makers.
Education/Experience:
Bachelor's degree or higher in business, marketing, journalism, communications or related field preferred.
Marketing or media sales experience required.
Minimum of three to five years' related management experience.
Proven ability to meet revenue goals.
Experience securing, managing and growing medium-to-large clients.
Ability to relate well with clients and business leaders and collaborate with co-workers.
Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to present research and proposals clearly.
Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
Excellent digital skills, including but not limited to social media, digital analytics and understanding of digital market trends.
Hands-on media sales training experience.
History of consultative selling approach across print and digital platforms.