About Visit Wichita

Sports Sales Manager

Are you ready to take the next, best step in your career?

Would you like to join a team of excited, dedicated, incredibly talented professionals?

You’ve found your opportunity - Visit Wichita is looking for a new Sports Sales Manager to join our expert team!

A little about you…

As our Sports Sales Manager, you’ll have the opportunity to promote Wichita to sports planners and rights holders around the country. You love looking for sporting events that would be perfect to host in Wichita. You enjoy traveling and attending appointment-based trade shows where you’ll meet with sports event planners and share all the wonderful things about Wichita. You thrive in working with sports partners throughout Wichita to find the perfect facility and opportunity to host sporting events in Wichita. You enjoy both time in the office prospecting potential events as well as speaking to organizations and meeting with individuals to uncover potential new business opportunities. You are a team player and have a passion for Wichita. You are goal oriented and have a proven track record of success.

If you have a passion for sports and enjoy discovering opportunities to bring more sporting events to Wichita, are a creative problem solver and love the city of Wichita, you want to work with us.

A little about us…

Visit Wichita is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing visitors to Wichita. Our vision is to elevate Wichita as a must-experience Midwest destination. Our mission is to grow the travel and tourism economy of Wichita. We love what we do, and we are great at it. If you’d like to learn more about us, check us out at visitwichita.com.

Role:

Responsible for promoting Wichita as an event site for sports rights holders and entities, thereby enhancing the economic development of the City, County, Region and State. Working knowledge of Wichita’s sports venues and facilities preferred.

Responsibilities:

Reports directly to the Senior Sports Sales Manager
Execute sports sales strategy, ultimately attracting new sporting events to Wichita.
Build relationships with key industry and local sporting event planners.
Review requirements, needs and budgets in RFPs of potential sporting events and determine if Wichita is a possible host.
Determine who is or might be influential in motivating the Executive Director, Board of Directors, or others in selecting Wichita as a destination. Contact influential members of the organization by telephone, letter, and/or personal visit as appropriate. Prepares bid packets of information for decision makers.
Call on community leaders to use their influence in promoting Wichita as a site. Secures and extends letters of support from leaders in the public and private sectors or the city, county, state, and federal government.
Arrange, when possible, to make a personal sales presentation before the decision-making group to encourage them to select Wichita as a destination.
Setup and host rights holders onsite inspection tours of Wichita, showcasing proposed venues, hotels, convention center and local attractions.
Send sales leads to hotels advising them of dates and requirements of potential events that have expressed genuine interest in the city.
Prepare a personalized proposal using our bid software, SendSites
Organize sales mission to cities where sports event associations and organizations are headquartered.
Attend industry trade shows and conventions to represent and sell Wichita as a destination and occasionally travel to scout out an event that Visit Wichita is pursuing for a future year.
Maintain a well-informed, working knowledge of all facilities, attractions and services, both private and public, available in the area to customers and acts as liaison between these entities and the customer.
Work closely with the Senior Sports Sales Manager when working on bids to make sure the budget makes sense and we have the resources and the capacity to host the event successfully that is being bid on.
Be available to help the Sports Event Manager execute the sporting events on site as needed
Visit events held in Wichita, as needed, to ensure that all is going well, and requests that the group consider returning in the near future in an effort to book repeat business.
Develop key relationships with members, area hotels, the community at large and fellow staff members.
Submit appropriate reports on a timely basis as assigned.
Work in a cohesive manner with other Bureau personnel to ensure a unified and effective promotional effort.
Perform other duties as assigned by the VP of Sports Development or Senior Sports Sales Manager.

Education and Experience:

A four-year degree from an accredited college or university preferred.
At least 5 years of sports selling/marketing, management and/or travel related experience or closely related field to include at least four (4) years in an event management, bid development or sports marketing leadership role.

Competencies and Skills:

Excellent communication skills (verbal and written).
Ability to speak and deliver effective presentations.
Team orientation and ability to work collaboratively with all levels of associates and clients.
Planning skills – ability to set direction, establish priorities and action plans and reconcile multiple/conflicting priorities.
Ability to promote opportunities to increase revenue.
Must possess a valid driver’s license and an insured vehicle for periodic business use.
Overnight travel four to six times per year on average
40-hour work weeks are standard, but this role does require nights and weekends on occasion as needed

To apply for this role, please send your cover letter and resume to careers@visitwichita.com.