Virgin Experience Days are currently seeking a Partnerships Manager to take ownership of the Hotels & Short Breaks categories as part of the wider Partnerships team.
Spending a night (or two) away from home is an ultimate experience all on its own, the Partnerships Manager for Hotels & Short Breaks relishes in finding the next best treat retreat for Virgin Experience Days customers to enjoy. Glamping pods or 5* luxury hotels, a round of golf or a lazy spa stay, to a themed hotel full of character; you’ll be responsible for proactively managing partner accounts, developing strong business relationships to maximise sales and optimising performance of these accounts, taking commercial accountability of buying in margins (BIM).
Kicking back in the city, or the country, or something completely different, you’ll truly own the Hotels & Short Breaks categories, nurturing these accounts as well as chasing the next big thing to captivate customers. This role will suit an individual with a passion and experience of working within the hotels and hospitality industry, with a flair for sales and relationship building. You’ll source key contacts and pitch to win new partnerships, confidently negotiating, overcoming any challenges and solidifying that new, strong relationship with your key partner accounts.
Key responsibilities:
- To build on and accelerate product growth utilising current experience partners by continually reviewing existing product performance
- Onboard new, exciting, extraordinary experience partners
- Increase overall BIM
- Use Microsoft Dynamics and Power BI to track, report and understand category performance
- Work with the wider Product team to build a strong competitive product portfolio
- Truly own your categories (Hotels & Short Breaks) with commercial accountability of buying in margins (BIM)
- Scope and deliver initiatives to grow your own defined categories, overcoming challenges with pricing and availability
- Source key partnerships to deliver geographical coverage
- Attend key trade events and utilise your network of connections to keep up with latest restaurant news, insights & research
- Build out annual plans with key partners to include new products and promotions including supplier funded deals to meet the requirements of our seasonal marketing activity
- Display insatiable curiosity, research and remain up to date with category and product trends
- Conduct confident pitch presentations to win new partnerships, with the ability to articulate benefits of the Virgin brand and negotiate BIM
- Identify, secure and onboard new partnerships with the best suppliers in the industry to enhance the product portfolio
- Communicate brilliantly with Customer Service and Product Support to ensure every customer and supplier experiences heartfelt service throughout their journey with us
- Ensure that capacity planning and service and delivery considerations are fully discussed with partners from the outset and considered at every stage of selection and launch
- Identify and create bundle opportunities
Key skills & experience:
- A genuine passion and interest in the Hotels and Short Breaks categories
- Industry experience in hotels/hospitality, within a sales and partnerships focused role
- Exceptional communication skills
- A strong commercial understanding, with the ability to measure partner and product effectiveness and contribution to the bottom line
- Excellent negotiation skills with an ability to convert leads
- Ability to use tools and techniques to profile, benchmark, research and assess the experiences market as a whole
- Account Management, Sales or Business Development experience is essential
- Strong grasp of calculating margins and ability to analyse sales data to make decisions on future products
- Used to working in a dynamic, fast moving, customer focused environment
How to apply: click here to apply for this position.
About Virgin Experience Days: Virgin Experience Days is the fastest growing premium experiences provider in the UK. Our experience partners enjoy extensive access to the gifting market, as well as the world of reward & recognition through our corporate arm, Virgin Incentives. From established, luxury institutions, to niche businesses and start-ups, we give them the platform to leverage the power of gift-giving and benefit from the consumer shift to doing more, and having less.
