About Essence Ventures
Essence Ventures was established with the goal to articulate through experiences, media, technology, and commerce, that Black is not a monolith. Its goal is to show the spectrum of Black existence, as it is lived every day, and use that to return value to the greatness of Blackness. We accomplish this mission and vision through four incredible and distinct brands: ESSENCE Communications, Inc. (ESSENCE, Girls’ United. Naturallycurly.com), Beautycon, AFROPUNK and ESSENCE Studios.
About You
The Role:
Are you a passionate, strategic seller and hunter, who carries the responsibility for managing the full sales cycle, from prospecting to contracted sales? Essence Ventures is growing rapidly and seeking Sales Directors to play a key role in further growing the business across the EV portfolio of brands. Reporting directly to our Vice President, Sales the Sales Director will work closely with our clients as a trusted advisor to deeply understand their unique business goals and partner to help achieve them.Working in partnership with the Sales Strategy, Account Management, Sales Activations teams and wider stakeholders, you will also play a fundamental part in the development and execution of our creative proposition and product, ensuring the best quality of creative output at both pitch and delivery phases.
You will need to act as a steward of Essence Ventures in the marketplace, ensuring that our teams internally, and our clients and agency partners are clear in their understanding of our proposition in the marketplace. The Sales Director is a natural leader, with a diverse skillset including: leadership, an understanding of finance, forecasting, salesmanship, a strong understanding of digital advertising, live events and media, a keen eye for creative excellence and an understanding of the production process. This position requires an energetic, highly- motivated, and committed team player who will maximize and develop profitable new opportunities for both the advertiser and Essence Ventures. Successful candidates will also demonstrate an ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment to achieve results, despite obstacles! The Sales Director can be remote. You have a proven experience in leading client relationships across a range of products within a media organization.
Your Day-to-Day:
- Plan accounts strategy for long-term profitable growth and position Essence Ventures as a thought partner and business leader within the account.
- Generate/increase the revenue of new and existing accounts from an established list of advertising agencies and brands to meet annual revenue goals.
- Continuously develop your personal network of industry contacts and influencers as a source for market intelligence, referrals, and prospects.
- Generate additional revenue from untapped sources.
- Create compelling sales presentations and execute sales calls with agency planning/buying groups and clients to secure business, utilizing Essence Ventures guidelines and keeping the network’s best inventory interests in mind.
- Develop and deliver creative advertising campaigns and media plans for each individual client.
- Handle linear and digital execution, from pre-sell through post-recap.
- Ensure clients receive superior customer service.
- Attend regular sales meetings and travel as needed.
Key Projects:
- You will provide insight and expertise on our Essence Ventures solutions when brand agencies are prospecting and pitching new business.
What you can expect:
- Opportunity to make a meaningful impact in a fast-growing start-up company
- Fun company events and celebrations with a focus on inclusion and collaboration across all levels of the organization
What you bring to the team:
- 5-7+ years of selling to or consulting with brands, agencies, corporate, media sector or enterprise customers, while driving revenue and transformation from within an organization.
- Experience in multi-platform media or advertising sales, a plus.
- A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, preferred.
- The ability to provide thorough daily/weekly/monthly forecasting metrics and communicate them in a succinct manner.
- Demonstrated strong interpersonal, communication, client relation and organizational skills.
- Position requires excellent organizational/time management skills and leadership ability.
- Must be self-motivated, self-disciplined, have a positive attitude and be effective in communication.
- Proven track record of sales success and comfortable selling 5-7 figure deals. Bonus points if you have built your own book of business previously.
- Consultative Selling approaches.
- New Business Prospecting & Closing skills.
- You are comfortable in a fast-paced and evolving environment that includes ongoing learning opportunities.
Full suite of benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision) Salary: 150k Plus Bonus and Commission
