Business Development Manager – Midwest Full Time NEW

As a Business Development Manager – Midwest, you’ll be front and center with our valued travel agency partners to help them understand Virgin Voyages and to show them how we’re creating the most irresistible holiday in travel.

We’re on the lookout for a bold, brilliant Business Development Manager to help us chart big things in the Midwest. Based in the Chicago Metro area, the heartbeat of one of our most dynamic territories, where we thrive on shaking up the norm, bringing fresh thinking, and channeling our unmistakable Virgin spirit that turns every “why?” into a confident “why not?”

You’ll teach them who our sailors are so that they can send the people who will appreciate and love what we’re doing. You’ll help them take advantage of the power of our brand and our Marketing to drive their own businesses. You’ll always have your finger on the pulse of what is most important to them and you’ll think creatively to make sure it’s easy and fun for them to send sailors our way. You’re one of our most passionate brand ambassadors and you’re coming into our sales world at the most exciting time as we prepare to engage with the world for the first time. You’ll help curate an experience for our partners that is very Virgin and you’ll be part of bringing one of the world’s most talked-about brands to life. You’re competitive and love blowing away your goals but you genuinely care that your teammates and your partners win as a result. You’re a strong vibrant communicator and have an undeniable passion for people and travel. You’re able to challenge industry standards if it means creating something better or different for our partners and our sailors. You’re always up for anything and are ready for the ride of a lifetime.

What You’ll Be Up To:

• Identify and nurture relationships with like-minded travel partners whose customers are sure to love the Virgin Voyages experience.
• Establish warm and loving relationships with those partners so that we will be a brand of choice for them.
• Think creatively and with heart about the best way to reach and support your partners, even if it’s never been done before.
• Build smart sales plans for your accounts to help them (and you) over achieve.
• Introduce the brand to travel partners in a variety of ways including special events and unique opportunities to experience our beautiful lady ships first hand.
• Be prepared to do business on their terms.
• Be able solve complex challenges through provocative thinking.
• Always be interested in the success of your colleagues, share proven strategies and tactics that help everyone win.
• Help clear obstacles for your partners and work to help solve them creatively.
• Establish and maintain excellent relationships across the rest of the business too.
• Be an enforcer of integrity in the way we conduct ourselves and live up to our brand values everyday.
• Do you part to make sure that we are generally brilliant to do business with.
• Other duties as assigned.

Superpowers Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of relevant sales experience.
• Minimum 5 years in travel or hospitality sales preferred.
• An in-depth knowledge of the cruise market and its sales strategies across a variety of segments.
• Existing, deep bonds with key travel partners a plus.
• An appreciation for how paramount customer and partner experiences are for Virgin to be successful.
• A proven performance track record of sales results.
• An ability to think outside of industry norms.
• A passion to deliver on future results.
• Creativity and a desire to change things for the better
• An energy that lights us up.
• A sense of unbridled optimism.

What Matters to Us:

At Virgin, your personality matters as much as how good you are at what you do. We want you to bring it to our hangout spot and help make the place even better. So, we won’t be surprised to hear that when people talk about you they say you are clever, on top of it, able to think ahead, intuitive, passionate and someone people respect and enjoy working with because you make things happen.

Virgin Voyages is committed to being an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified, eligible applicants regardless of their sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy and maternity. Our greatest strength comes from our ability to come together as unique individuals — we seek to always embrace and celebrate our differences, providing an inclusive workplace environment that allows you to be your best self.