Assistant Director of Ticket Sales

Position Summary

The assistant director of ticket sales will be responsible for increasing athletic ticket revenue by selling tickets to Rice Athletics events and servicing customer accounts, all with the intent of elevating the brand of Rice Athletics. Under the guidance of the director of ticket sales, this role is responsible for selling season tickets, mini plans, group tickets, and corporate packages by arranging client meetings, making sales calls, and seeking referrals from their existing portfolio. This role will also take primary responsibility for the group and corporate sales efforts of Rice Athletics, including planning and fulfillment. As such, the role will require a substantial amount of time outside of the office prospecting potential customers and holding meetings. The assistant director of ticket sales is also responsible for stewardship of accounts, including servicing season ticket member accounts and fulfilling group sale obligations. On occasion, this role may be asked to participate in soliciting donations for the Owl Club, the annual fund for Rice Athletics. The assistant director of ticket sales will be a teachable, positive, and passionate individual who is committed to becoming a leader in the sports sales industry and who understands that driving ticket sales revenue is his or her primary goal.

Essential Functions

• Builds and maintains relationships with new and existing clients
• Conducts face to face meetings and sales calls
• Assesses customer needs
• Recommends appropriate products or services
• Educates prospective and current clients on the benefits of products and services
• Additional Functions / Information
• Sells season tickets, mini-plans, group tickets, and corporate packages for all ticketed sports, through meetings and outbound phone calls
• Creates the group sales plan and corporate sales plan, together with the Director of Sales, and leads execution of the plan
• Develops account sales plans for current and prospective customers, ensuring customers have a positive experience with Rice Athletics
• Cultivates long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with customers through personal visits, phone calls, and other meaningful touch point contacts, to earn new business and maintain and grow current business
• Fulfills group experiences that were sold to clients (with marketing)
• Attends home games and various events (team, community, etc.) for the purposes of generating sales opportunities and maximizing revenues
• Keeps detailed records of customer contacts and record in ticketing system, including initial contact, follow up plan, and additional contacts

Required qualifications

Bachelor's Degree, and no experience required

Skills Required

• Proficiency and comfort with sales, with the ability to learn quickly over time to hone skills
• Ability to act independently in creating and executing group and corporate sales plans and dealing with customer service issues
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, including having a friendly and professional manner when communicating with customers in person or over the phone
• Strong customer service and stewardship skills, including the ability to build relationships with clients that will be customers for multiple seasons
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of data about clients
• Strong work-ethic and self-motivated

Preferred qualifications

One to two years of experience in a sales and service-related role

Skills Preferred

• Knowledge of NCAA, Conference USA, and Rice University Rules and Regulations, including Rice accounting practices and PCI compliance
• Perseverance and grit
• Ability to display unusual self-control when dealing with discontented customers having a variety of complaints
• Ability to work well in teams and collaborate with diverse constituents, especially the Athletic Marketing and Sponsorship teams
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially Excel
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to creatively solve problems, pushing through road blocks
• Ability to effectively synthesize information and prepare group and corporate sales reports that communicate results of sales team

Working Conditions

• 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Nights and weekends as event schedules and/or sales calls require. Some local travel required
• Ability to travel
• Ability to work long periods of time at a desk (up to eight hours)
• Ability to work at events outdoors during varying weather conditions

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Current Rice University COVID policies, which include vaccination, face mask, testing, gatherings, occupancy limits, and travel policies can be found here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/policies