VP, Sales

Kensington delivers the world’s most personal travel experiences. We bring to life each client’s desire to travel in a way that’s tailored specifically for them, in the company of local private guides who ensure that they enjoy the authentic best of their destination. The result is a unique journey rich in memories that last a lifetime.

We achieve this because of our extraordinary people, experts with deep knowledge of their destinations. For over 120 countries worldwide, and across each of our brands – Tours, Cruises, Villas, Yachts, Jets, and Air.

To learn more about Kensington, visit kensingtontours.com.

Job Description

Ideally based in Toronto, the Vice President, Sales (VP) at Kensington Tours will be responsible for sales leadership and elevating customer experience and service delivery to align with a luxury travel brand. The VP is a critical member of the senior management team and is responsible for leading the sales organization towards its strategic goals. The ideal candidate will have a combination of visionary leadership, sales management, operations strategy development and execution, a strong metrics/data driven orientation, the ability to create and lead high performing teams within a nimble, entrepreneurial environment. This role is critical in maintaining and furthering the exceptional sales and service experience our clients receive through our sales organization.

The successful candidate is a leader who can solve complex business problems with creativity and passion with a data driven approach. Someone who leads by example and who models the behaviour needed to create success in his/her team. They will manage the global sales team to drive business across all customer segments. They will be a “process builder’, will the ability to transition between high-level visions and detail-oriented execution and have had success at translating business vision into action for aggressive growth. The VP will work collaboratively with other members of senior management to execute on these strategies to achieve exceptional growth and profitability.

Responsibilities

• Play a central role in developing and implementing future vision and strategy for the sales organization.
• Ability to motivate and drive profitable sales growth in a remote sales team environment.
• Coach, mentor and develop the senior sales leadership team.
• Partner with the Talent Acquisition team to drive strategic and robust high-volume recruitment practices during a phase of rapid expansion.
• Lead and improve onboarding and ongoing training process for our sales consultants and other support staff.
• Achieve sales training objectives by developing, implementing, and managing ongoing sales training programs that enable staff to achieve their potential and drive productivity, quality, employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention results.
• Work with cross functional teams to introduce employee engagement initiatives across the network.
• Foster a positive and engaging work environment for each team member by promoting skill development, coaching for improvement and growth, inspiring others through your words and actions, ensuring positive employee morale.
• Design and implement short and long-term processes, systems, and structures necessary to consistently achieve objectives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and associated industry or related business experience.
• 15+ years of sales operations management experience with demonstrated ability to drive revenue growth, streamline operations and improve profitability in a sizeable environment with upwards of 1000 team members or more.
• 10+ years in a management role leading cross-functional teams. Ability to collaborate and enable teams to work toward a common goal, both internally and externally.
• Industry experience with luxury and bespoke travel product and their associated markets an asset.
• Experience in a premium/luxury service business. Ability to bring a clear sense of style and brand consistency to our premium and luxury product.
• Demonstrated experience working with key industry suppliers (Hotel chains/Cruise/Airlines) and an understanding of the Tours Market/Specialist Travel/Luxury Travel space is an asset.
• Experience with scaling sales organizations with organic and inorganic growth
• Outstanding research and analytical capabilities. 
• Strong project management mindset and is hyper organized in approach in delivering and managing operations.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically yet maintain contact with day-to-day performance.
• Hands on with high energy, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a positive attitude.
• History of consistently meeting/exceeding targets and objectives personally and as a leader.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and complexity well, rank priorities, and quickly solve problems in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to demonstrate flexible and efficient time management and to appropriately prioritize workload based upon organization requirements.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Excellent presentation skills with a strong ability to present to senior-level executives.

Preferred Requirements

• High IQ and EQ; confident and leads vs. follows; takes it upon themselves to be fully accountable for the success of the sales organization and is skilled at removing friction.
• Results oriented; takes ownership and accountability for delivering on company forecasts and goals and permeates the sales organization with the same attitude and sense of personal accountability.
• Builds effective teams; building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals.
• Develops talent; developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization’s goals.
• Strategic mindset; seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.

We are committed to providing employment accommodation in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. If you require accommodation due to a disability at any stage of our hiring process, please advise us when completing your application.

We thank all candidates for their interest however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.