Director of Advertising-St. Louis Post-DispatchThe Director of Sales is a high-impact sales leader responsible for driving revenue growth, developing talent, strengthening client relationships, and advancing the organization's digital sales strategy. This role leads a team of sales professionals, sets clear performance expectations, and creates a culture focused on accountability, initiative, and results.
The ideal candidate brings a strong bias to impact...someone who moves quickly from strategy to execution, identifies opportunities, solves problems, and consistently translates ideas into measurable business results.
Key ResponsibilitiesRevenue Growth & Sales Leadership- Lead the sales team in achieving and exceeding revenue, new business, retention, and growth objectives.
- Develop and execute sales strategies that drive both new business acquisition and growth of existing accounts.
- Establish clear sales priorities, activity expectations, pipeline goals, and performance metrics.
- Maintain a strong focus on prospecting, pipeline development, conversion, and closing.
- Identify opportunities to increase client spend, expand relationships, and introduce additional products and solutions.
- Champion consultative selling that connects client objectives to measurable outcomes rather than simply selling individual products.
- Personally engage in high-value opportunities and strategic client relationships when appropriate.
- Analyze sales performance and take decisive action to address gaps and capitalize on opportunities.
Digital Sales & Innovation- Ensure the sales team understands and effectively communicates the value of digital advertising, audience targeting, branded content, data, social, video, email, and other emerging solutions.
- Identify new revenue opportunities created by changes in consumer behavior, technology, and the media marketplace.
- Build the team's confidence and capability in selling integrated digital and multimedia solutions.
Team Leadership & Development- Directly manage, coach, and develop sales team members with a focus on performance and professional growth.
- Establish a culture of accountability, urgency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Conduct regular one-on-ones, pipeline reviews, coaching sessions, and performance discussions.
- Recognize high performance and address underperformance constructively.
- Recruit, retain, and develop high-caliber sales talent.
- Create an environment where salespeople are expected and empowered to take ownership of their results.
Client & Market Leadership- Build and maintain strong relationships with key clients and business decision-makers.
- Emphasize strategic partnerships that create long-term client value.
- Maintain a strong understanding of the competitive landscape, marketplace trends, and evolving advertiser needs.
- Represent the organization as a strategic media and marketing partner within the business community.
Operational Excellence- Maintain disciplined pipeline and CRM management across the sales organization.
- Use data and performance reporting to identify trends, opportunities, and areas requiring intervention.
- Collaborate with marketing, content, digital, operations, and leadership teams to maximize revenue opportunities.
- Ensure sales initiatives are executed with consistency, urgency, and measurable accountability.
What Success Looks Like- Consistent revenue growth and achievement of sales goals
- Increased new business and prospect conversion
- Strong retention and meaningful growth among existing advertisers
- Increased digital and integrated solution revenue
- A healthier, more predictable sales pipeline
- Higher productivity and performance across the sales team
- Stronger sales talent through coaching, development, and recruitment
- Deeper, more strategic client relationships
Ideal Candidate- The ideal candidate is a proven sales leader who is digitally fluent and action oriented.
- Lead from the front and set the pace for the team.
- Have a strong track record of growing revenue.
- Know how to win new business while expanding existing relationships.
- Understand the changing media and digital advertising landscape.
- Coach people toward higher performance.
- Use data to make decisions and measure results.
- Move quickly, take ownership, and solve problems.
- Bring energy, competitiveness, and a strong sense of urgency.
- Have a bias to impact and consistently ask, "What will move the business forward?"
Lee Enterprises offers competitive wages in a dynamic, interesting work environment with career growth opportunities. We offer an extensive benefit program that can be personalized to your needs. Our benefit program includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, company provided life insurance and supplemental life insurance. In addition, we offer a 401K retirement plan with company match. We also offer generous paid time off to allow flexibility to balance personal life and work. This includes paid parental leave for new parents.