Head of Sales

Head of Sales

National Leadership Role | High Growth | Venue Partnership | 30%+ Travel

Role Summary

The Head of Sales is responsible for leading PopStroke's national event and group sales strategy, structure, and execution across all venues. This role oversees a layered field sales organization consisting of Senior Sales Managers who lead and support Event Sales Managers, Local Marketing Managers, Coordinators, and other sales resources across the PopStroke portfolio.

This leader is accountable for transforming event and group sales into a significant and sustainable revenue engine for the business, with a goal of growing sales-generated revenue to approximately 20-30% of total venue revenue over time.

Just as importantly, the Head of Sales is responsible for ensuring the Sales organization operates as an integrated partner to our venues-not as a separate corporate function. Sales success at PopStroke requires deep partnership with Operating Partners and venue leadership, a strong understanding of venue operations, and shared accountability for both the revenue sold and the experience ultimately delivered to the guest.

The Head of Sales will establish the expectation that sales leaders know their venues, understand their businesses, spend meaningful time in the field, and work side-by-side with Operating Partners to identify opportunities, solve challenges, support major events, and drive revenue.

This is not an individual contributor sales role. This leader must scale performance through people, systems, training, data, venue partnership, operational understanding, and disciplined execution.

What Success Looks Like

• Event and group sales represent an increasingly meaningful share of total venue revenue.
• Sales-generated revenue reaches or exceeds established penetration targets, with a long-term goal of approximately 20-30% of venue revenue.
• Existing venues consistently deliver year-over-year event and group sales growth.
• New venues launch with strong pipelines, community relationships, and event sales momentum.
• Senior Sales Managers operate as strong business leaders who effectively coach, develop, and hold their teams accountable.
• Sales teams build strong, trusted partnerships with Operating Partners and venue leadership.
• Sales strategies reflect the unique opportunities, seasonality, capacity, guest mix, and needs of each individual venue.
• Local sales teams consistently execute proven prospecting, pipeline management, conversion, follow-up, and relationship-building practices.
• Corporate, social, community, fundraising, and large-group bookings grow across all markets.
• Sales leaders are visible and engaged in venues, particularly during high-volume events, peak periods, and important activations.
• Sales and Operations share accountability for delivering exceptional events that generate repeat business and referrals.
• Event offerings continue to evolve to maximize revenue, profitability, operational execution, and guest satisfaction.
• PopStroke develops a proactive, entrepreneurial, performance-driven sales culture rooted in The PopStroke Way.

Key Responsibilities

National Sales Strategy & Revenue Growth

• Own and execute the overarching national strategy for events, group bookings, and sales-generated revenue.
• Build aggressive but achievable growth plans by venue, market, and region.
• Establish clear sales benchmarks, KPIs, pipeline expectations, and performance standards across the organization.
• Create differentiated strategies based on individual venue opportunities rather than relying solely on a one-size-fits-all national approach.
• Identify and scale opportunities across:
• • Corporate events
  • Social celebrations
  • Community partnerships
  • Fundraising
  • Schools and youth organizations
  • Repeat business
  • Large-format bookings
  • Local and regional partnerships
• Analyze existing venue performance and partner with Senior Sales Managers and Operating Partners to develop action plans for underperforming markets.
• Ensure every venue is maximizing its event sales opportunity while balancing operational capacity and the overall guest experience.
• Continually identify new revenue opportunities and challenge the organization to rethink how PopStroke uses its venues, experiences, partnerships, and brand to drive incremental business.

Venue Partnership & Operational Integration

• Build a Sales organization that views Operating Partners and venue leaders as essential business partners.
• Establish strong working relationships between Sales and Operations at every level of the organization.
• Ensure Senior Sales Managers and local sales leaders regularly connect with Operating Partners to review:
• • Upcoming events and venue needs
  • Sales pipeline and forecast
  • Revenue opportunities
  • Operational capacity
  • Guest feedback
  • Event execution
  • Local market opportunities
  • Staffing and scheduling needs
• Reinforce that selling the event is only the beginning; the Sales team shares ownership for ensuring what was sold can be operationally executed and delivers an experience guests want to book again.
• Ensure sales leaders spend meaningful time inside the venues and alongside Operations, particularly during important events, high-volume periods, and key business moments.
• Create clear expectations for sales teams to support and facilitate events as business needs require, rather than operating exclusively from behind a desk or focusing solely on prospecting and booking.
• Partner with Operating Partners on weekly priorities and schedules so Sales resources are deployed where they can have the greatest impact on the business.
• Ensure appropriate sales schedules and venue/event support expectations are communicated, coordinated, and reflected in company scheduling systems.
• Build operational fluency across the Sales organization through venue training and ongoing exposure to the day-to-day business.
• Encourage Sales leaders to roll up their sleeves, jump in, and support venue teams when needed-particularly when doing so protects the guest experience or strengthens an important client relationship.
• Create feedback loops between Operations and Sales so learnings from event execution continuously improve packages, pricing, communication, selling practices, and future events.

Leadership of the Sales Organization

• Directly lead and develop the Senior Sales Manager team.
• Build strong leadership capability within the sales management layer so Senior Sales Managers operate as business owners, not simply pipeline managers.
• Hold leaders accountable for:
• • Venue revenue performance
  • Year-over-year growth
  • Team development
  • Booking growth
  • Pipeline health
  • Conversion
  • Local strategy execution
  • Partnership with Operating Partners
  • Event execution support
  • Team productivity and accountability
• Create consistent leadership routines, scorecards, field visits, business reviews, and coaching expectations.
• Develop succession planning and bench strength to support PopStroke's continued growth.
• Identify performance gaps quickly and establish clear action plans to improve results.
• Spend significant time in the field observing the business firsthand, coaching leaders, meeting venue teams, and identifying opportunities that may not be visible through reporting alone.

Venue-Level Sales Execution

• Ensure local sales teams consistently drive:
• • Lead generation
  • Outbound prospecting
  • Community outreach
  • Corporate relationship development
  • Event conversion
  • Repeat bookings
  • Referral business
  • Local partnerships
• Standardize core sales processes while allowing teams to adapt their approach to the needs and opportunities of their individual markets.
• Improve speed-to-lead, responsiveness, follow-up, conversion, and pipeline discipline.
• Develop and oversee training, scripting, prospecting expectations, CRM discipline, and sales best practices.
• Establish clear expectations for proactive selling rather than relying primarily on inbound inquiries.
• Ensure Sales and Operations are aligned before major events regarding guest expectations, package details, operational requirements, and ownership.
• Reinforce that local Sales teams are part of the venue team and share responsibility for the success of the overall business.

Events Ownership & Revenue Expansion

• Own the strategic growth of events as a major company revenue channel.
• Evaluate and continuously improve event packages, pricing, offerings, upsell opportunities, and sales strategy.
• Identify opportunities to increase both revenue and profitability, not simply booking volume.
• Ensure venues consistently increase event revenue mix while maintaining strong operational execution.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Culinary, Marketing, Finance, and other leaders to ensure event offerings are commercially compelling and operationally executable.
• Work directly with Culinary leadership on food and beverage packages to ensure offerings are fully developed, financially sound, scalable, and executed consistently across markets.
• Create strong post-event practices that capture guest feedback, drive repeat bookings, generate referrals, and identify future opportunities.
• Use learnings from venue teams and event execution to continuously improve the sales proposition.

National Sales Partnerships & Fundraising Programs

• Develop and scale a national partnerships strategy that drives incremental group and event revenue.
• Build a structured fundraising platform that can be deployed consistently across PopStroke venues.
• Create frameworks for schools, nonprofits, youth sports organizations, community groups, and other partners to generate recurring event volume.
• Identify national relationships that can be activated locally across multiple PopStroke markets.
• Establish long-term partnership pipelines that increase brand reach, booking frequency, and repeat business.
• Equip local teams with tools and programs they can bring into their communities rather than relying exclusively on nationally generated opportunities.

Reporting, Analytics & Forecasting

• Build and maintain disciplined sales forecasting and pipeline management practices.
• Monitor and regularly review:
• • Event revenue
  • Revenue penetration by venue
  • Year-over-year growth
  • Booking volume
  • Conversion rates
  • Lead generation
  • Pipeline health
  • Average event value
  • Repeat business
  • Team productivity
  • Market opportunities
  • Forecast accuracy
• Develop venue-level reporting that gives both Sales and Operating Partners visibility into performance and upcoming opportunities.
• Use data to identify gaps, diagnose root causes, and create clear actions-not simply report results.
• Present performance insights, risks, opportunities, and recommendations to executive leadership.
• Continuously refine sales strategy based on performance data, venue feedback, market trends, and guest behavior.

Leadership Traits

• Venue-first mindset: Understands that the venues are where our brand, culture, and guest experience come to life.
• Strategic and hands-on: Can build the national strategy and then walk into a venue and help execute it.
• Exceptional leader through others: Builds capable leaders who can drive performance without constant direction.
• Strong business partner:</