Hartford Athletic Vice President of Partnerships in Windsor, Connecticut at Hartford Athletic

We are Hartford Athletic. Our mission is to provide a world class professional soccer experience and make our community the best place to live, work, and play.

Hartford Athletic is seeking an experienced, results-driven Vice President of Partnerships to lead the Club’s corporate partnership efforts and drive partnership revenue growth.

Reporting to the Chief Business Officer, the Vice President of Partnerships will lead the Partnerships team, currently consisting of Partnership Sales Representatives and Partnership Activation Specialists, with overall accountability for partnership revenue, new business development, activation, partner satisfaction, retention, and renewal.

This is a hands-on player-coach role. In addition to leading the Partnerships team, this role will maintain an active personal sales pipeline and personally develop and close key, high-value partnership opportunities. The position will champion a consultative, needs-based sales approach that begins with understanding each prospect’s objectives and results in customized partnerships designed to deliver meaningful value for both the partner and Hartford Athletic.

This is an in-office position that requires attendance at all Hartford Athletic home matches, as well as partner, community, networking, and other Club events as needed. The position also requires flexibility to work evenings and weekends based on the Club’s match and event schedule.Essential Duties and Responsibilities

· Lead, manage, motivate, and develop the Partnerships team to achieve or exceed established revenue, activation, retention, and renewal goals.

· Establish clear performance expectations, hold team members accountable for results, and provide coaching and development to improve performance.

· Coach Partnership Sales Representatives use a consultative, needs-based sales approach, emphasizing thorough discovery and understanding each prospect’s objectives before developing a proposal.

· Ensure partnership proposals are strategically developed around each prospect’s individual needs and objectives rather than relying on standardized or inventory-driven packages.

· Ensure Partnership Sales Representatives maintain sufficient prospecting activity and a strong pipeline of qualified opportunities to support revenue goals.

· Build a high-performance culture and lead by example as a role model for professionalism, accountability, collaboration, and consistent new-business development.

· Recruit, onboard, train, and develop Partnerships team members as needed.

· Work with the Chief Business Officer to establish annual revenue goals, sales priorities, and strategies.

· Maintain an active personal sales pipeline and directly contribute meaningful revenue toward the Club’s annual partnership goals.

· Develop new corporate partnership opportunities through outbound prospecting, networking, referrals, community relationships, and other business-development activities.

· Personally manage key and high-value opportunities from discovery through proposal, negotiation, and close.

· Conduct thorough discovery to understand each prospect’s business, marketing, audience, community engagement, hospitality, and other relevant objectives.

· Develop customized partnership solutions that align Hartford Athletics’ assets and capabilities with each prospect’s specific objectives and deliver maximum value to both the partner and the Club.

· Build relationships with senior-level business decision-makers and provide strategic support to Partnership Sales Representatives on significant or complex opportunities when appropriate.

· Use Hartford Athletic matches, Club events, and external business and community events to strengthen partner relationships, cultivate prospects, and generate new opportunities.

· Lead and develop the Partnership Activation Specialists, establishing clear expectations and accountability for partner service and fulfillment.

· Ensure 100% of contracted partnership assets are activated and fulfilled accurately, on time, and in accordance with each partner agreement.

· Ensure closed partnership agreements, commitments, and assets are accurately documented and effectively transitioned from Sales to the Activation Specialists for fulfillment.

· Ensure the Partnerships team understands each partner’s objectives and works proactively throughout the relationship to maximize the value and effectiveness of the partnership.

· Maintain visibility into activation status and proactively address outstanding, delayed, or at-risk deliverables.

· Ensure partners receive consistent communication, high-quality service, and appropriate recaps and reporting that demonstrate fulfillment, results, and value against their objectives.

· Collaborate across departments to successfully execute partnership commitments and resolve issues that could negatively impact partner relationships.

· Own the partnership renewal process with a goal of achieving 100% partnership renewals.

· Establish a proactive renewal calendar and ensure renewal strategies and conversations begin well in advance of contract expiration.

· Monitor partner satisfaction with the Partnerships team, identify renewal risks early, and develop strategies to address at-risk partnerships.

· Identify opportunities to grow existing relationships through expanded assets, additional programs, multi-year agreements, and other incremental opportunities.

· Build long-term partner relationships that support retention, renewal, referrals, and continued revenue growth.

· Maintain the Club’s Partnerships Tracker sales report in Microsoft Excel, ensuring prospect information, priority, sales activity, projected revenue, closed business, renewals, and other required information is accurate and current.

· Ensure Partnership Sales Representatives provide accurate and timely information for the Partnerships Tracker.

· Lead the weekly Partnerships Meeting to review sales performance, prospecting activity, priority opportunities, activation, renewals, and other key priorities.

· Ensure the Partnerships Tracker is fully updated and distributed no later than the day before each weekly Partnerships Meeting.

· Ensure appropriate subject matter experts from other departments participate in the weekly meeting when their expertise or involvement is needed.

· Use the Partnerships Tracker and weekly meetings to monitor performance, identify risks and opportunities, drive accountability, and maintain accurate revenue forecasts for the Chief Business Officer.

· Identify gaps in prospecting activity or the volume and quality of opportunities and take corrective action as needed to support revenue targets.

· Oversee and track partnership barter agreements to ensure they provide meaningful and measurable budget relief to Hartford Athletic.

· Work with department heads to identify barter needs and evaluate proposed opportunities to confirm that the goods or services offset expenses that would otherwise be paid from the Club’s budget.

· Track barter value, intended use, department benefiting, utilization, and actual budget relief realized.

· Validate the budget-relieving portion of each barter agreement and ensure only verified budget-relieving value is identified as commissionable in accordance with the Club’s compensation plan.

· Maintain ongoing communication with department heads to evaluate utilization, gather feedback, and ensure the Club receives the intended financial benefit from each barter agreement.

· Develop and execute strategies to grow partnership revenue and strengthen Hartford Athletics’ corporate partnership portfolio.

· Evaluate partnership inventory, category opportunities, market demand, and emerging trends to identify new areas for revenue growth.

· Identify open and underdeveloped partnership categories and develop strategies to pursue high-value opportunities.

· Work with the Chief Business Officer to ensure partnership opportunities and proposals are appropriately structured and aligned with the value of Hartford Athletics’ assets.

· Collaborate with department heads and internal stakeholders to develop partnership opportunities that support Club priorities, meet partner objectives, and can be successfully executed.

· Maintain awareness of available inventory, category conflicts, the Hartford business community, and the broader sponsorship marketplace.Qualifications and Experience

· Demonstrated experience successfully leading and managing a corporate partnership or sponsorship team is required, with a documented track record of achieving team revenue goals, developing new business, and driving partnership retention and renewal.

· Proven ability to coach, develop, and hold sales professionals accountable for achieving performance expectations.

· Demonstrated success personally generating new business and closing significant corporate partnership or sponsorship agreements.

· Experience managing the full partnership lifecycle, including sales, activation, partner relationship management, retention, and renewal.

· Strong sales leadership capabilities, including prospecting strategy, sales pipeline management, forecasting, performance measurement, negotiation, and closing.

· Strong relationship-building, presentation, and communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with senior-level business decision-makers.

· Strong Microsoft Excel skills and experience maintaining sales tracking, pipeline, forecasting, and performance reporting.

· Highly organized, analytical, and detail-oriented, with the ability to balance team leadership responsibilities with an active personal sales pipeline.

· Professional sports, entertainment, sponsorship, media, or related partnership experience is strongly preferred; direct sports sponsorship experience is highly desirable.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be measured by:

· Achievement or exceedance of Hartford Athletics’ annual partnership revenue targets, including meaningful personal contribution to new partnership revenue.

· Consistent achievement of team sales goals is supported by a strong pipeline of qualified opportunities.

· Consistent use of a consultative, needs-based sales approach resulting in customized partnership solutions that address partner objectives and deliver meaningful value.

· 100% fulfillment of contracted partnership assets, strong partner satisfaction, and demonstrated value against partner objectives.

· A goal of 100% partnership renewals, along with growth in the value of existing partnerships.

· Accurate and reliable sales reporting and forecasting provides clear visibility into performance against revenue goals.

· Effective use of barter partnerships to provide measurable budget relief to the Club, with accurate validation of commissionable budget-relieving value.

· Development of a high-performing, accountable Partnerships team that consistently delivers against established goals.

· Consistent leadership, professionalism, and cross-functional collaboration that strengthens the Partnerships team and broader organization.

Hartford Athletic is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.