Director Creative Strategy Jobs in Rochester, NY

RES Exhibit Services creates brand experiences that inspire and perform. For over 30 years, we have helped clients bring strategy, design, engineering, fabrication, and execution together under one roof to create custom exhibits, branded environments, and event experiences for high-visibility moments.

Today, RES is entering its next chapter with refreshed leadership, a sharper brand direction, new client momentum, and a renewed focus on clarity, accountability, creativity, craftsmanship, and measurable results. We are looking for people who want to help build what comes next.

Why This Role Matters Now

Sales at RES is where the right relationships and business problems become opportunities to engineer something memorable and measurable. This role is responsible for more than selling exhibit space. It requires understanding what clients need to accomplish and connecting that need to RES's strategy, creative, technical, production, and program-management capabilities.

RES is seeking an experienced Director of Sales to develop and execute new-business plans aligned with annual revenue and gross-margin goals. Reporting to the President, this role will identify and qualify target prospects, build trusted relationships, lead consultative discovery, coordinate pursuit strategy, and guide opportunities from first conversation through signed agreement and disciplined internal handoff.

New Business and Market Development

• Develop and execute a targeted newbusiness plan aligned with RES's idealclient profile, priority verticals, regional opportunities, annual revenue goals, and grossmargin expectations.
• Build relationships with senior decisionmakers, brand and event leaders, procurement teams, agency partners, and other stakeholders who influence experientialprogram decisions.
• Generate opportunities through strategic prospecting, referrals, industry relationships, trade show floor engagement, professional networks, marketing campaigns, and thoughtful followup.
• Research target companies, industries, competitive relationships, event calendars, business triggers, and program needs before outreach or pursuit planning.
• Qualify opportunities based on strategic fit, client need, budget, decision process, timing, commercial terms, delivery risk, and RES's ability to create meaningful value.

Consultative Selling and Opportunity Strategy

• Lead discovery conversations that clarify the client's business objectives, audience, brand priorities, experience goals, measurement expectations, budget parameters, decision criteria, and internal dynamics.
• Translate discovery into a clear, actionable opportunity brief that gives Client Services, Creative Strategy, Estimating, Project Management, Production, Finance, and leadership the context required to respond well.
• Position RES as a strategic experiential partner that brings imagination and disciplined execution together, not simply as a provider of exhibit products or isolated services.
• Develop pursuit strategies, win themes, competitive positioning, stakeholder maps, and nextstep plans for qualified opportunities.
• Lead client presentations, proposals, capabilities meetings, discovery sessions, facility tours, and pitch activity with a confident, authentic, and clientcentered point of view.
• Coordinate internal contributors throughout the sales process, establish clear deadlines and ownership, and ensure the client receives a cohesive response rather than a collection of departmental inputs.
• Present scope, pricing, assumptions, schedule, responsibilities, and commercial terms clearly; secure required internal approval before making commitments outside established standards.

Pipeline, Forecasting, and Salesforce Discipline

• Maintain every active lead, prospect, and opportunity in Salesforce with accurate stage, value, probability, anticipated close date, decisionmakers, next action, source, risks, and supporting notes.
• Provide credible rolling forecasts based on documented client evidence and decision timing rather than optimism alone.
• Maintain a healthy, qualified pipeline with enough coverage and stage progression to support annual growth goals.
• Advance, requalify, or close dormant opportunities promptly so pipeline reporting remains useful for resource and financial planning.
• Use Salesforce to provide visibility to qualified expansion opportunities within existing accounts while Client Services retains clear ownership of the active client relationship.
Cross-Functional Collaboration and Handoff
• Engage creative, technical, operational, financial, and project leaders early enough to validate feasibility, capacity, schedule, pricing, margin, and risk before commitments are made.
• Ensure each signed opportunity is supported by a complete handoff that documents client objectives, approved scope, budget, schedule, assumptions, contacts, decision history, contractual terms, approval status, and known risks.
• Remain available through kickoff and early transition when sales context is needed, while reinforcing one clear operational owner for project execution.
• Partner with Finance and Legal on credit, payment terms, contracts, insurance requirements, purchase orders, deposits, and other commercial conditions that affect project readiness or risk.
Education and Experience
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related discipline preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible sales or businessdevelopment experience, including a demonstrated record of generating and closing new business.
• Minimum of five years of experience in trade shows, experiential marketing, events, custom fabrication, agency services, branded environments, or a comparable complex projectbased industry strongly preferred.
• Experience selling consultative, customized solutions with multiple stakeholders, long sales cycles, formal proposals, competitive pitches, and meaningful financial value.
• Experience building relationships with corporate marketing, event, procurement, agency, and executive decisionmakers.
• Working knowledge of CRM, proposal, presentation, forecasting, and Microsoft Office tools; Salesforce experience strongly preferred.
Required Skills and Abilities
• Strong prospecting, discovery, relationshipdevelopment, presentation, negotiation, and closing skills.
• Ability to understand a client's business problem, ask incisive questions, and connect needs to the right mix of strategy, creative, technical, production, and programmanagement capabilities.
• Commercial and financial acumen, including the ability to discuss budgets, pricing, gross margin, payment terms, contractual requirements, and risk.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with the judgment to adapt effectively across executive, creative, technical, procurement, and operational audiences.
• Strong pipeline discipline, followthrough, organization, prioritization, and forecast judgment.
• Ability to coordinate crossfunctional pursuit teams without creating confusion around ownership or decision authority.
• Comfort operating in a fastmoving, deadlinedriven environment where priorities and client needs may change.
• Curiosity, resilience, accountability, integrity, and a willingness to hear and communicate difficult information early.
Travel and Work Requirements
• Ability and willingness to travel as required for client meetings, trade shows, industry events, presentations, site visits, and relationship development.
• Availability for occasional early mornings, evenings, weekends, or schedule changes based on travel, events, client commitments, and proposal deadlines.
What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means RES has a healthy, qualified pipeline; forecasts are credible; pursuits are intentional; new work meets revenue and margin expectations; client commitments are realistic and well documented; and operational teams receive complete, timely handoffs. The strongest Director of Sales combines curiosity with commercial discipline, brings the right people into the pursuit early, communicates risks before they become delivery problems, and wins business RES can execute with confidence.

Key Measures of Success
• Newbusiness bookings and recognized revenue against annual targets.
• Gross margin and commercial quality of signed work.
• Qualified pipeline coverage, stage progression, and aging.
• Forecast accuracy and reliability of anticipated close dates.
• Conversion and win rates for qualified opportunities and competitive pursuits.
• Accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of Salesforce records and nextstep activity.
• Penetration of priority verticals and acquisition of idealfit new accounts.
• Completeness of salestoexecution handoffs and reduction of downstream scope, assumption, or commercial gaps.
• Quality of client feedback, referrals, and relationship continuity through transition.
Additional Information

The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $75,000 to $90,000 plus commission annually. Individual pay is determined based on several factors, including relevant experience, demonstrated sales performance, job knowledge, complexity of the role, and job location.

Benefits

RES Exhibit Services offers competitive salary and performance-based incentives, along with comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k), and paid time off.

Equal Opportunity Employer

RES Exhibit Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic or status.