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Vice President, Sales & Partnerships
About the Mud Monsters
The Mississippi Mud Monsters are a professional baseball team in the Frontier League, playing at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Mississippi.
Our business goes well beyond baseball.
Trustmark Park is a year-round sports and entertainment venue, anchored by Mud Monsters baseball and The Southern Lights holiday festival, along with special events, hospitality experiences and community programming throughout the year.
We believe memorable experiences and strong relationships drive revenue. We are looking for a sales leader who can help us turn both into continued growth.
The Opportunity
The Vice President, Sales & Partnerships will lead the Mud Monsters' sales organization and own the strategy, execution and performance of our ticket sales and corporate partnership revenue.
Put simply: you own the sales number.
This is not a position for someone who wants to manage sales from behind a spreadsheet.
You will lead and develop a team, build strategy, manage pipelines, forecast revenue and hold people accountable - but you will also sell. We expect our VP to build relationships, open doors, make pitches and personally close meaningful business.
The right person can look at today's sales report and understand what happened, look at the pipeline and understand what is coming, and then build a plan to close the gap between where we are and where we need to be.
This position reports directly to the General Manager and serves as a key member of the organization's leadership team.
What You'll Be Doing
Lead the Sales Organization

• Lead the organization's ticket sales and corporate partnership efforts.
• Establish individual and department revenue goals in partnership with the General Manager.
• Build and execute annual, seasonal, monthly and weekly sales plans.
• Create a consistent culture of prospecting, follow-up, relationship building and closing.
• Lead regular sales meetings, pipeline reviews and individual coaching.
• Hold the sales team accountable for activity, pipeline development and results.
• Recruit, train and develop sales employees as the organization grows.
• Build a team where expectations are clear, performance is measured and people continue getting better.

Drive Ticket Revenue
Lead the strategy and performance of ticket sales across products including:

• Group outings
• Season tickets
• Ticket plans
• Premium seating and hospitality
• Suites and group hospitality spaces
• Special ticket offers and experiences
• Southern Lights group and premium business
• Other ticketed events and products developed by the organization

Monitor sales pace, identify underperforming products or dates and build plans to improve results.
Develop strategies around new business, renewals, retention, referrals and account growth.
Work closely with ticket operations to ensure inventory, products, reporting and systems support the sales strategy.
Grow Corporate Partnerships
Lead the development, sale and renewal of corporate partnerships across Mud Monsters baseball, The Southern Lights and other Trustmark Park opportunities.
Responsibilities include:

• Prospecting and developing new corporate relationships
• Building customized partnership packages
• Selling signage, promotions, hospitality, digital assets and other sponsorship inventory
• Developing integrated year-round partnerships
• Growing existing accounts through renewals and upsells
• Identifying new sponsorable assets and revenue opportunities
• Ensuring partnership commitments are properly communicated and deliverable
• Maintaining strong relationships with key business and community partners

The VP will personally lead many of the organization's largest and most strategically important sales opportunities.
Own the Forecast
Know the numbers.
The Vice President, Sales & Partnerships should be able to clearly communicate:

• Where the department stands against budget
• How each revenue category is pacing
• What is currently in the pipeline
• What revenue is realistically expected to close
• Where the organization is outperforming or underperforming
• Why those results are happening
• What the sales team is doing next

Provide clear and accurate forecasts to the General Manager and organizational leadership.
Use data to identify opportunities and problems early rather than simply reporting results after they happen.
Sell
Leadership does not remove you from selling.
The Vice President, Sales & Partnerships will maintain a personal revenue goal and is expected to directly generate meaningful business.
That may include:

• Major corporate partnerships
• Large group outings
• Premium hospitality
• Season-long relationships
• Southern Lights business
• Strategic community relationships
• Other significant revenue opportunities

You should be comfortable walking into a room, giving a presentation, making the ask and closing the deal.
At the same time, individual production cannot come at the expense of developing the team.
Success is measured by both personal performance and department performance.
Develop the Team
The VP will lead, coach and develop sales employees across ticket sales and partnerships.
This includes:

• Setting clear individual expectations
• Managing pipelines, activity and accountability
• Helping sellers develop strategy around key prospects
• Coaching employees through challenges and opportunities
• Recruiting, onboarding and training new sales staff
• Identifying areas for growth and development
• Building a culture that values relationships, effort, accountability and results

The goal is not simply to create a department that sells today.
It is to build a sales organization that gets better over time.
Work Across the Organization
Sales does not operate in a vacuum.
Work collaboratively across marketing, ticketing, food and beverage, operations, game presentation and other areas of the organization to develop products, execute partnerships and identify new revenue opportunities.
What We're Looking For

• Demonstrated success in ticket sales, corporate partnerships, sports sales, entertainment sales or another revenue-producing field.
• Experience leading, coaching or developing salespeople.
• Proven ability to personally generate and close new business.
• Strong understanding of pipeline management and sales forecasting.
• Ability to build relationships with business owners, executives, community leaders and organizational decision-makers.
• Strong presentation, communication and negotiation skills.
• Comfort creating sales strategy and then doing the work required to execute it.
• Organized and disciplined with CRM usage, follow-up and reporting.
• Ability to analyze sales data and turn that information into action.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Comfortable working in an entrepreneurial organization where responsibilities may occasionally extend beyond a traditional job description.
• Sports or live entertainment experience preferred, but not required for an exceptional sales leader.
• Ability to work nights, weekends, holidays and events as required.

What Success Looks Like
Success is not simply being the highest individual seller in the office.
Success means:
The department hits its number.
The pipeline is healthy and accurate.
Salespeople know what is expected of them and continue getting better.
New relationships are constantly being created.
Existing accounts grow and renew.
Ticket products have a clear strategy behind them.
Corporate partners see value in working with the Mud Monsters.
The Southern Lights has a strong sales effort supporting it.
Leadership knows where revenue stands without having to chase down answers.
And when the organization is behind, you recognize it early and have a plan to change it.
Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Commission and performance-based earning opportunities
• Health insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Unlimited PTO with manager approval
• Mud Monsters apparel and team benefits
• Opportunity to build and lead the sales operation of a growing sports and entertainment organization

Why This Role Matters
We are not looking for someone simply to maintain what already exists.
We want someone who sees opportunity.
Someone who can look at an empty hospitality space and think about who should be in it.
Someone who sees a business in the community and starts imagining a partnership.
Someone who notices an unsold game and starts building a plan.
Someone who can challenge a salesperson, coach them through a problem and help them close the next one.
Someone who understands that relationships matter - but eventually, somebody has to ask for the sale.
If you can build a team, build relationships and build revenue, we want to talk.