Manager, Partnership Solutions

SUMMARY

The Corporate Partnership Solutions team is a new function within the overarching Corporate Partnerships department at the Washington Nationals, helping the organization with its partnership sales, retention and renewal efforts. The Solutions team serves as an internal agency for the department, responsible for crafting the strategic approach to partnerships, building compelling partnership stories, identifying new commercial opportunities, creating impactful marketing solutions for prospects and partners and measuring ROI against KPIs and other valuation metrics.

Reporting to the Executive Director of Corporate Partnership Solutions, the Manager of Corporate Partnership Solutions will lead partnership ideation and platform creation. Core responsibilities include: ideating, developing and managing meaningful, innovative partnership platforms and programs with respect to new sales, renewals and incremental upsells. In addition, this role will create commercial marketing materials to position the Nationals as a best-in-class sports brand.

This unique role will be suited for a creative mind versed in strategy, brand management and integrated marketing. The ideal candidate will be solutions-oriented and able to bring forward a variety of perspectives in order to identify the right business opportunity.

• Work alongside Sales and Activation to identify prospect and partner KPIs, translating goals and objectives into holistic partnership plans
• Proactively identify and capitalize on new opportunities that support the brand and business
• Communicate with cross-functional teammates to identify and/or develop platforms, programs and assets as marketing solutions for prospects and partners, leading the internal vetting and approval process
• Ensure effective communication between departments to facilitate collaboration and foster performance
• Conduct in-depth market research on best practices to drive best-in-class

• Develop commercial marketing materials as needed, including but not limited to: proposals, prospecting sheets, term sheets, thought starters, best practices, etc.
• Collaborate with the Nationals Brand and Creative teams to maintain brand standards and develop compelling storytelling within partnership proposals
• Assess current industry trends and anticipate the potential for growth
• Evaluate and provide strategies to create new inventory based on current and historical sales data from all MLB teams
• Operate an efficient workflow process
• Assist as needed across game-day activations and other partnership events

• Work with Activation to ensure the Nationals are meeting and exceeding partners’ KPIs
• Develop concepts for upsells and utilization of activation funds and ticket banks

• Oversee the maintenance of all corporate partnership inventory to support prospect and partner maximization, including gameday, digital/social and other assets, leveraging their full capabilities (ie, bonus opportunities)
• Ensure that internal inventory materials are updated consistently in real-time
• Research and provide examples of new inventory based on current and historical sales data from MLB and third-party vendor sources
• Support annual rate card analysis for all sold and available assets, including in-ballpark, digital/social, etc., based on valuation returns and other marketplace insights

• Serve as the departmental liaison with the Nationals Community Relations, Philanthropies, Promotions and In-Game Entertainment cross-functional teammates

Required (critical to successful job performance):

• Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, marketing, sports management, communications or other related field
• 4+ of full-time experience in brand strategy, sales and/or activation at a brand, team, league, agency and/or media setting

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities necessary to perform essential functions:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills
  -Ability to communicate with staff and prepare written reports.
• Strong organizational skills
• Passion for “thinking outside of the box”
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365,…