Head of Consumer Sales and Growth

About the Carlton Football Club

The Carlton Football Club is one of Australia's oldest and most prominent sport institutions. Founded in 1864, the Club's headquarters and training facilities are located in Carlton at IKON Park, our traditional home ground. Our IKON Park redevelopment is now complete, and we are proud of our state-of-the-art facilities that supports our high-performance environment. We are passionate about our contribution to the Community and foster an inclusive and welcoming culture where our values are at the core of who we are and what we do.

About the Role

Club members are a significant part of all AFL and AFLW clubs and are critical in building sustainable Club success. Our members are at the heart of the reason Carlton exists. This is best encapsulated in the Club purpose which is ensuring a united, inclusive and values led club that achieves on and off field success and ignites a sense of passion, pride and belonging for members, supporters and stakeholders.

The Head of Consumer Sales and Growth is responsible for leading and executing strategies to drive membership growth and new member acquisition opportunities. This role has a strong strategic focus, which includes the ability to research, and identify new market opportunities and bring energy in seeking new business. With a currently strong membership base, this role will focus on retaining the current membership cohort with the Membership Sales and Retention Manager, whilst proactively seeking new opportunities and new markets to drive future year on year membership growth. This is the key objective of this role.

From an enablement perspective, the role will tap into the operational database in order to maximise the pool of prospects, turning prospects into new members.

The role is a key leadership role, and will oversee the Membership Sales team, ensuring the team delivers on sales and retention objectives, which includes retention of existing members, whilst ensuring a positive, collaborative and optimal environment for the sales team, fostering high performance and staff engagement. This role also forms part of the Consumer Leadership Team.

With deep expertise in club membership and membership products, the role is responsible for membership product and price recommendations (along with the GM and Membership Sales & Retention Manager) and maximising seating opportunities for members and supporters at home ground venues (MCG and Marvel Stadium). This position will also oversee and ensure all membership revenue, gate receipts and retention targets are met.

With new growth areas within local, regional and interstate communities, it is essential for the Carlton Football Club to further consolidate its current members and explore new markets. The intended outcome in the long term is to translate supporter interactions and a strong sense of belonging, into Carlton memberships, which in turn, aims to contribute to an increase in Club revenue streams.

Collaborating with the Ticketing and Operations team, the role also includes driving and executing the member and General Admission ticketing strategy for home games to maximise attendance and drive revenue opportunities. It also includes key liaison with home ground venues to source additional quality seating for Carlton members and supporters.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and build an engaged, customer focused, high performing team.
• Provide performance feedback, coaching and support to team to elevate performance.
• Role model the Club values in day-to-day decision making and interactions and challenge behaviours that are not aligned with Club values.
• Lead with impact, cultivating a team environment that is collaborative, open and inclusive.
• Oversee the Sales team to achieve sales and retention membership targets year on year.
• Ensure membership payment plan compliance to maximise membership revenue.
• Strategically consider and research new membership market opportunities, thinking laterally to introduce the AFL/AFLW to untapped markets – converting AFL/AFLW interest into Club membership
• Development of new membership products that meet emerging and future customer needs.
• Explore strategies other sports apply to successfully drive membership growth.
• Develop and implement a new 3 year member acquisition strategy, signed off by GM Consumer Business, Executive and Board to achieve membership growth in line with Club strategic plan.
• Review existing membership product offering and alignment with member and supporter needs.
• Identify opportunities for ticketing offers and sales opportunities that maximise attendance at all CFC home games (which translate into healthy gate receipts).
• Liaise with the MCG and Marvel Stadium to maximise quality seating (volume of seats and location) for all CFC home games.
• Liaise with AFL to maximise seating opportunities if/when AFL Reserve available.
• Ensure opportunities are maximised on a weekly basis to drive attendance at home games, utilising nimble ticketing strategies that are aligned with customer demand.
• Ensure gate receipt revenue targets are achieved.
• Understand patterns of attendance behaviours to ensure ticketing strategies and opportunities are maximised and attendance meets annual KPI's.

Experience, Skills and Attributes

• Considerable experience in leading and developing high performing teams, creating a positive, energised and collaborative environment for all.
• Deep knowledge and understanding of AFL Club's membership products is essential.
• A demonstrated strategic capability to identify new business opportunities that has resulted in new revenue streams is also essential and is best demonstrated by previous experience in developing strategies and products to reach new markets.
• An understanding of the Ticketmaster Archtics database and general ticketing will be highly regarded.
• Strong interpersonal skills, particularly in verbal and written communication with the ability to develop positive working relationships at all levels.
• Strategic thinking muscle which includes the ability to develop and implement member acquisition and new business strategic plans for Executive/Board endorsement.
• Previous experience chasing and achieving revenue targets through positive leadership, engagement and excellence.
• Numerically strong, with sound experience overseeing a sizeable revenue budget.
• Outstanding leadership capabilities – committed to team success through collaboration and prioritising effective communication.
• Approachable, with a positive professional impact.
• Strong stakeholder management skills.
• Operates with integrity in all dealings.
• Outstanding communication and relationship skills with the ability to build trust, establish and maintain credibility.
• Ability to think laterally and drive new initiatives (from concept to implementation).
• Naturally places value on inclusion, empathy and working well with others.
• High energy, and motivated to achieve results.
• Thrives on accountability and enjoys achieving outcomes as one team.
• Naturally curious, and comfortable trialing new ideas/concepts.
• A clear and genuine alignment with Carlton values and purpose.

Benefits and Culture

Carlton's values underpin how the Club operates, describing how our people work together, interact and behave. The Club is passionate about its culture, focused on cultivating a unique sense of belonging and connection. In addition, we offer our people flexible working, learning and development opportunities, as well as employee benefits such as membership, café and retail discounts, alongside working in a world-class sporting amenity.

How to Apply

Please submit your current resume and cover letter addressed to the General Manager – Consumer Business by 11:55pm Sunday 23 November.

The Carlton Football Club is an equal opportunity employer and a place who welcomes all. We encourage people with diverse experiences and backgrounds to apply. This includes, but is not limited to, those from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, and LGBTQIA+ communities. We are committed to fostering a workplace environment which is inclusive, safe, and flexible. All applicants will be considered based on the relevance of their abilities to the role and their alignment with our Club Values.

The Carlton Football Club is committed to providing a welcoming environment where the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our programs, services, activities, events, and the broader community, will always be our first priority. All staff must hold (or be willing to obtain) a current Victorian Working With Children Check as part of their employment with the Club.