Sales Development Manager - South West & South Wales (9-12 Months Mat Cover)

Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our ambitious team of Sales Development Managers, on a 9-12 months’ contract.

About Us

Royal Caribbean Group is the world’s largest cruise line, and it couldn’t be a more exciting time to join a global business that is blazing a trail in the travel industry right now. We are at the forefront of the industry. The work that we do is exciting, challenging, and innovative. You will get to work both independently and as part of a collaborative and dynamic sales team. We are passionate, we are innovative, and we are unstoppable!

Job Summary

This field-based role is responsible for managing sales development, account management, trade engagement and brand activation for a geographical territory in the UK. Ensuring the strategy for the territory is flawlessly executed and that performance is maximised through excellent communication, brand representation and follow up. Spending up to 4 days “on the road” to support and engage a portfolio of trade customers, this role requires excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work with a large number of stakeholders. Occasional evening and weekend working will be required. This role covers the South West and South Wales, therefore you must be located within the territory, ideally near Bristol or Cardiff.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Customer Engagement & Commitment

• Act as an ambassador for Royal Caribbean and demonstrate an exceptional level of product / sector knowledge ensuring the brand has an extremely high profile across travel retail and homeworking.
• Develop and nurture relationships with retail and homeworking contacts and business influencers, with the goal of gaining greater share of voice and to build positive partnerships.
• Develop a deep understanding of regional account mix, challenges and opportunities so that communication, activity and interactions are relevant and productive.
• Set clear SMART objectives for all visits and meetings to ensure effective use of time.
• Own regional relationships across Trade Partner organisation (such as Regional Cruise Experts) to ensure brand engagement, education, sales plan implementation and awareness.
• Drive participation in the corporate trade incentive programme ‘Upper Deck’, identifying and following up on minimum engagement targets.
• Develop a training plan alongside Training Manager EMEA for accounts that recognises specific business needs, identifying and following up on minimum engagement levels.
• Work with the Senior Strategic Sales Manager to prepare and host successful customer educational events/trips i.e seminar at sea, ship launches/visits, conferences, cruise shows, etc. as required, with targeted sales performance post the event to ensure return on investment.
• Leverage social media to maximise engagement with trade agents.

• Arrange and attend monthly/quarterly sales meetings with stakeholder relevant to the account mix (i.e Regional Sales Managers/Key homeworkers/consortia members) to plan targeted activity including engagement and training opportunities.
• Develop and implement annual, quarterly and monthly sales plans, ensuring the plan will drive achievement of all key metrics across the territory.
• Analyse weekly, monthly and quarterly account activity and performance, spotting opportunities to improve performance and put in place tangible, measurable action plans that drive results.
• Develop effective Coop marketing plans with regional accounts that will drive mutual return on investment.
• Monitor and report all holiday competitor activity, pricing and marketing relevant to account mix.
• Provide store visit reports and follow up consistently on the actions set using the CRM app.

• Spend up to 80% of time interacting with retail stores, homeworkers and regional accounts face to face and 20% of time building plans, course correcting and following up on opportunities.
• Ensure that agreed sales and marketing activity is implemented, tracked through the toolkit to ensure full compliance to brand guidelines, and the success of all activity is tracked and monitored to assess ROI.
• Work with trade marketing to ensure that Royal Caribbean International are truly represented in all sales activity.
• Effectively represent the Royal Caribbean brand by developing relevant training content that is delivered in an engaging, motivational and inspiring way.
• Submit a rolling three-month training and engagement plan to be agreed by the SSSM.
• Structure workload effectively to ensure maximum time with accounts and all administration and support activities are completed effectively and to time.

Qualifications & Experience Required

• Minimum of 18 months experience in a sales role, preferably with field sales experience.
• Proven track record in driving tangible sales results.
• Knowledge of cruise or travel industry preferred.
• Outstanding communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to spend up to 4 days a week “on the road” as required, visiting trade partners/stores (may require overnight hotel stays).
• Must be located within the South West or South Wales, ideally near Bristol or Cardiff.
• Clean current driving license.
• Must be available for face-to-face interview in Cardiff on 1st April 2026.

Traits To Excel In This Role

• Analytical - understands category trends, dynamics and opportunities for growth.
• Excellent negotiator, persistent and optimistic.
• Understands the importance of monitoring performance against plans and course correcting to achieve/exceed goals.
• A natural drive for results and seeks to improve performance.
• Influencing and Selling - has an interest in convincing or influencing others to purchase a product or service.
• Warmth/Empathy - can invite others to participate in or join an effort.
• Enthusiastic and takes initiative - demonstrates passion and enthusiasm toward own goals.

It is the policy of the Company to ensure equal employment and promotion opportunity to qualified candidates without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. RCL and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

We know there’s a lot to consider. As you go through the application process, our recruiters will be glad to provide guidance, and more relevant details to answer any additional questions. Thank you again for your interest in Royal Caribbean Group. We’ll hope to see you onboard soon!