Background: 

Founded over 50 years ago by Billie Jean King, on the principle of equal opportunity, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is the global leader in women’s sport. The WTA is truly global, with over 50 annual events spanning all corners of the globe, its players represent over 80 different countries and its broadcast attracted an international audience of over 1 billion viewers in 2023.

Over the course of its rich history, the WTA has been home to many of sports greatest icons including Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams. Its current stars who hold global appeal include Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur. In March 2022, the WTA created WTA Ventures, in partnership with CVC Capital Partners. Its purpose is to build upon the organization’s strong legacy and further elevate the profile of women’s tennis, as well as accelerate commercial growth for the benefit of fans, players, tournaments, and other stakeholders in the game.

Following this organizational evolution, and in a commitment to growing the commercial arm of the organization, there is now a need to appoint the newly created role in search of a business development executive.

Any interested candidates should contact TurnkeyZRG directly.

Contacting the WTA Ventures Operations, LLC will only delay consideration of your qualifications.

Position Summary: 

The Business Development Executive is responsible for the prospecting and selling of assets across the entire WTA ecosystem. The WTA is made up of members tournaments and players across the globe.  WTAV is responsible for securing world-class brand partnerships for regional and global sponsorships executed through event assets and activations, player activations, WTA digital and social assets, WTA Finals assets along with category exclusive WTA intellectual property rights. The successful candidate is someone that can package these rights, develop marketing platforms and concepts and present opportunities to prospects, negotiate agreements and manage the contracting process.  Representing the WTA at industry conferences, meetings and events is critical to building awareness of the WTA Global Partnerships program. Building strong and effective relationships with key constituents including tournament organizers, players, sponsors, media partners, board members and WTA and WTAV colleagues is critical. 

This role is critical to the success of the WTA Ventures mission of growing commercial revenue.  The ideal candidate is a creative storyteller, brand marketing centric and solutions-based deal maker. Being a collaborative business partner and a track record of working successfully on a high-performing matrixed team is required. The ideal candidate has strong relationships with brand decision makers and is comfortable developing, building and delivering best-in-class sponsorship proposals to decision makers.  Simultaneously, the right candidate has experience structuring deals that meet financial requirements and can oversee the entire deal process from prospecting to proposal development, to pitching, to negotiating, to closing a deal, term sheet approval and executed contract.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Generate new partnership revenue – identify and prospect new regional and global partners, plan and execute meetings/calls/appointments with qualified prospects to achieve revenue targets

• Manage and oversee sales agency (or multiple) as needed  

• Direct progression of the sales process from pitch to negotiation to contract execution. Ability to ideate and develop elevated bespoke and beneficial partnerships for all parties 

• Maintain a well-developed pipeline of prospects and opportunities to schedule prospect introductions and meetings 

• Track activity in CRM, ensuring accurate sales activity records, progression of pending deals, terms, benefits details, contact information, etc., and providing regular sales reports for senior leadership meetings 

• Prepare partnership opportunities, presentations, proposals; assist with researching, developing the narrative, and creating the materials 

• Develop a strong working knowledge of the WTA ecosystem - tournaments and players; understand the competitive sports landscape, positioning the WTA uniquely and compellingly consistent with the organization’s mission 

• Work with the Head of Partnership Strategy in building sales strategy, storytelling, and platform development; understand current partner exclusivities and develop creative, complimentary ideas and programs 

• Build strong internal relationships across the WTA ecosystem to ensure sales strategy is aligned with organizational needs, updating sales materials, identifying available assets and inventory, and developing new partnership ideas and platforms with unique opportunities 

• Work closely with the partnership solutions and the business intelligence teams to develop compelling sales presentations consistent with prospects' brand marketing objectives and identify impactful insights to support general go-to-market materials and sales presentations 

• Lead creating profit & loss analysis for sales prospects to ensure margin requirements for new deals are met

• Help ensure a smooth transition of contracted sales client to corporate partnerships and tournament operations teams; ensure all relevant details and expectations have been transferred appropriately 

• Consistently deliver annual sales growth objectives 

• Participate in special projects or other duties as assigned

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, sports management, business administration or related field required. MBA or master’s equivalent preferred

• Experience in sponsorship/partnership marketing sales and implementation at a league, team, NGB or agency with a proven track record of securing six and seven figure multi-year deals

• Experience with international/global brands preferred and relationships with brand decision makers required

• Experience in lead generation, familiarity with CRM tools and sales prospecting

• Strong experience in MS Office Suite

• Knowledge of and passion for tennis preferred

• Excellent communication skills (written & verbal)

• Strong presentation skills

• Creative thinker with ability to story tell and influence decision makers

• Must be outstanding in ability to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple demands and priorities

• Ability to work as part of a team yet self-motivated and can work independently

• Ability to build strong interpersonal relationships both internally and externally at all levels of organizations

• High level of professionalism

• Creative and innovative thinker 

• Strong analytical skills

• Uphold WTA Core Values: Be Progressive, Collaborative, Passionate, and show Integrity. These core values set the tone in everything we do, help us succeed on and off the court, make a difference in the community and create a premier, compelling global sport entertainment experience. It is important that the person in the position commits themselves to these core values so that we can constantly move forward in the same direction – Together.

Travel Requirements:

Up to 25-50% to domestic and international destinations 

Position Type/Work Schedule:

Full Time, 40 hours a week. Typical schedule will be Monday-Friday. Must be available for occasional evenings/weekends.

Work Environment/Physical Demands:

Work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by the employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Working Conditions

The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet to moderate. The passage of employees through the work area is average and normal.

Physical Demands

The employee is required to sit for long periods; use close/distant vision; hear using the telephone; bend at the waist and knee; communicate verbally and electronically with worldwide constituency; use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone keyboard. Must be able to lift 50 lbs.

Salary

Base Salary: $150,000
Bonus: 10%

The WTA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WTA Ventures is the commercial arm of the WTA, created in March 2023 as part of the WTA’s strategic partnership with CVC Capital Partners. It aims to build upon the strong legacy of the WTA by further elevating the profile of women’s tennis and accelerating commercial growth for the benefit of fans, players, tournaments, and all stakeholders in the sport.