Portfolio Sales & Outreach Specialist

Position : Portfolio Sales & Outreach Specialist – TEMPE

Compensation: Pursuant to state regulations, the salary range is $75,000 - $85,000 plus bonus potential. ​Eligible to participate in the company benefits plan. We offer health, vision, dental, and pet insurance. We offer a 401(k) retirement plan, student loan assistance, licensing and continuing education reimbursement, parental leave, and housing allowances or gifts.

Reports To : Portfolio Sales & Marketing Manager

Location: Tempe, Arizona – Dedicated Property Assignment

Position Summary

The Portfolio Sales & Outreach Specialist is a property-dedicated sales, leasing, lead generation, and brand engagement role focused on driving leasing performance and expanding market presence for the assigned Tempe community.

This position serves as an additional leasing and marketing resource working alongside the onsite Community Manager, Leasing Team Lead, and full- and part-time leasing team members. The role is highly production-focused, with direct accountability for generating qualified leads, converting prospects, executing leases, developing strategic campus and brand relationships, and creating meaningful visibility for the community throughout the Tempe market.

The Portfolio Sales & Outreach Specialist reports directly to the Portfolio Sales & Marketing Manager and works collaboratively with onsite leadership. This position does not supervise, direct, or replace the onsite leasing team or assume ownership of the property’s overall leasing and marketing strategy.

Success in this role requires a highly proactive, creative, and results-oriented individual who is comfortable generating business through both traditional and unconventional channels and who is willing to actively pursue opportunities that drive qualified traffic and signed leases.

Leasing & Sales Production

• Maintain direct accountability for individual lease production and prospect conversion in support of the property’s occupancy and prelease goals.

• Actively engage prospects throughout the entire leasing lifecycle, from initial outreach through application, lease execution, and move-in preparation.

• Conduct in-person, phone, text, email, and virtual leasing outreach to convert prospective residents into signed leases.

• Conduct property tours and provide prospective residents with a compelling and accurate representation of the community, available floor plans, amenities, and resident experience.

• Consistently follow up with prospects and maintain an active pipeline of qualified leads.

• Re-engage aged, inactive, and previously lost leads to identify additional leasing opportunities.

• Assist prospects throughout the application and lease process, proactively addressing barriers that may prevent or delay conversion.

• Support renewal outreach and other leasing initiatives as directed by the Portfolio Sales & Marketing Manager and in collaboration with onsite leadership.

• Identify opportunities throughout the leasing process to improve prospect engagement, urgency, follow-up, and conversion.

• Serve as an additional leasing producer during high-volume periods, events, or other critical leasing windows.

Lead Generation & Prospecting

• Aggressively generate new leads through both in-person and virtual prospecting efforts rather than relying solely on existing property traffic.

• Develop new prospect pipelines through campus organizations, student groups, study groups, Greek organizations, university-related organizations, student events, local businesses, and other relevant community channels.

• Conduct consistent grassroots and guerrilla marketing throughout the Tempe market to increase awareness and generate qualified traffic.

• Coordinate and participate in tabling opportunities, campus activations, community events, outreach campaigns, and other face-to-face lead-generation initiatives.

• Identify new locations, organizations, events, and audiences where prospective residents can be reached.

• Utilize social media, digital outreach, direct messaging, social groups, and other virtual channels to identify and engage prospective residents.

• Develop creative prospecting approaches that expand the property’s reach beyond traditional inbound leasing channels.

• Track lead sources and outreach results to identify the activities and channels generating the strongest leasing opportunities.

Campus Outreach & Brand Partnerships

• Build and maintain relationships with campus organizations, student groups, local businesses, community organizations, influencers, and other strategic partners capable of expanding property awareness and generating qualified leads.

• Identify partnership opportunities with both local businesses and nationally recognized brands that align with the property’s target demographic and resident experience.

• Conduct proactive outreach to prospective brand and community partners and develop relationships that can support leasing, resident engagement, and property visibility.

• Collaborate with the Portfolio Sales & Marketing Manager and onsite leadership on partnership opportunities requiring broader approval, financial commitments, contractual agreements, or brand-level coordination.

• Leverage partnerships to create lead-generation opportunities, events, promotions, giveaways, cross-marketing opportunities, and other activations designed to increase awareness and leasing traffic.

• Maintain an active pipeline of prospective partnerships and continuously identify new opportunities within the Tempe market.

Leasing & Marketing Execution

• Work collaboratively with the property’s Leasing Team Lead to execute the established leasing and marketing plan.

• Contribute ideas, market observations, prospect feedback, outreach opportunities, and partnership concepts to assist the Leasing Team Lead in developing and refining property-level initiatives.

• Execute assigned marketing and outreach initiatives in coordination with the Leasing Team Lead and Portfolio Sales & Marketing Manager.

• Support social media and digital outreach initiatives designed to increase property awareness, engagement, lead generation, and conversion.

• Provide field-level feedback regarding prospect behavior, competitive activity, campus trends, outreach performance, and emerging opportunities.

• Assist with leasing events, promotional campaigns, resident referral initiatives, and other activities intended to generate traffic and leases.

Onsite Team Collaboration & Role Boundaries

The Portfolio Sales & Outreach Specialist is intended to supplement and strengthen the onsite leasing operation, not replace or oversee it.

The position will:

• Work alongside the Community Manager, Leasing Team Lead, and full- and part-time leasing team members toward shared occupancy and leasing goals.

• Maintain open communication with onsite leadership regarding leasing activity, prospect feedback, outreach initiatives, partnerships, and upcoming events.

• Coordinate property-based activities with the Leasing Team Lead to ensure alignment with the established leasing and marketing strategy.

• Share leads, market intelligence, prospect feedback, and partnership opportunities with the onsite team.

• Support the onsite team during periods of increased leasing demand.

The position will not:

• Direct, supervise, schedule, performance-manage, or assign responsibilities to onsite employees.

• Replace the responsibilities or authority of the Community Manager or Leasing Team Lead.

• Independently establish or control the property’s overall leasing and marketing strategy.

• Create competing initiatives, processes, or priorities outside of the established onsite and portfolio strategy.

Performance & Accountability

• Performance will be evaluated through measurable leasing, lead-generation, outreach, and partnership results, including:

• Individual leases signed.

• Qualified leads generated.

• Lead-to-tour and lead-to-lease conversion.

• Prospect follow-up and pipeline conversion.

• New lead sources developed.

• In-person outreach and campus engagement activity.

• Virtual and social lead-generation activity.

• Strategic partnerships established and activated.

• Traffic and leads generated through partnerships, events, and outreach.

• Contribution toward property occupancy and prelease goals.

• Effectiveness of outreach campaigns and lead-generation initiatives.

• Collaboration and alignment with onsite and portfolio leadership.

Qualifications & Core Competencies

• Strong sales mentality with demonstrated ability to prospect, build relationships, overcome objections, and close.

• Highly proactive and comfortable creating opportunities rather than waiting for inbound leads.

• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.

• Ability to communicate effectively in person, over the phone, through text and email, and across social and digital platforms.

• Creative approach to grassroots marketing, prospecting, events, partnerships, and lead generation.

• Strong organization and pipeline-management skills.

• Ability to independently manage priorities while operating within an established property and portfolio strategy.

• Strong understanding of appropriate role boundaries and ability to collaborate effectively with onsite leadership and leasing teams.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to represent the community and company professionally when engaging students, university organizations, businesses, brands, and community partners.

• Results-oriented mindset with a strong sense of personal accountability for leasing and lead-generation performance.

• Ability to embody Cardinal Culture and Cardinal Core Values every day.

Location Expectations

• This position is dedicated specifically to the assigned Tempe community and is intended to maintain a strong, consistent presence within the local market.

• The individual must reside in the Tempe area and be available for regular onsite leasing activity, campus outreach, local partnership development, events, grassroots marketing, and other in-person lead-generation activities.

• This is not a portfolio-travel position. The primary focus is developing deep market knowledge, relationships, brand awareness, prospect pipelines, and leasing production within the Tempe market.