Director of Membership and Sales

General Description:

The Director of Membership and Sales is a strategic leadership role responsible for driving earned revenue through all membership programs while ensuring an exceptional guest experience. This position oversees all ticketing and membership sales channels, leads the frontline sales and service teams, and develops data-driven strategies to grow visitation, membership acquisition, retention, and upgrades.

The Director will champion a "service as sales" philosophy-ensuring each guest interaction supports both revenue growth and lasting engagement with the Philadelphia Zoo's mission. This leader aligns operational excellence, staff performance, and guest satisfaction to deliver consistent, high-quality experiences that foster loyalty and drive results.

Essential Functions :

Membership Sales and Retention

• Develop annual and multi-year strategies and work plans to grow membership revenue, tracking progress through clear KPIs.
• Drive new membership acquisition initiatives and oversee renewal and upgrade efforts through mission-based campaigns that grow lifetime member value.
• Evaluate and evolve member services, benefits, communications, and exclusive events to strengthen retention and encourage repeat visitation.
• Oversee all membership point-of-sale operations, including onsite desks and inbound/outbound membership-related calls for sales, renewals, upgrades, and service recovery.
• Partner with Marketing to ensure membership promotions, communications, and campaigns align with audience insights and growth objectives.

Sales Strategy and Management

• Oversee all Zoo sales channels, including onsite ticketing kiosks, online sales platforms, event sales, group sales, and external partnerships.
• Ensure all sales processes are efficient, accurate, and guest-focused.
• Supervise and support staff managing ticketing inquiries across phone, email, and digital platforms, ensuring excellence in responsiveness and accuracy.
• Identify opportunities to increase advance ticket purchases and optimize pricing strategies, packaging, and add-on offerings that drive incremental sales.

Training and Development

• Lead training initiatives for frontline sales staff centered on the "service as sales" approach, ensuring each team member confidently promotes memberships, upgrades, and add-ons.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive training materials, job aids, and coaching programs to build staff knowledge of admissions processes, membership benefits, and guest engagement techniques.
• Cultivate a performance-driven, guest-first culture through clear goals, recognition programs, and continuous coaching.

Customer Experience Excellence

• Integrate the sales and service teams with Zoo-wide operations to deliver a seamless, welcoming, and intuitive experience for all guests.
• Lead teams in managing guest inquiries, complaints, and post-visit responses with defined KPIs focused on service recovery and conversion.
• Use guest feedback and frontline insights to refine policies, communication, and customer touchpoints to enhance the overall experience.

Data Management, Reporting, and Strategy

• Analyze admissions and membership sales data, trends, and customer feedback to inform decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Monitor and report on KPIs related to ticket sales, conversion rates, advance purchase, membership acquisition, retention, and upgrades.
• Adjust strategies as needed to achieve or exceed revenue and experience goals.
• Collaborate across departments-including Marketing, Finance, IT, Guest Engagement, and Operations-to develop coordinated promotions, pricing models, and system enhancements.
• Develop and implement long-term, data-informed strategies that strengthen both attendance and membership-based revenue streams.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, hospitality management, or a related field (Master's degree preferred).
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive leadership experience in admissions, membership, ticketing, sales, or guest experience-preferably within a zoo, aquarium, museum, theme park, or similar destination.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate frontline teams to achieve revenue goals through service-based selling.
• Strong analytical and strategic planning skills, with experience leveraging sales and KPI data to inform decisions.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and cross-department collaboration skills.
• Experience with CRM and membership/ticketing systems

Physical, Medical & Additional Requirements:

• No allergies to plants or animals which may interfere with the ability to work.
• Successful completion of a drug test and a tuberculosis test prior to assuming position.
• Ability to lift 15 pounds
• May require combination of sitting throughout the day and/or walking throughout the Zoo
• Successful completion of a post-offer criminal, child abuse clearance and credit record check prior to assuming position.

This job description is intended to describe the major responsibilities and requirements of this job and should not be interpreted as all inclusive. The employee/applicant may be requested to perform job-related responsibilities and tasks other than those stated in this description. The essential functions of this job description are considered necessary and should the employee or applicant be unable to perform the essential functions due to a disability as defined by the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), a reasonable accommodations for the specific disability will be made for the employee/applicant when possible.