Group Sales & Marketing Manager

Role overview

Trigon Hotels is looking for a commercially minded Group Sales and Marketing Manager who can identify opportunities early, turn interest into revenue, and help grow business across Cork International Hotel and The Metropole Hotel. This position is focused on sales performance and requires a proactive approach to lead generation, conversion, and budget delivery.

The role covers multiple revenue streams, including MICE, leisure groups, sports teams, corporate accounts, food and beverage, and local market business. It also calls for close collaboration with the Marketing, Revenue, and hotel teams to strengthen enquiry generation through websites, landing pages, CRM activity, Google Business Profile, social channels, digital campaigns, review platforms, and AI-led discovery.

AI-enabled tools will be used to support prospect research, market intelligence, lead qualification, opportunity spotting, and sales preparation. A strong awareness of changing digital search behaviour and AI-powered customer discovery is important, along with the ability to recommend practical actions that improve visibility, enquiries, and commercial results.

The ideal person will be comfortable identifying market demand, building relationships with decision-makers, and making direct sales calls to convert opportunities into confirmed business. Every task in the role should contribute to lead generation, business conversion, or budget achievement.

Key responsibilities

• Help deliver budgeted revenue across LGR bedrooms, BGR bedrooms, food and beverage, and conference and banqueting sales.
• Keep an active pipeline organised by hotel, segment, month, value, and conversion probability.
• Create fresh qualified leads across MICE, leisure groups, sports teams, events, food and beverage, corporate accounts, and the local market.
• Track upcoming Cork demand drivers such as sports fixtures, conferences, conventions, concerts, festivals, graduations, university activity, corporate news, and other local events.
• Prepare weekly prospect lists and contact organisers, sports teams, associations, clubs, agencies, businesses, and corporate prospects through calls and emails.
• Assess leads quickly and move them through the right stage, such as proposal, site visit, confirmed, postponed, lost, or future follow-up.
• Revisit dormant clients, past bookers, and unsuccessful enquiries to uncover new revenue.
• Attend networking, business, trade, and local market events that can generate sales opportunities.
• Develop lasting connections with event organisers, sports clubs, associations, corporate contacts, agencies, community groups, and local businesses.
• Use networking activity to produce measurable leads, site visits, and pipeline growth.
• Follow up quickly after meetings and events with calls, emails, proposals, or hotel invitations.
• Make sure hotel websites are ready to capture demand from events, conferences, sports fixtures, seasonal campaigns, and local market activity.
• Work with Marketing and digital agencies to improve website copy, landing pages, FAQs, enquiry forms, call prompts, and calls to action.
• Review how the hotels appear across Google, Google Business Profile, review sites, and AI search tools for commercially important searches.
• Spot where the hotels are missing from search results, not visible enough, or not positioned strongly for relevant enquiries.
• Use search trends, AI search behaviour, reviews, reputation platforms, customer feedback, and lost business insights to suggest content and lead-generation improvements.
• Apply AI tools to identify market signals, new sales opportunities, and customer demand patterns that may not be visible from existing enquiries alone.
• Support content and digital activity that improves visibility and turns it into website enquiries, calls, proposals, and confirmed revenue.
• Keep a forward-looking calendar of Cork demand opportunities.
• Monitor competitor activity and look for ways Trigon Hotels can win more business.
• Maintain accurate records of self-generated leads, source codes, values, stages, next actions, and outcomes.
• Work with Revenue, Sales, Marketing, and hotel teams to identify demand gaps, budget shortfalls, and commercial opportunities, then support weekly and monthly reporting on activity, pipeline, conversion, confirmed revenue, and lost business.
• Ensure each opportunity is progressed toward revenue, future pipeline, or a clear lost business reason.

Requirements

• Commercially strong with a clear understanding that activity must lead to revenue.
• Confident on the phone and willing to make proactive outbound sales calls.
• Strong networking skills and the ability to build long-term business relationships.
• Good knowledge of hotel sales, group business, MICE, conference and banqueting, food and beverage, or corporate sales.
• Highly organised with solid follow-up habits.
• Comfortable working with CRM tools, Excel, Guestline, or similar hotel systems.
• Able to research events, businesses, associations, sports teams, and local market activity.
• Understands how customers search online before making an enquiry.
• Strong written communication for customised proposals, website briefs, and follow-up emails.
• Persistent, professional, and results-driven.

Desirable experience

• Awareness of GA4.
• Experience with hotel CRM systems or newsletter tools.
• Background using PMS software.
• Conference and banqueting sales experience.
• Basic understanding of SEO.
• Familiarity with AI search tools and how customers use them.
• Experience briefing website content, landing pages, or digital campaigns.
• Understanding of review and reputation platforms and their role in generating new business.

Benefits

• Competitive pay.
• Relocation support.
• Access to the company pension scheme.
• Death in service cover.
• Employee referral bonus.
• Friends and family discounts in the group’s restaurants.
• Special rates on hotel accommodation.
• Paid internal and external training days.
• Access to trained mental health first aiders.
• Team social and wellbeing events.
• Annual team awards, service recognition, and monthly Team Member of the Month awards.
• Meals provided on duty.
• Assistance with Leap Cards.

Additional information

This is a revenue-focused role where every activity must support lead generation, conversion, or budget achievement. The position requires collaboration across sales, marketing, revenue, and hotel operations, along with a practical understanding of digital discovery, customer search behaviour, and AI-supported prospecting.