Senior Director of Sales and Marketing

Job Description

Verso Ministries exists to bring people closer to Jesus Christ through a new, holistic vision of pilgrimage. Verso is bringing a new vision of pilgrimage and global travel to Catholics everywhere. One that integrates the rich experience of faith, history, and culture into a holistic journey. Verso offers a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with opportunities for employee growth and development.

The Head of Sales & Marketing must see this work as more than simply growing a business. This person will represent Verso to prospective group leaders, priests, Catholic organizations, partners, and pilgrims and should embody Verso's commitment to hospitality, collaboration, intentionality, humility, ownership, and excellence.

Position Summary
The Head of Sales & Marketing is responsible for driving Verso Ministries' revenue growth by building and leading effective, repeatable sales and marketing engines.

This seat owns the entire revenue funnel, from generating qualified leads and developing relationships to converting opportunities into pilgrimage groups and long-term partnerships. A particular priority will be strengthening the top of the funnel and consistently creating new opportunities among dioceses, parishes, Catholic schools and universities, priests, apostolates, and other Catholic organizations.

The Head of Sales & Marketing will lead, develop, and grow Verso's Sales & Marketing team while remaining personally engaged in sales, strategic partnerships, and key accounts. This person will work closely with the leadership team to help Verso achieve its growth objectives, including approximately 20% Core pilgrimage revenue growth in 2028.
Position Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Strategy
- Participate as part of the company leadership team in setting vision, goals, and strategy for the company, particularly in relation to sales and marketing objectives.
- Lead a collaborative, results-oriented Sales & Marketing team focused on shared revenue goals.
- Manage and develop the Sales and Marketing team.
- Establish clear goals, priorities, responsibilities, and accountability across the team.
- Ensure strong coordination across Sales, Marketing, Pilgrimage Design, and Pilgrimage Operations throughout the customer journey.
- Oversee and improve the process from initial lead through discovery, pilgrimage design, proposal, contracting, and handoff to Operations.
- Identify bottlenecks and improve systems, processes, automation, and team responsibilities to increase effectiveness and efficiency.
- Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, hospitality, and continuous improvement.

Revenue Growth & Strategy
- Own Verso's sales and marketing strategy and annual revenue growth plan.
- Translate company growth goals into clear sales, marketing, pipeline, and individual performance targets.
- Build repeatable and scalable systems for generating, nurturing, and converting new opportunities.
- Identify the customer segments, acquisition channels, partnerships, and initiatives with the greatest potential to accelerate growth.
- Establish and be fully accountable for key revenue metrics, including pipeline, conversion, forecasting, customer acquisition, and channel performance.
- Manage the Sales & Marketing budget and prioritize resources based on effectiveness and return on investment.
- Work closely with Verso's COO and CFO on both annual and multi-year revenue forecasting

Sales Leadership & Execution
- Lead, coach, develop, and hold accountable Verso's Pilgrimage Sales Managers.
- Establish individual and team sales goals and lead regular pipeline reviews, forecasting, opportunity strategy, and sales coaching.
- Continually improve Verso's sales process, CRM discipline, lead distribution, follow-up, automation, and conversion.
- Personally maintain a portfolio of prospective group leaders, strategic partners, and key accounts and achieve an annual individual sales target.
- Develop trusted relationships and referral networks among dioceses, parishes, schools, universities, priests, apostolates, and other Catholic organizations.
- Represent Verso at conferences, events, customer meetings, and other relationship-building opportunities.

Marketing & Pipeline Development
- Lead Verso's overall marketing strategy with a particular focus on increasing qualified lead generation.
- Manage and develop the Growth Marketing Manager, establishing clear goals, priorities, and accountability.
- Develop a diversified pipeline-generation strategy incorporating digital marketing, content, referrals, partnerships, events, inbound inquiries, targeted outreach, and other creative channels.
- Ensure Sales and Marketing operate as an integrated growth function with clear processes for generating, qualifying, nurturing, assigning, and converting leads.
- Evaluate lead quality, acquisition channels, conversion performance, and ROI to continuously improve marketing effectiveness.
- Provide strategic direction for Verso's brand, website, content, email, social media, events, partnerships, and other marketing channels.

Qualifications & Experience
- Demonstrated success driving meaningful revenue growth through sales, business development, marketing, or a combination of these disciplines.
- Experience with relationship-based, consultative B2B or institutional sales, preferably involving longer sales cycles and multiple stakeholders.
- Proven ability to personally achieve sales targets while also leading and developing others.
- Experience building and improving sales processes, pipeline management, forecasting, and CRM systems.
- Strong understanding of demand generation, lead nurturing, marketing performance, and the relationship between Sales and Marketing.
- Demonstrated ability to develop strategic partnerships and referral relationships.
- Strong analytical, organizational, written, verbal, and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to move comfortably between setting strategy and executing the work required to achieve results.
- Willingness to travel for customer meetings, conferences, relationship development, and Verso pilgrimages.
- Strong alignment with the mission and values of Verso Ministries and the Catholic Church.

What Success Looks Like
The Head of Sales & Marketing will ultimately be measured by Verso's ability to grow revenue predictably and sustainably. Success will include:
- Achievement of company revenue and sales goals, including Verso's targeted 20% Core pilgrimage revenue growth in 2028.
- Consistent growth in qualified opportunities and sufficient pipeline to support future revenue goals.
- Achievement of individual and team sales targets.
- Growth in new pilgrimage groups, pilgrims, strategic relationships, and referral partners.
- Improved funnel conversion and measurable marketing effectiveness.
- Accurate forecasting and strong CRM discipline.
- A high-performing Sales & Marketing team with clear accountability and repeatable systems for growth.

About the Employer

Verso Ministries exists to bring people closer to Jesus Christ through a new, holistic vision of pilgrimage. Inspired by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and his call Verso l'alto, meaning "toward the heights," we seek to help pilgrims encounter the sacred and discover where God is calling them.