VP, Syndication Sales & Partnerships

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc; Culver City (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) seeks a visionary Vice President of Syndication Sales to lead the U.S. Distribution team in selling premium programming to television stations.

You will cultivate key client relationships, craft competitive offers, and steer development strategies across major markets and station groups. The role requires substantial travel, high-stakes negotiations, and collaboration with Research, Affiliate Relations and Credit teams to maximize revenues and ratings for SPT

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Four or more years in a VP role or similar in entertainment; five+ years preferred.
• Powerful communication, interpersonal and relationship skills.
• Teamwork and collaboration essential.
• Strong organizational and time-management abilities.
• Excellent negotiating and dispute-resolution skills.
• Ability to work independently and think strategically.
• Ability to establish long-term business relationships of trust.
• Strong service orientation.
• Ability to manage multiple projects with attention to detail.
• Flexible and adaptable to changing needs.
• Ability to strategize with others in research and affiliate relations.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Zoom).

Responsibilities

• Sell programming to television stations and build customer relationships.
• Call on 50+ markets and 300+ stations; deliver sales presentations in person, via video and phone.
• Develop offers for Sony programming; travel for business up to 20+ weeks annually.
• Plan market visits and coordinate with travel policy and sales teams.
• Coordinate with Research, Affiliate Relations and Credit to support sales strategy and creditworthiness.
• Manage other Sales Representatives in the region and mentor them.
• Engage in industry conventions to identify opportunities and improve practices.

Skills

Communication

Negotiation

Strategic thinking

Time management

Teamwork

Relationship building

Adaptability

Multitasking

MS Office

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

MS Office

Word

PowerPoint

Outlook

Teams

Zoom

Job description

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is looking for a talented Studio Executive in Syndication Sales to join our dynamic U.S. Distribution team. This Vice President of Syndication Sales will focus on selling programing to television stations, building and maintaining strong customer relationships while also creating development strategy. Excellent communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills are critical to achieving success in this role.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Sell programming to television stations, build customer relationships and research competitive information:

The Vice President will call on 50+ markets, 300+ stations, as well as major station groups. This role will prepare and deliver written and verbal sales presentations both in person, via video calls and by phone. The specific sales focus will be: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Seinfeld, The Goldbergs, S.W.A.T., Feature Film Packages, et al.

This position requires the ability to build objectives for sales calls, establish sales strategies and assess customer needs. The Vice President will be responsible for full understanding of the competitive landscape of each market/group. This landscape will provide a guideline to create market/group specific sales strategies. This role will determine the best opportunities for SPT programming; anticipate customer concerns and objections, highlighting SPT strengths and points of difference to the client base.

During the sales process, the Vice President will develop offers for Sony programming with all groups and in all necessary television markets. The position requires business travel and may exceed twenty plus weeks annually. In addition to developing offers for SPT product, while travelling on company business, the Vice President will utilize business meetings, client lunches and dinners to develop long term business relationships with customers. While not travelling in a specific market, it is expected that he/she will stay in contact with clients regularly via phone, email, and video calls.

During the sales timeline, this position will strategize with the SVP/General Sales Manager US Syndication Sales to negotiate license fees for off-network and first-run programs, narrow time period windows and add double runs to maximize ratings and revenues. Much of this role’s business will require interaction with colleagues in other offices, as well. It is essential for the Vice President to build and maintain quality relationships with the salespeople in each SPT sales office. Local market deals will regularly have ownership group impact and require specific coordination with the group salesperson. Succinct and accurate communication is necessary to ensure that all parties are comfortable with the deal making process.

Plan and set up market visits to meet with each station:

The position requires advance planning of local market travel. The Vice President will work with SPT Travel and the sales coordinator to schedule trips. All travel must adhere to SPT travel policy. The Vice President will, in advance, set up appointments with customers, allowing appropriate time during the trip and meetings to achieve business goals.

Account maintenance and strategy development:

This role will work with other SPT departments to fully understand the business cycle and impact of SPT programming in the marketplace. The Vice President will work with Research to understand history and trends of local television stations. This position will collaborate with Affiliate Marketing to ensure that SPT’s partner stations are properly promoting and supporting our products. This role will work with the Credit department to ensure that our customers are credit-worthy and paying in a timely fashion. In addition, this position will analyze industry information (compiled by Research) to develop presentation strategies that best advance the sale of SPT content. It is expected that the Vice President will maintain these inter-departmental relationships.

Managing other sales representative(s):

The Vice President will be required to manage another Sales Representative(s) in the Region and responsible for developing, advising, strategizing and motivating their representative(s) to improve their performance, as well as, hiring and training new sales representatives.

Initiate new projects, hone expertise and apply continuous improvement:

The Vice President position requires a creative and proactive approach to current sales initiatives as well as new and unforeseen opportunities. The Vice President will attend various industry conventions to understand SPT’s customers businesses. The Vice President will continually seek to improve upon existing sales practices, identifying areas that can become more effective and/or efficient and make strategic recommendations to affect change. This person will be responsible for investing in his or her own personal growth within the company by utilizing various educational/professional resources offered by SPT and SPE.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree

• Four or more years of experience in a Vice President role or similar in entertainment; five or more years of entertainment experience and knowledge in the space, television industry preferred

• Powerful communication, interpersonal and relationship skills

• Tremendous teamwork skills, ability to fit into a team environment

• Superior organizational and time-management skills

• Excellent negotiating and dispute resolution skills

• Ability to work independently and think strategically

• Skill in establishing long-term business relationships of trust and understanding

• Extremely strong service orientation

• Ability to work on several projects concurrently while maintaining attention to detail

• Must be flexible and adapt quickly to changing needs

• Ability to strategize with and delegate to others in research and affiliate relations when necessary

• Excellent computer skills - MS Office, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, Zoom