About the Organization

The Health & Fitness Association (HFA) is the world's only global, nonprofit trade association dedicated to protecting, promoting, and growing the health and fitness industry. HFA represents more than 200,000 fitness facilities, gyms, and studios worldwide and serves a community of over 7,500 members, from individual club and studio operators to major industry suppliers and professionals.

HFA's mission is to advance global health through physical activity, pursued through advocacy, research, and education. The organization lobbies on behalf of the industry in Washington, DC, in state capitals across the U.S., and internationally, and maintains active partnerships with global bodies such as the World Health Organization, the Global Wellness Institute, and the OECD. HFA is also the leading source of fitness industry research and benchmarking data and hosts the industry's premier annual trade show and educational events, including gatherings in Europe.

Position Summary

The Director of Sales Strategy & Revenue Operations is a senior revenue-generating and sales leadership role responsible for driving organizational growth through strategic sales execution, systems development, and revenue operations management for HFA.

This role actively sells and develops revenue opportunities while also serving as the architect of HFA's sales strategy, sales processes, and customer journey systems across memberships, sponsorships, advertising, partnerships, exhibits, and industry engagement opportunities.

The Director partners closely with the Membership Director and Events Director to improve sales effectiveness, standardize sales practices, strengthen retention, and create scalable revenue growth systems. While departmental sales staff formally report to their respective directors, this role serves as a secondary sales leader, coach, and mentor focused on elevating sales performance organization wide.

The ideal candidate combines strategic sales leadership with hands-on business development expertise and thrives in collaborative, mission-driven organizations.

Key Responsibilities

Direct Revenue Generation & Business Development

• Personally lead and close high-value sponsorship, advertising, partnership, membership, and exhibit sales opportunities.
• Build and maintain relationships with fitness industry executives, club operators, suppliers, strategic partners, and sponsors.
• Develop integrated sponsorship and partnership packages across events, education, media, advocacy, and membership offerings.
• Identify and pursue new revenue streams and strategic partnership opportunities.
• Participate in industry conferences, trade shows, networking events, and member engagements to support organizational growth. 

Sales Strategy & Revenue Operations

• Design and implement scalable sales systems, processes, and operational workflows.
• Develop sales methodologies, prospecting standards, pipeline stages, and conversion strategies.
• Create clear positioning and value propositions for club memberships, supplier/vendor memberships, sponsorships, advertising opportunities, strategic partnerships, and event participation.
• Establish prospect journeys, onboarding experiences, renewal systems, and retention strategies.
• Create standardized sales tools, collateral, scripts, proposals, and sales enablement materials.

Sales Leadership & Team Coaching

• Coach and mentor membership and events sales staff on consultative selling, prospecting techniques, relationship management, pipeline development, closing strategies, and retention and upselling.
• Help establish accountability metrics and sales best practices across departments.
• Conduct sales training sessions and ongoing professional development for staff.
• Serve as a strategic sales advisor and secondary supervisor on all sales-related activities.

CRM, Analytics & Process Improvement

• Oversee CRM strategy, sales tracking systems, and reporting processes.
• Monitor KPIs including pipeline health, close rates, renewals, retention, sponsorship growth, and member engagement.
• Develop dashboards and forecasting tools to support leadership decision-making.
• Recommend operational improvements that increase efficiency and revenue performance.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum 7–10 years of progressive sales leadership and business development experience.
• Proven success personally selling sponsorships, partnerships, memberships, advertising, or B2B solutions.
• Experience developing and implementing sales systems and revenue operations processes.
• Strong background in consultative sales and sales team coaching.
• Experience working collaboratively across departments without direct reporting authority.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Strong CRM and pipeline management experience.
• Ability to travel regularly for conferences, industry events, and leadership meetings.

Preferred

• Experience within a nonprofit association, trade association, events organization, or fitness/wellness industry.
• Understanding of recurring membership revenue models.
• Experience selling sponsorships, exhibits, media, and strategic partnerships.
• Experience with international organizations or global membership structures.
• Familiarity with association management systems (AMS) and CRM platforms.

Preferred Location

Ideal candidates will be based in the Washington DC Office – 2/3 days per week

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Revenue Growth

• Achieve annual sponsorship and partnership revenue targets.
• Increase advertising and exhibit sales year-over-year.
• Grow membership acquisition revenue across club and supplier categories.
• Expand non-dues revenue streams.

Sales Effectiveness

• Improve overall sales conversion rates.
• Increase average sponsorship/package value.
• Reduce sales cycle timelines.
• Improve pipeline forecasting accuracy.

Retention & Engagement

• Increase membership renewal rates.
• Improve sponsor and partner retention.
• Strengthen member engagement and onboarding effectiveness.
• Increase upsell and cross-sell performance.

Team Development

• Implement standardized sales training program within first 6 months.
• Improve sales activity consistency and accountability across departments.
• Increase CRM adoption and data quality among sales staff.

First-Year Success Metrics

First 90 Days

• Assess current sales systems, workflows, and revenue performance.
• Develop standardized sales process framework.
• Audit CRM usage, pipeline management, and reporting structure.
• Build relationships with key sponsors, partners, and members.

First 6 Months

• Launch sales training and coaching program.
• Implement improved sales pipeline and tracking processes.
• Introduce refined sponsorship and membership sales positioning.
• Develop a standardized prospect and member journey framework.

By End of Year One

• Increase sponsorship and partnership revenue by agreed target percentage.
• Improve membership retention and renewal performance.
• Establish organization-wide sales KPIs and reporting cadence.
• Successfully coach teams toward measurable sales performance improvements.
• Create scalable sales infrastructure to support long-term organizational growth.

Work Environment

• Hybrid
• Travel required for conferences, board meetings, trade shows, and industry events.
• Occasional evening and weekend work during events or peak organizational initiatives.

About Health & Fitness Association

The Health & Fitness Association (HFA) is the leading trade association dedicated to enhancing mental and physical health by ensuring access to physical activity. Representing health and fitness clubs, gyms, studios, sports and aquatic facilities, and industry partners, HFA promotes and protects the Health & Fitness Industry so that people have diverse, inclusive options to stay active and healthy.

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