Some hotels report getting 60% of their group leads through traditional intermediaries or e-channels. As customers continue changing the way they buy, hotel salespeople will have to focus on how they can get customers to book directly with them — refocusing on their relationships with customers to ensure that call is direct.
Each economic cycle requires different selling skills. The salesperson of the future will need to have analytical strength and revenue-management skills. Owners are keeping the pressure on for bottom-line results, and sales teams will continue to be pushed to prove their contribution to the business and how they are driving rates and value.
Ultimately, chief sales officers will need to continue to explain — or defend — the complexity of the sales business and educate within their organizations. They will also need to look at resource-deployment strategies to determine how to grow the return on the investment in sales.
Bob Gilbert, HSMAI, McLean, Virginia