Elevate was the theme of the HSMAI Sales Leader Forum (SLF) held in October. Off-property sales executives met to learn from industry professionals, network with future leaders, and cooperate on the most important challenges in hotel sales:
- Retaining Talent
- Aiding Sales Teams to Be More Efficient and Effective
- Intersection with Other Business Disciplines
Thought leaders and practitioners presented strategic insights on these three topics, equipping participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to address these challenges.
During her talk, Loud Retaining: Recharge Your Talent Strategy, Kimberly Rath, Co-Founder & Chairman, TalentPlus described practices to keep top talent engaged and retained. She shared, “Everyone is so focused on who is quiet quitting, we are not focused on retaining our top talent. Talent-based leaders should bookend their days talking to top talent.”
In their presentation, Helping Sales Teams Be More Effective and Efficient, Dr. Kelly McGuire, Principal, ZS, and Jeff Patton, Vice President of Sales, Americas, Hilton, outlined the elements to guaranteeing productivity and efficiency in the hybrid and remote world of today. Dr. McGuire said that the transition to digital necessitates technological and time-intensive system integration efforts.
She said, “Traditional lead generation will soon be obsolete, and sales organizations need to keep up.” Jeff discussed organizing for efficiency and how to partner with technology, set realistic timelines, and define KPIs to have optimal success. Ultimately, he thought, “The fastest way to great outcomes is trusted relationships – internal and external.”
Alison Handy concluded the workshop with her presentation entitled Sales in Commercial Organizational:
Fostering Cooperation and Avoiding Collision. She discussed the growth of commercial organizations as well as several typical commercial deployment strategies, such as integrating disciplines, establishing a corporate-level commercial function, and establishing a commercial leader on the site. The most effective business executives are competitive, analytical, and collaborative. She thinks that cross-disciplinary training will produce more commercial leaders.
After all of the morning’s outstanding programming, including STR’s presentation on the State of the Industry, the afternoon program spurred dialogue and interaction among attendees and dove deeply into the three major challenges. Here, we have collated the finest practices and “aha!” moments from these workshops. The substance of this year’s SLF got great appreciation from attendees. You will not want to miss the Hilton Long Beach in California next year! On November 8, 2023.
Alison Handy praised the HSMAI Sales Advisory Board members, led by Eric Kreins, Assistant Managing Director, Sales, Hilton Worldwide Sales, and guided by Juli Jones, HSMAI Vice President, for their hard work in preparing and delivering SLF 2022.
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners, and is the industry’s leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth.
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