ORLANDO, Florida — As both the sales and revenue management divisions at hotel companies become more centralized and lighter-staffed, collaboration is paramount.
But experts said achieving the best level of cooperation requires an understanding of the two separate functions and how they each operate.
Speaking during the "How to Unsilo the Sales Process" at HSMAI's 2022 Revenue Optimization Conference Americas, Lori Kiel, chief commercial officer for the Kessler Collection, said it's increasingly difficult to find quality salespeople. As a result, some companies have had to "make salespeople out of people we otherwise never would've considered" and centralize sales duties so that one salesperson covers multiple properties, she said.
"It's not ideal, you know, but you have to stop whining and get over it," she said. "You have to figure out how you're going to get those leads, and how you're going to convert them in whatever shape or form they appear."
Chris Hardy, vice president of sales and revenue strategy for Parks Hospitality Group, said the hotel industry is getting to an important tipping point as requests for proposals and inbound sales leads are starting to return, and how their sales teams approach those are going to decide how successful revenue-management teams are, as well.
"We started to train [our sales teams] on revenue-management principals and strategy ... and I think that has really benefited our team so we have a broader understanding of how the two disciplines need to work together," he said.
Michael Feldman, senior vice president of revenue management and distribution for Atrium Hospitality, said leveraging data will be key to bridging the gap. He added his company tracks "a tremendous amount of data."
"We use that [data] to educate the sales team so that they understand what the company's overall goals are or what the specific hotel's goals are so they're selling toward them and not against them," he said. "It's not only about hitting their own quotas, and when a [director of revenue management] and a sales leader sit down to talk about a specific piece of business and whether or not it's good for the hotel overall, it's making them come to a common ground of understanding."
Kiel said her company has looked to integrate the disciplines at the highest levels, creating a sales executive committee that includes "every single director of sales across the company, the marketing leaders and the revenue leaders."
"They all sit on one committee, and we meet every two weeks on Zoom," she said. "That way, all the leaders are at one table, if you will, where they can talk business, whether it's sales, revenue, marketing or anything else."
At the same time, she said it's important to understand salespeople and revenue experts are "two very different people" with different personalities and skill sets.
"You need analysts that are very black and white, but you also need those influencers and salespeople who know how to sell anything," she said.
Hardy described the give and take between the two sides as maintaining "the balance of power."
"It's just about understanding what everyone's role is and what they bring to the table," he said. "We're all working towards the same goal. The one thing I think that is most important is that everyone understands what the goals of the hotel are and how they contribute to them."