Whenever I have hotel questions, there are two people I call and reach out to all the time. One is my daughter Kate, who’s a Director of Sales at a property in Syracuse NY. And the other is my good friend Juan Sepulveda who has been in hotel sales in NYC for over 30 years.
This post features the first half of their interview. Today we get to learn more in part 2. If you prefer to watch the video interview, Click Here!
Tips for Getting Started in Sales
Sally:
What about some tips for people just getting started in sales? A lot of the clients I work with are destinations, and their hotel partners are often at limited-service properties or are somewhat new to the industry and it might be someone in their first sales position.
If you can give us some tips for someone starting in the industry they should first think about how to present themselves. And secondly, any specific sales tips they could take action on.
Juan:
You have to read what the environment is in the hotel is right away. Some people don’t want to wear ties. In my market, it is very important because I never know when the President of a country or their Ambassador to the United Nations is going to show up.
They are always decked out, and you wouldn’t want to go out there and look casual. Or at least if you’re going to have no tie, have a very nice shirt. With a fantastic suit that will look very professional.
For new people in sales, I think they have to read first the culture of the company, the culture of the hotel. They need to understand who has the power and they need to figure out how things happen in the hotel.
Who’s the general manager, and if there’s an owner involved or not. So, you should create an organizational chart and figure out who is, number one, who’s number two, who’s number three, and then understand the departments and place yourself where you belong.
And maybe you can go to a colleague or even your boss and say, am I putting myself in the right spot here? I go to a lot of the community colleges around here. And I tell them you have to find a mentor immediately. That mentor is going to help you navigate everything, the questions, your professionalism, what groups you should belong to.
You have to be involved. I don’t care how many hours you put in a day. You must go outside of that zone that you’re working in and you must meet other people and mingle with them and give out your business card. If you don’t do that you’re not going to build a great network and nobody’s going to know that you exist.
Sally:
That is excellent advice. When you talk about a mentor, does it have to be someone that works in the hotel with you or can it just be someone that can help you with your career? What is your advice there?
Juan:
I think that it should be somebody with you in your career to help within your hotel. or within your company. And if not, then when you go to listen to a speaker and if somebody really strikes you, reach out to them.
Follow them, get close to them and get the most out of it. Just one orange juice drink, it’s not enough. Have a whole bushel of oranges, squeeze each one of them and take the use out of everyone and listen, I need help and I need help in directing my path. Am I doing the right thing? I’m thinking this way. And you’ll be surprised when you say help how many people will turn around and say yes, how can I help you?
Sally:
That is great advice. So, your advice is to dress business professional. And I think the hotel industry is really one of the areas that are still hanging onto that. Figure out where you are in the organization and get the lay of the land and then find a mentor. Ask a lot of questions, and build your network. Kate, give us some ideas of what you would give people for advice if you were going back to your college to talk about what they should do to be successful in hotel sales.
Kate:
I definitely have to just expand on the attire. I think grooming is just as important. Make sure that you have a nice hairstyle, and that your makeup is appropriate. And even for men, their hairstyle is appropriate. I just think being presentable can go a very long way. I’m very eclectic. It’s not that you can’t have fun with your clothing, you just have to be work appropriate.
Another thing that I would say as well is you have to get very comfortable asking questions. And that’s something that I struggled with because I always felt like, okay, I have all these questions and in a lot of hotel experience I’ve been in, I didn’t really have training.
Kate:
I just taught myself as I went and I felt bad for asking questions or wondered “do I not know enough because I have to ask this”, but it’s not true and it’s something that should really be empowering not to hinder you.
Asking questions is a big challenge. I would also definitely say to become an expert in your learning style because time management is going to come at any job that you come into, especially in the hotel industry or if you work at a hotel that has 30,000 square feet of meeting space.
Because I work with big groups, I am pulled in different directions on a daily basis. So, I had to really understand myself and how I learn best so that I could maximize my time and use it wisely because your day can change in the drop of a hat.
Kate:
Another tip that I would say is to become familiar with everybody across the hotel. You know, it’s very easy to stay in a box in sales and to stay in the sales office.
But if you walk around each morning and say good morning and you talk to the restaurant people, you say hi to the maintenance guy or the maintenance girl it can go a long way because then when you have to bring groups in, you may have certain things that haven’t been done before, but if you have a great rapport with everybody in the hotels, it’s just more people on your side to help make the event go smoothly.
Sally:
That’s great advice. So, again, dressing professionally and it doesn’t have to be a suit. You can be creative with your outfit. And learn time management, which I think is a professional skill no matter what industry you’re in.
But to your point, in hospitality, you could get pulled in 10 different directions at any point in the day. And I really like your advice of getting to know everyone in your hotel or your front desk, because every person is part of the visitor experience. You want them to feel like they’re a valued employee. And as you said, sometimes you got to ask a big favor at the last minute and you want that goodwill already built up. So you feel like you’re all working on the team together.
Sally:
Juan and I were walking down the street in New York once and a gentleman stopped him and the gentleman had been a bellman at a hotel Juan had worked at decades ago and he remembered Juan and Juan recognized him. It was pretty cool that they remembered each other. That shows the power of relationships.
I would love to know if you have any stories you’d like to share; something wonderful that happened as part of a sales or something that was not so terrific, but you were able to turn it around and or something inspiring. What kind of good stories can you share with everyone?
Kate:
I had a group that was a major food show and in our largest room, which is 9,000 square feet, we were supposed to have 70 tables set up. I walked in in the morning and the client looked like a deer in headlights and said that the room isn’t set up. There was a complete miscommunication on a step before the client got there. But it’s just one of those situations that its all hands-on deck and I just had to stay calm. I knew exactly who I had to go to: the Houseman and the catering department and they were on it.
It was staying calm and telling everybody what needed to be done. And then, of course, helping where I could help made the client feel less panicked and also the staff because the staff had to do something that probably would have taken between one and a half hours in a very short time.
When something comes up that may be unexpected, just remain as calm as possible because if you show that there’s chaos or some type of angst it’s going to pass on to other people. So that was something that was really bad, but I ended up turning out really great.
Sally:
That’s a great story. And that brings back your point of when you have good relationships with all the staff and you have to ask a huge favor like that, they’re ready to jump in cause you’re ready to jump in with them. Thank you for sharing. Juan. What’s a good story? You’re full of stories. What’s a good one to share?
Juan :
You made me think about opening a brand new 500-room all-suite hotel in New York City a few years back. We needed a major piece of business to be able to put $4 million on the books and we needed to have those contracts signed so we can go to the city and get a certificate of occupancy and the permits to continue to finish the construction of the hotel. I went to a company that has a lot of convention business in New York City. I sat with them and we hammered out three years of contracts for every one of their trade shows that were coming to New York City.
Juan:
And what we did is we will increase 1% and the second year, 1% that third year and say if we get that we’ll sign the contract right away. And we did. So, we were able to, on that piece of the business alone, showed the city, that we have $2.2 million of business already.
The second one was in the same hotel. We needed that extra million and a half. And I went to General Electric, which was having meetings at the Essex house and looking at Central Park. And the guy said to me, I don’t look at Central Park from your property. I say yes you do – on the top floors. But you’re going to be in meeting rooms all day. How about brand-new media rooms in Suites? I will upgrade everybody to a suite instead of a regular room. He goes,” I would take that, no problem”.
Juan:
And we started doing business. These mega meetings that General Electric had with all the unions and the four divisions that they have. We got the permit at 12 midnight and the meeting started at 9:00 AM. Talk about not sleeping for a few days in losing about 20 pounds running around the city trying to finalize the deal!
I still have the letter of gratitude from General Electric that speaks volumes and is probably the only letter that I kept from my customers, that’s, how important it was.
Sally:
Those are two great stories and your story speaks to your reputation. People trusted you because that’s a leap of faith to go from a known entity and known hotel to something brand new. So that really shows that people feel trust when they are working with you. Are there any last-minute words of wisdom you want to share?
Juan:
I’m very curious to see what happened in the next 10 years. I’m coming to the end of my career and when I look at this disruption that is happening in the entire world, not only the hotel business or tourism but all the new technology and its changes.[This interview took place before Covid-19 outbreaks. Who could have imagined all the changes!]
Sally:
Yeah. That’s tough. It is a pretty fast-changing element, of the tourism industry, that’s for sure. Kate, do you have any parting words of wisdom for folks?
Kate:
I would just say to believe in yourself and to just trust your gut feeling on decisions that you need to make and be aware of the people that are around you and who you can ask questions of, who you can find mentors and to just not think so deeply into how maybe somebody else does sales.
Once you find your own style, you will draw people in and people do business with who they like. So, if you’re likable and you just take the time to listen and you know, make sure that you’re putting your client’s needs ahead of your own. And by that I mean every time you go to talk to somebody new, you don’t have to push your product so much.
Sometimes it’s better to just hear what somebody may need. And sometimes people may just talk about a normal day and the sales part may come later. So, it’s really just being mindful of everybody’s needs and just remember that you can do it.
Sally:
That’s great. That is excellent advice to end on. So, thank you to the two of you. I appreciate your time and I know people are going to get a lot of value out of this!
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