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KEY MOMENTS
Key lessons from your first few sales jobs: 05:22
Name an impactful sales mentor: 10:05
Two biggest challenges you face today as a sales leader: 12:48
Most important tip: 20:56
How do you sharpen your saw and stay fresh: 24:14
Inspiring thought: 25:19

EPISODE 096: Here’s How Hospitality Sales Leader Jen Erney of ALHI Helps Her Member Hotels Sell Experiences…and Plenty of Sleeping Rooms

JEN’S CLOSING TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: “My motto is that it takes seven touch points to make one memorable experience so don’t think that just one email is going to get you in the door or one left voicemail message or one directory or collateral that you sent through the mail. So do it often, do it thoughtfully and don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions.”

Jennifer Erney is the Regional VP of Sales at the Associated Luxury Hotels International, also known as ALHI.

She had previously worked at the Fairmont Hotels, Kimpton Hotels and Loews Hotels.

Find Jennifer on LinkedIn!

Fred Diamond: I’m excited to talk to you today. As a little bit of trivia, you were a graduate of Johnson Wales University and you said you met your husband there. I also have a son who went to Johnson Wales University, we’ve interviewed probably about a half a dozen to a dozen people for the podcast who come from the hospitality space and many of them have been graduates of JWU so it’s great to talk to you and it was great to have learned that about you. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you sell today, and tell us what excites you about that?

Jennifer Erney: Fred, I have the great privilege of representing a finely curated collection of independent and emerging branded hotels. Here at ALHI we are a global sales organization and we’re dedicated to those hotels that have a keen interest in booking meetings and incentive business. We’ve been granted the authority and we have the very well respected and honoring responsibility of providing global sale services for all of our members.

We’re also proud to say that we have close to 300 luxury level hotels and resorts around the world and we also have an alliance of cruise ships and DMC services. We have a distinct portfolio that was hand selected and we want to ensure that our customers receive the four and five diamond quality service for all of their meetings.

Fred Diamond: You used the word “members.” Tell us what an emerging hotel looks like, you also used that word as well. What does that mean for the people listening to the podcast?

Jennifer Erney: For members which here in Washington DC should be very easy for people to understand, we operate just as an association so these independent hotels who didn’t necessarily have a voice on their own to compete in this very cluttered marketplace where there’s many obviously large brands, we give them the opportunity and have the voice to do that.

As a member, they can curate their member experience with us through events, marketing and of course in having a very experienced sales team in many different offices. As far as emerging brands, there’s so many great boutique brand hotels and when we see of emerging brands think of those collections that probably are no more than 60 or 75 hotels and for many of those they also need augmenting to their sales service, and we’re able to do that as well.

Fred Diamond: Tell us a little bit about how you got into sales as a career.

Jennifer Erney: I had to think back to that for a little bit, and actually my first job I am proud to say was at a video store in my home town. When I was thinking of that and it also partly to my great association experience because my job before Blockbuster ever existed as I was asking the folks in my town to become a member of our video store and obviously I was selling them, if you would, the benefits of the free popcorn, the additional movies or free movies that they would be able to get so that truly was my first way to get into that. With sales there’s perks so of course I had many free movies for myself and my family and friends and when the store was slow I got caught up in all of my favorites which are Weird Science, Goonies and of course 16 Candles.

Fred Diamond: 16 Candles is a classic, of course the great Molly Ringwald.

Jennifer Erney: That certainly dates me [laughs].

Fred Diamond: Now again you’re selling services to hotels, your members that we talked about before, some luxury chains, you also talked about cruises as well. I’m curious, what are some of the lessons you might have learned from working in a video store that have continued with you today?

Jennifer Erney: I think a lot of things have also changed in the selling methodology from the 80’s till now as well. I think the one thing that I learned was to be patient, there’s so many times that you want to get excited and tell them all about your services or all about those memberships and it might not be what they’re looking for so I think being a great listener and I also feel to, actually the terminology of show up and throw up doesn’t work.

I actually had a sales I guess we’ll call leader at some point that said, “Throw it out there and see if it sticks” and I asked, “Sticks to what?” so if you’re spending all those time and resources and it’s not for what the end user wants, then we obviously need to take a different approach. I also think there’s a very different approach too, to the business to consumer and business to business and I find myself suited in more of the business to business type sales situations.

Fred Diamond: I have a quick question for you. The concept of being a better listener comes up throughout many of the Sales Game Changers podcast, so I like to ask some of the guests how have you become a better listener? Can you give us some insights into how you’ve deployed better listening skills over the course of your career?

Jennifer Erney: I think to become a better listener you have to have an agenda for yourself before you walk into any sales activity or situation because at the end of the day if you actually listen they’re going to tell you all that you want to know, just as we are here today and I’m excited to share with you about my experience, your customers are too. So many times I have witnessed salespeople throughout my career just show up and tell them everything about their product, their service and what they’re so excited about when they probably didn’t actually find out where the synergy’s lie with that relationship.

I think checking yourself at the door and making sure that you know that you have to be a great listener. I’ve also found when I say to a customer, “If it’s OK with you, I’d like you to tell me more about your organization and your needs and I’ll be taking some notes” and that puts you in the position of listening.

Fred Diamond: That’s actually very powerful. If you think about it, your members, your customers, anyone listening on the Sales Game Changers podcast, they can pretty much get anything they need to know about your offering over the internet so there’s not a huge amount of value to them if you come to the meeting and just show up and throw up, like you said.

Jennifer Erney: Exactly.

Fred Diamond: So how do you get to the core of what they’re trying to get to? Last thing before we ask you about some of your specific area of brilliances, who do you specifically sell to? What type of a title is your typical customer?

Jennifer Erney: Great, very easy. We sell to meeting planners and those meeting planners come across all sectors here in Washington DC, of course we’re very fortunate, I can’t remember the exact number but I think it’s upward of over 6,000 associations and every association has a meeting of some shape or size. We also work with corporate meeting planners, nonprofit, government and of course those intermediary agencies as well.

Fred Diamond: Very good. For the Sales Game Changers listening to the podcast, I know you’re also friends with Melissa Riley in Destination DC and she was on a previous Sales Game Changers podcast. If you want to know some of the challenges that media planners face, please listen to that podcast and we’ll have a link to that on the show notes from today. We’re talking with Jennifer Erney, she’s the regional VP at ALHI. Jennifer, what are you an expert in? Tell us a little more about your specific area of brilliance?

Jennifer Erney: This was a very humbling question because you never want to say that you’re an expert but I will say that my brilliance is probably in being an analytical thinker with a human touch. My business is so much about relationships and how to continue that relationship after the sale. We pride ourselves if not doing a transactional sale that it should be this forever long relationship cycle, but many times because sales is stressful it gets sometimes very emotional so people want to make a decision based on their emotion as opposed to the data so I’ve prided myself through my 20 + years in the industry of stepping back, reviewing the data and then coming back to what the decision is and knowing that sometimes the decision might not be the best for both parties but in the end we want to make sure that the outcome is what the client wanted, not necessarily always what we wanted and that once we’ve made the decision that we stick to it.

Fred Diamond: I like that, it’s the first time I’ve heard that on the Sales Game Changers podcast, you’re an analytical thinker with a human touch. A lot of the people that we’ve interviewed have had 10, 20, 30 years of experience, you have to understand data, you have to be data driven but in almost every case everyone understands that you’re dealing with people so how do you be as effective as possible? Jennifer, to have gotten to where you are today you must have had some great mentors along the way. Why don’t you tell us about an impactful sales career mentor or two and how they impacted your career?

Jennifer Erney: I’m so glad that you asked this question because I have to say I’ve sought out a mentor in every job opportunity that I’ve had so to come up with one or two is a very difficult one but I do want to share a few of my favorites. When I worked for Lowes Hotels, there was this incredible woman by the name of Charlotte St. Martin and at the time she was the EVP of sales and operation so she definitely knew both sides of the business. She taught me the appreciation of graciousness, poise and that a hand written note will never go out of style.

Then at Kimpton Hotels I had the great honor of working with Christine Lawson who now works for Lowes Hotels and I just enjoyed her spunk, her spirit and energy and same, there has to be a human touch to what it is that we do. She took a chance to promote me into a regional role and as a rookie I appreciate all the time and attention that she gave to me.

Moving on to Fairmont Hotels where I spent a large part of my career – just over 10 years – I worked with Liz Erickson. She had 40 years with the brand here in Washington DC and she took the time to introduce me to everyone and also impacted my desire to give back to the industry by volunteering with organizations such as PCMA and ASAE so they were a few of my favorites.

Fred Diamond: You said you do some volunteering, what kind of things do you do? And you said PCMA, what organization is that?

Jennifer Erney: My apologies, PCMA is the Professional Convention Management Association and that membership base is of both those from the supplier space so you would find hotels, convention and visitors bureaus, technology companies and then of course meeting planners. We get together very frequently and throw our annual meetings and fund raising events and the one thing that always inspired me about PCMA is that they have a foundation and their true mission is actually to raise funds to offer scholarships so I was very fortunate that I didn’t need a scholarship to go to school but so many people want to get into this industry and they might not necessarily have the means to do that, and PCMA the foundation is very focused on that. I’m very passionate about them.

Fred Diamond: Very good. Do you still have relationships with the mentors that you just talked about?

Jennifer Erney: I do, I speak to all of them.

Fred Diamond: What are the two biggest challenges that you face today as a sales leader?

Jennifer Erney: Technology is always top of mind for me on both sides of everything, both on how technology is affecting our meeting planners in the space, how are they receiving information, how are they curating their data and also in my side here with a sales team of 10, how are we being perceived, how are we using technology and how are we making sure that we’re staying top of mind whether it’s our presentations, our marketing and all of those.

Technology is always top of mind for me, and just trying to stay current. There’s so much that goes out there and it’s obviously at this crazy rate so you’re proud that you know go to meetings today but there’s going to be a new product tomorrow so just continually staying up to date on all of those.

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you take us back to the #1 specific sale success or win from your career that you’re most proud of? Take us back to that moment.

Jennifer Erney: It actually wasn’t too long ago, it was during my Fairmont career and there in global sales we were moving forward with the total account management process or we like to call TAM and we recognized that we had a corporate client of ours that we saw that was very loyal to our brand but we had four salespeople devoted to this account in many different fashions.

All four of them collectively booked about 1 million dollars in business and that is a great accomplishment nonetheless. However, as we did more mapping and understanding more about their strategic meeting management platform, their procurement, how legal was involved, how they viewed brands together, we opted to have one global sales contact which I was honored was myself and after one complete year of having one contact and understanding all of their business we increased our share from 1 million to 5 million dollars.

Fred Diamond: Jennifer, I have a quick question if you don’t mind. A lot of the people listening to the Sales Game Changers podcast are coming from different industries – they’re in technology, professional services, we talked about B to B. Most of them are B to B, many of them don’t really understand what sales means for a hotel so can you give us a little bit of an insight? Are you trying to sell rooms, are you trying to sell conferences? Typical hotel, what does sales mean and what are the highest priorities if you will, from a sales perspective?

Jennifer Erney: Absolutely. We’re selling an experience and it’s something that’s tangible from the perspective that yes, you’re going to receive a meal and yes, you’re going to sleep in a bed but in the end of the day, our meeting planners are trying to curate an experience and they use us as the vehicle to be able to do that. What’s highest priority, of course, is that we need to put heads in beds first so people obviously the guest room count is usually the most important followed by then whatever their meeting needs will be – general sessions, the amount of great break outs if they’re having a gala dinner and then working with them to find out how it is that that’s going to help them. If they’re an association, they of course want to be able to have their members have a great experience to come back.

Many times in the corporate space it could be for an incentive because they’re rewarding their people so a different experience that we need to curate for them but truly it’s the experience business.

Fred Diamond: You started off working in a video store, you went to a great college, Johnson and Wales, but was there ever a moment where you thought to yourself, “It’s too hard, it’s just not for me”?

Jennifer Erney: Actually, no. When I saw that question I really had to think back and a mentor that I didn’t mention but I first entered Johnson and Wales thinking that I was more in the restaurant business, quickly learned that maybe the hours weren’t for me and I had a professor who actually was a meeting planner in her past life and she shared with me obviously how great hospitality sales and marketing could be.

I’ve always had a passion to be the best I can be, I approached my role actually as a relationship builder, a connection maker and through that the clients find value and partnership with me. I want to be their trusted adviser and they see I want to seek to understand them and their organization needs and I’m really not trying to “sell” them anything. It’s obviously obvious they have meetings and we have a solution, we just have to find the synergy in the middle to make that work.

Fred Diamond: Jennifer, before we go to break and listen to one of our sponsors, I just want to ask you one of the quick questions. I know the first question we asked you is tell us a little bit about your company and what excites you but one think I can get through this interview is that you really do have a passion for the hospitality space, for the meeting planning space. Can you just talk for a second before we go to break and listen to one of our sponsors, what is it about this industry that excites you? You have such an exhilaration about not just what you’re bringing, I know you have a lot of confidence in the solutions you bring in to your member hotels, etcetera, but what is it about this space that excites you? You do exude just a joy for the market that you’re serving.

Jennifer Erney: I very much appreciate that, and yes. My passion has run through and through since obviously graduating from Johnson and Wales and at the end our industry is actually fun. I know it’s stressful, we have goals, there’s pressures, we’re all respectively running a business whether it’s me and providing the service and obviously meetings for my members and of course providing the results for the leadership within our organization but our meeting planners, they also are doing that as well. I think the space for those who are ever thinking of coming into it, we do try to have fun while we’re doing it, we have great opportunities to go to conference, create networking events and as we’re all trying to show that we’re the best of the best, we have fun being able to attend receptions and seeing what’s new and exciting out there.

Fred Diamond: One other thing that comes up across the Sales Game Changers podcast that we do is that if you don’t have passion for what you’re selling, there’s no way you’re going to succeed and it has to be genuine, it has to be authentic.

Jennifer, what’s the most important thing you want to get across to junior selling professionals to help them improve their career?

Jennifer Erney: As we were just talking how technology is so very important, I want to challenge them to get out from behind their laptop, get their head out from their smart phone and go out and meet people. You can do this in so many ways and if you’re in the hospitality business on the sale side, we will find any creative way for you to get in front of the customer. Volunteer, attend industry events. It takes you longer and more minutes to try to establish a relationship over email than it would for you to pick up the phone and invite them for coffee. I made friends and clients for life doing it that way so if you’re good at what you do and you have the passion that you want to do this then sales will come very easy for you.

Fred Diamond: What are some of the things you do to sharpen your saw and stay fresh?

Jennifer Erney: I’ll be quite honest, when I was in my last job I was coasting along for a good while. I loved my brand, I loved everything that I was doing and representing but I realized that I wasn’t doing anything for myself so I did have to sharpen my saw and I realized that if I didn’t evolve to grow I couldn’t sustain – although I could sustain being a seller through retirement, I knew that that’s not what I wanted to do. I knew I had more I wanted to share, just as I’ve had many great mentors I hope I have been mentor to others and I made a conscious effort to read more about our industry, volunteer and take the opportunity to educate myself more.

Through many of these industry organizations it’s very easy to get some certifications so I tasked myself to get one and I have to say I’m very pleased that I have four and I’m working on my fifth which is my CMM so I hope to have that under my belt very soon as well. You’re learning what’s new in the industry and with that many of these industry certifications you’re meeting clients through there as well so they see that you’re investing in yourself and that this is your craft, it’s not just your job.

Fred Diamond: For the Sales Game Changers listening to the podcast who may not be familiar with some certifications in your space, you said you have four. Tell us what they are, brag a little bit.

Jennifer Erney: Sure, I have my CMP which is Certificate in Meeting Planning, I have my K Certified Association Sales Executive, I have my CHSE which is Certified Hospitality Sales Executive and I completed my meeting certificate series with ASAE.

Fred Diamond: Very good. What’s a major initiative you’re working on today to ensure your continued success?

Jennifer Erney: Since education has become very important to me again I was thinking of what is my post sales life looking like and just as that great professor helped me at Johnson and Wales I would love to teach some day and of course I would love to go back and teach at Johnson and Wales. They now have an online MBA program for hospitality so I hope I’ll have that under my belt very soon.

Fred Diamond: Once again, as a father who has put a child through Johnson and Wales I fully endorse that school, it’s been a great school. As a matter of fact, we’ve met so many people through the podcast as we’ve interviewed a whole bunch of people in the hospitality space who have gone to Johnson and Wales so if you’re listening to the podcast and one of your children are considering going there, feel free to reach out to me, I’ll give you my opinions which is very high.

Jennifer, sales is hard. People don’t return your calls or your emails, why have you continued? You also mentioned some of the challenges along the way with staying current on technology and things like that but what is it about sales as a career that keeps you going?

Jennifer Erney: As we talked about the passion, you can always tell somebody who has the – excuse the expression, fire in their belly – and I come in in the morning, I subscribe to the Franklin Covey method of putting the top 5 things I need to get done that day. It’s very easy to get distracted with all of those other things but when I’ve created a hit list and there’s a customer that I know that I want to get in or there’s someone on my sales team that has not been able to open that door to have that great accomplishment to get in there, the fist pumps come out and we’re really excited to be able to make that happen.

Fred Diamond: There’s so many things that were good about today’s podcast. I really am thinking, it keeps coming back to me that you described yourself as an analytical thinker with a human touch so there’s so much power into that, especially as we listen to your passion for your industry which I’m sure continues across to the passion that you have for your members and for your customers to help them achieve their goals. Jennifer, thank you so much for being on the Sales Game Changers podcast. Why don’t you give us one final thought that you can share with the Sales Game Changers around the globe listening to the podcast today?

Jennifer Erney: First, my motto is that it takes seven touch points to make one memorable experience so don’t think that just one email is going to get you in the door or one left voicemail message or one directory or collateral that you sent through the mail. So do it often, do it thoughtfully and don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions. In our business regardless of what you’re selling you do hear no as often and I think that just only builds your confidence and take it as it makes you stronger and not to be defeated, and you have to challenge yourself why you did hear no. Is it that you didn’t have the right solution to meet your needs? Did you talk only about yourself and not learn about them? At the front end and obviously if you continue to challenge yourself it will certainly pay off.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo
Produced by Rosario Suarez

The post EPISODE 096: Here’s How Hospitality Sales Leader Jen Erney of ALHI Helps Her Member Hotels Sell Experiences…and Plenty of Sleeping Rooms first appeared on Sales Game Changers Podcast.

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EPISODE 059: PM Hotel Group Sales Leader Leticia Proctor Addresses How Data Makes Selling Her Hotels More Hospitable

Leticia Proctor is a Senior VP of Sales, Revenue Management and Digital Strategies for PM Hotel Group.

She’s responsible for development and implementation of all sales, revenue management and digital strategy efforts at the national, regional and property levels. She also focuses on maximizing total hotel revenue while building a sales culture that promotes staff development and retention, new hotel openings, hotel re-positioning and re-branding.

Prior to joining the PM Hotel Group, she was the regional director of sales and marketing for Hersha Hospitality Management Corporation.

She’s also worked for such prestigious hotel companies as Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, Crestline Hotels and Resorts, Remington Hotels and Resorts, Interstate Hotels and Resorts, Loews Corporation and Hospitality Partners. Additionally, she is also pursuing a masters of professional studies in hospitality management at Georgetown University.

Find Leticia on LinkedIN!

Leticia Proctor: Thank you so much for having me, Fred. I really am delighted and honored to be a part of this podcast. About myself, I really enjoy spending time with my three sons, two are away in college and I have a younger son that’s in the fifth grade. Our life is great right now and I really also enjoy travelling, international travel at best, that’s one of my favorite things.

Fred Diamond: Where’s some place you’ve gone recently that’s been interesting?

Leticia Proctor: I love Paris, I love London, I love Amsterdam, Bruges is probably the most unique, it’s a medieval city in Belgium, it’s amazing. Those are some of the things that I enjoy doing in my off time.

Fred Diamond: Very good. You’ve worked for some very exceptional and prestigious brands in the hospitality space so I’m really interested in learning about your sales journey and your sales career. First, tell us what you sell today and tell us what excites you about that.

Leticia Proctor: In my role as senior vice president of sales in marketing and digital strategies and revenue management, I am responsible for all things revenue at PM Hotel Group. So anything that touches the customer, that rolls up to me, and that result is north of 400 million dollars a year, so it’s more than a million dollars a day. What keeps me up at night? Ensuring that we hit those targets. What excites me about that are the results, so although we sell items that are not tangible – such as a pair of shoes or a pair of pants – my results are tangible. I can look at the numbers and they speak for themselves. When I get people engaged with my sales team and they understand the overall objective, when I hit that target and exceed that target, that to me speaks volumes and that is what keeps me going.

Fred Diamond: For some of the people who are listening to the Sales Game Changers podcast today that don’t really know about the hospitality space, tell us again some of the things that people physically buy from you, some of the things that your company actually sells.

Leticia Proctor: It’s funny you asked that, I get asked that question a lot in the hotel industry. What we sell are the hotel accommodations. We sell meeting space, we sell food, we sell audiovisual, we sell dinner and breakfast and restaurant, and we sell Wi-Fi, but none of those things you can really take you aside from your food. For us it’s about reaching a person’s – not only their intellectual capacity – but also the emotional connection, that EQ that keeps people coming back. That experience that they have that brings that your fork memory where they want to come back to your environment and you don’t always have to start from scratch when you are trying to fill a hotel every day. Those are things that you want to make sure you have a core customer base to minimize the amount of people that you have coming in and out of the hotel where it’s a given that at least you’ll start at 40% occupancy. Those are things that I am responsible for with my team and how do we create that environment where people want to return.

Fred Diamond: Who does your team primarily interface with? Is it hotel owners and operators, franchisers or, how does that work?

Leticia Proctor: In my team it depends on their level. Above property people may engage with ownership, they will also engage with the brands: Marriott, Hilton, Starwood. But we also engage with the customer, so at the property level our sales teams engage with that meeting planner that wants to have an event for their corporation or it may be a bride that wants to have their event, or it may be someone celebrating their retirement. We touch all the different lenses of that customer cycle and it’s important that we deliver because we are the experts in our field.

Fred Diamond: Take us back to the beginning of your career. How did you first get into sales as a career?

Leticia Proctor: I actually started in operations and because of my personality I kept getting asked, “Why aren’t you in sales?” and I thought, “That’s interesting.” That started my path towards the sales environment so prior to being in this space I was an assistant general manager for a hotel for a little while. The great thing about my experience is that I understand the operation’s component as well.

For me, it’s not just about top line revenue, for me it’s about that full cycle of business. How does it flow to GOP? How does it flow to that gross operating profit? How does it flow to that net operating income? It’s not just about, “It looks good on paper, have we collected the funds that we thought we would to ensure that we’re a profitable company?”

Fred Diamond: Take us back to some of those first jobs. What are some of the lessons that have stuck with you until today?

Leticia Proctor: My first sales job was with Hospitality Partners and Debbie Feldman- her father was Harvey Feldman, who started the first Embassy Suites. She was my sales leader and one thing I learned from her that was life-changing was to trust my instincts. When you’re out doing a sales call and you can invisibly see that you’re interrupting someone, or you can visibly see that it’s not a good time, follow that instinct and go back to that person when it’s more convenient as opposed to forcing a square peg into a round hole. It’s more important to understand and be empathetic to what their needs are and build that trust. Trust your instincts when you go out and if it’s not a good fit, it’s not a good fit.

Also, before you engage in that sales call environment, understand what is your objective for the day. A lot of people get frustrated with sales calls because their goal is to go out and come back with a signed contract and that will hardly ever happen but if something’s a little bit more achievable such as, “I just want the name of the contact person that is responsible for making decisions and then I can go another path later” tends that you have more positive results. If you have that in mind, an objective that’s a lot more achievable, then you have a win but when you set that expectation super high and unachievable in the very beginning, that’s when you have that pit fall of being unsuccessful.

Fred Diamond: You’re the VP, you’re responsible for all sales revenue, revenue management and digital strategy. Tell us specifically what you’re an expert in. Tell us about your specific area of brilliance.

Leticia Proctor: I believe my area of brilliance would be the ability to analyze data. That comes from a place of root cause analysis so starting broad and then becoming very specific, and then from there enacting strategies that yield results that are, “Hit the bench mark but exceed the bench mark.” Often times, people when they’re looking at their performance they don’t have a clear path of what the objective is. For example, when I’m looking at someone’s performance, root cause analysis, did we achieve budget? Yes or no.

If the answer is no, my next question is why. Was it transient, was it group, was it contract? If it was group, why? And so I start with that approach but I continue to become a little more granular until I get to the root cause. For me, success is about treating the cause and not the symptoms, so if you have a cold and you’re just treating the runny nose or just treating the sneezing but not really get into the root cause which may be bronchitis then you’re exhaustive practice and for that to be a sustainable you have to get to the cause of what’s causing the erosion or the level of non-performance.

Fred Diamond: As a sales leader – I just want to follow up on that – tell our audience how you physically use data. Do you have a dashboard that’s directed to you, a certain key metrics every day, certain KPI’s? Do you get printed reports? Do you meet with an analyst? Give us a little bit of a peek into how you physically capture and use the data.

Leticia Proctor: My environment is more of a combination of a push report as well as a pull report environment, but also I’m naturally curious. My father tested as a genius and I believe that what I acquired from him was his excellent memory and I’m naturally curious.

For me, I do receive reports, at PM Hotel Group we have a couple of things. I do receive reports that are pushed to me so I can easily roll up the portfolio and then hone in on specific hotels but also we have business intelligence software that I can actually draw down on and just look for ebbs and flows. It’s a variance, analyzing the variances.

If I see they were not achieving a target, then I’m going to have a more thorough look and a more granular look at why we’re not achieving the target or why are we achieving the target and how can we capitalize on that more. In my environment I can look at all the hotels in our portfolio. Between owned and in manage and under development it’s just under 50 so I can look at those hotels and figure out where do we land here and how do we improve our performance.

Fred Diamond: Let’s go back to also throughout your career as well. You talked already about a couple people who have influenced you over your career, but take us back and tell us some stories about some of the impactful sales career mentors that you’ve had to get you to where you are today.

Leticia Proctor: Vicki Denfeld – she is still a mentor to me today, when I have those questions about the foundations of sales. I trust her judgement. What I’d liked about Vicki – actually I really respect and admire about her – is she’s very approachable but she’s very real. I felt that it was always a safe zone to ask questions and that she had my best interest at heart.

My mentor today is actually our president at PM Hotel Group who is Joseph Bojanowski. His method of guiding our performance has taught me to think differently. Not only at a professional level but a personal level. When I look at root cause analysis now, I think of them differently. When I look at situations, “What’s the best alternative to a negotiated agreement?” If I look at a BATNA, what’s the overall goal here? If I want to look at data, there’s so many different ways to slice and dice data and arrive at different results. Under his leadership – and it’s been almost 5 years – I’m still learning, and I respect him on so many levels that he is the biggest mentor not only on a professional level but a personal level. That to me has been life changing.

Fred Diamond: Thinking differently, I’m going to ask you a question that’s a little bit off the course here. Before we get to talk about some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a sales leader, give us a little peek into your industry. What are some of the macro level challenges, maybe, that are facing the hospitality industry today to give the people listening a little more context?

Leticia Proctor: One thing that’s on my radar right now is growth, the growth model. How is that sustainable? We’re growing because we have a high number of over achievers and high performers. But as we continue to grow in our portfolio, is our current model sustainable? If we continue to acquire assets, will it be an environment where I can plug and play in the sense of adding new hotels and still have that peak performance or is it going to at some point cause erosion in performance because people are overly burdened?

Where is that maximum capacity where you can still get a high performance but still have people that are fully engaged? That is something that as I look at our environment for sales, we want continued internal growth but also how do I assure that people stay engaged. That would be one, a thing that keeps me up at night, and the other would be how do you keep your number ones? The teams that are #1 consistently. Those high performers, how do you keep them motivated? Sometimes you can be a #1 performer but are you truly #1? Just because you’re an A, are you an A-? Are you an A+? Are you an A? Do you compete against yourself?

How can you perform better to yourself as opposed to just you comp set? Those are things that I want to make sure I touch individuals consistently and I also want to ensure that I understand what their why is. It’s not just about my why, it’s about their why, too. What keeps them motivated? What keeps them engaged? Because if I lose that sense of engagement as a leader, I lose my team and I lose my overall path in my career. In sales it’s about the relationships, not only what the individuals can do for our company, but what can we do for them on a personal level that will allow them to have continued growth.

Fred Diamond: Just curiously, what are some of the strategies that you’ve had to employ to keep your top tier performers engaged?

Leticia Proctor: I let them in, I am vulnerable with them at times. I am not very cut and dry, they know the personal side of me, too. They know the human side of me. There are some times when there are a lot of things that cost the competing priorities, they know about my family, they know about my life, I am an open book but I’m also very consistent.

You can ask anyone on my team, I am really good at having their back. If you have exhausted on measures and you need assistance, I am here for you but I can also be fair and firm. It’s a two way street but what my team gets from me is consistency as well as the truth. If I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t profess to know everything so I can be an open book.

Fred Diamond: That is good. You let your team come to you. You talked about some of your mentors, do you believe that they look at you as a mentor as well? Do you consider yourself to be a mentor to other sales professionals in the industry?

Leticia Proctor: I do. When I look back on my career, to see some people that have started out in the industry as a coordinator or very new in the hotel industry and now they’re regional VP’s or they’re directors of sales that grew under my leadership, that still reach out to me today – and I’ve been in this space for over 20 years – if they have a question or if they need to understand something, that to me is invaluable. Because it’s not just about what I’m doing for my company or wherever I am, but how do I help others grow and how do I help them achieve their full potential.

When I look back on my career, I smile at that. Even today I still talk to students at universities as well as high schools about the path forward and expecting great things.

Fred Diamond: Leticia, take us back to a specific sale success or win from your career that you’re most proud of.

Leticia Proctor: I am most proud of creating an environment where people learn. I have a grassroots and a grasstops approach and I want people to engage and continuously learn. I also want them to ask the tough questions, just because we’ve done something consistently for X amount of years, is this still relevant today? And if it’s not relevant, let’s change it. I’m about efficiencies. Ask why all day long, ask whatever you want and we’ll make it happen if we can.

But also I am very happy when I look back on my career showing people how I interpret data so they can understand when we’re asking questions here’s why we need that question answered. That to me gives a more thoughtful, structured, disciplined approach to analytics and also not just blindly trusting the data. You’ve got to also vet the data. Is the data accurate? Because if you put strategies in place that are based on flawed data, you will yield negative results.

Fred Diamond: You’ve been taken through this very interesting and exceptional career that you’ve had. You’ve worked with some amazing brands in the hospitality space, you’ve done some very exciting things across the entire hospitality spectrum. Did you ever question being in sales? Again, you started your career in operations. Was there ever a moment where you thought to yourself, Leticia Proctor, “It’s just too hard, sales is just not for me”?

Leticia Proctor: [Laughs] I have had those thoughts occasionally. I am one that always analyzes why, what happened, why do I feel this way. In the sale space, sometimes life can become very chaotic. It can become exhausting, you can have to deal with decision fatigue. Sometimes you may start early in the day. Even though people are empowered, they still may want to come to you as a go-to person. So if you’re peppered with a lot of decisions that you need to make, you can suffer from decision fatigue.

When I think about sales and life being chaotic, often times I just need to get some sleep or some rest because I know that if I were to have a normal environment where it’s predictable, that would last for probably three days and then I’d be bored to tears because I like the engagement of problem solving and being known as the fixer, but also being the one that gets it done. My results speak for themselves. When I think about the team and my career, yes, there are times that I get frustrated, but it’s only for a moment because I love what I do.

Fred Diamond: Leticia, I want to get some of your tips on how today’s listeners can take their career to the next level. What is the most important thing you want to get across to junior selling professionals listening to today to help them improve their career?

Leticia Proctor: That’s an excellent question. I think that if I were to give them advice, it would be – and I just spoke about this a couple of weeks ago – but it would be to learn to embrace the cycle of business, the full cycle of business. When junior sales professionals understand how important their role is to the entire cycle of business, that’s when you get full engagement, all in attitude and great results.

But if that sales person doesn’t understand how human resources ties into their role or how operations ties into their role, or how accounting ties into their role that’s when people fail. That’s when they’re not successful. I was just having this discussion with someone a couple of weeks ago, entrepreneurs, for example. They’re really good at making an item but they don’t understand cost analysis and cost ratios, so if they don’t understand that component then you will not be profitable at the bottom line.

I think it’s important when junior sellers are still in college or still in school, to understand the cycle of business and they don’t have to be an expert in every category, they don’t have to be an expert in computers but understand how to improve efficiencies. If you have Excel, it’s only as good as how you use it. If you don’t understand Excel but you have it, you’re not going to improve your efficiencies. If it takes you five hours to get a project done but someone else 20 minutes there you have it. Those are things that junior sellers, as we continue this path forward with the sales industry, you have to create your own intellectual capital and your own sense of value. How are you going to be a value add to your current or present or future employer? If you cannot then you will be deemed the liability.

Fred Diamond: What are some of the things that you do specifically to sharpen your saw and stay fresh?

Leticia Proctor: Oddly enough, I do not want to be the smartest person in the room. I don’t. I want to stay engaged, I want to be around like-minds in the sense of the goal of being a game changer, a history maker, but I don’t want everyone to think like me and I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room. I want it to be a give and take, I want an environment where I am constantly learning. It’s output and input. I don’t want to always give out, I don’t always want to receive, it’s got to be a balanced approach to success.

If you don’t have that in your inner circle and ensuring that you have people that you respect in your pipeline, that’s when people become stagnant. That’s when you have a clear example of, for example, the Peter Principle where people get to their highest level of incompetency and they cannot grow, they’re at their brain capacity. For me, it’s about surrounding myself with like-minded people and it is about spending time with peers, networking with the organizations that continue to allow me to grow.

Fred Diamond: What is a major initiative you’re working on today to ensure your continued success?

Leticia Proctor: Right now I am pursuing my masters at Georgetown University.

Fred Diamond: Good for you.

Leticia Proctor: And hospitality management and I get asked a lot of times, “You’re the senior vice president of sales. What are you going to do with this masters?” For me it’s not about that. It’s about my personal growth, it’s about my bucket list. As long as I can remember, I wanted to graduate from Georgetown University. I was actually attending the University of Maryland to graduate a program when I decided to start with Georgetown because it’s something that I wanted to do. After that, I may just pursue law at Georgetown, my law degree and not because I want to be an attorney, just because I want my JD. Those are things that keep me in the know and keep my mind fresh and experience in life the lens of others.

Fred Diamond: Sales is hard. People don’t return your calls or your emails. Why have you continued? What is it about sales as a career that keeps you going?

Leticia Proctor: I have a tenacious attitude and spirit about my personal life and my professional life, so for me it’s about the results. Going back to what I learned from very early in my career about self-awareness, I always put myself in that person’s shoes. Why aren’t they calling me back? Why wouldn’t they want to call me back? How can I reach them and do they see the value in what I can give them to satisfy their need and make life easier for them, and give them back their time, and help them do things next level and not just basic? How can we take this ten steps higher? Those are things where when I look at my performance overall and I look at what I can do as far as helping others exceed, that’s why I don’t give up, I never had. I’ve never given up in anything in my life and I expect great things.

Fred Diamond: Very good.

Leticia Proctor: Mediocrity is not something that I can live with.

Fred Diamond: Why don’t you give us one final thought that you’d like to share with the Sales Game Changers listening to today’s podcast?

Leticia Proctor: If I were to leave everyone with a final thought, that would be it’s not only important to know your why, it’s important for you to understand and know the why of others. And if those two things don’t align, don’t take that lightly because something will disengage. If you’re on the same level playing field and you’re going to go next level, life is good. Some people don’t know what makes them happy, some people are happy coma but… I don’t just want to be happy, period. I want to be fulfilled and I also want to be phenomenal. Great is good but phenomenal is exceptional, so to me, know your why and know the why of others and make sure that those are a common effort.

Fred Diamond: Know your why.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo
Produced by Rosario Suarez

The post EPISODE 059: PM Hotel Group Sales Leader Leticia Proctor Addresses How Data Makes Selling Her Hotels More Hospitable first appeared on Sales Game Changers Podcast.

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EPISODE 020: Kimpton Sales Executive Telesa Via Reveals What Leads to Exceptional Success in Hospitality Sales

Telesa Via is the vice president of sales for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants.

She has global responsibility for helping grow the brand’s business to corporate accounts, individuals, and associations. She runs a team that provides services all around the globe.

Telesa started her career with the Ritz-Carlton, eventually moving to the Hyatt brand and then moving to Kimpton, where she became the VP of sales in 2016.

Find Telesa on LinkedIn!

Fred Diamond: You’re the VP of sales for Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants. Telesa Via, tell us what you sell today and what excites you about that.

Telesa Via: What I sell today would be hotels, and that means that it’s guest rooms, it’s meeting space, and it’s restaurants. What excites me the most is just the thrill of the sale itself. If I had to come up with my most ideal job that I would do 100% of the time, it would be getting contracts and working with customers. That’s my thrill.

Fred Diamond: Tell us the main customers Kimpton sells to.

Telesa Via: The customers will vary. We will have airline crews. We will have corporate group customers. We will have association group customers. We also have your transient customers—a company who is close by a hotel and is trying to negotiate a corporate rate where they will have their customers or their employees to stay, we’ll negotiate that. Then we’ll have people who are planning their bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah, birthday party, or wedding. They will be booked in our meeting space. And then, of course, we have individuals who actually want to come and dine in our restaurants. Our salespeople would be focused in all arenas: group, transient, catering, and restaurant.

Fred Diamond: For people who aren’t familiar with the Kimpton brand, why don’t you tell us a little more about the brand, what it stands for? I know it has a very exciting history. Just give us a little more background into what the brand of Kimpton stands for.

Telesa Via: Kimpton was started by Bill Kimpton over 30 years ago. Bill Kimpton started the hotel because he had traveled internationally and really loved the boutique-size hotels. We are the first. There are many are out there who have appreciated what we have brought to the table as it relates to the community of the hotel world, but I’m proud to say that we are the first. Sometimes when people think of boutique, they think of 30 rooms. We have some hotels that are over 400 rooms… We are 66-plus strong domestically and also we are in Amsterdam and Cayman Islands.

Fred Diamond: You represent sales for the entire brand, and you just mentioned you’re now international with Cayman and Amsterdam as well.

Telesa Via: Absolutely. You’re absolutely correct.

Fred Diamond: How many people are reporting to you? How many people are in the sales organization?

Telesa Via: My goodness. If I had to count… it’s a couple of hundred.

Fred Diamond: I’d like to hear a little more as we go through the podcast today about how you manage such a large organization and some of the things you might be doing to help them grow and improve. We’ll be asking a little bit later on about some of the challenges. But let’s talk more about your career. How did you first get into sales as a career?

Telesa Via: My dad, who was in sales, introduced me to Valerie Ferguson, who at that time was the first African-American president of the Hotel and Motel Association, so a great achievement. His comment to me was, “She reminds me of you, and I’d love for you to meet her.” We talked about sales, and I, at that moment, said, “Sales is not for me.” Boy, was I so wrong, because I made it my career.

Fred Diamond: What were some of the first things you did in sales? What were some of the first sales jobs that you had?

Telesa Via: My first job in sales in the hospitality world was a transient sales manager for the Ritz- Carlton in downtown Atlanta. My responsibility included setting up contracts and corporate negotiated accounts. That would mean that Company X would sign an agreement with me, and then they would actually get their employees or their customers to use that negotiated rate to stay with us when they were in town for business and or for leisure.

Fred Diamond: Your first job in sales was at the Ritz-Carlton, which is essentially one of the gold-standard brands in hospitality. What were some of the things you learned there that you have carried on through the course of your career?

Telesa Via: One was, Ritz-Carlton has a very—“rigid” may not be the best word—a very structured program as it relates to how to answer the phone and also the presentation. It was very, I want to say scripted, and scripted is an awesome thing because at that point I was so brand-new that I needed that guidance. So what Ritz-Carlton brought to me at that time in my career was the ability to have a roadmap to be successful. Ritz-Carlton brought me that. What it did bring me in addition was the idea and the success behind building a successful strategy and/or a plan. Being very young in my career at that time, I had no idea. I had talked about it in college, things of that sort, but when you have to put the rubber on the road it becomes a different story. Ritz-Carlton brought me those two things.

Fred Diamond: Let’s talk a little more about you specifically. Telesa Via, tell us what you are an expert in. Tell us a little more about the specific area of your brands.

Telesa Via: My two would be my ability to sell. It is a passion of mine. It’s something that I think is very natural, and it’s something that in my most recent days I don’t have to work hard toward because it’s a natural part of me. The other piece that I would say is building strategy. If there is an issue and if there’s a problem, that is something that I look forward to. It’s something that I’m successful with, and then also measuring the success of that strategy.

Fred Diamond: You mentioned one of your initial mentors. Tell us more about who was a specific impactful sales career mentor to you and how they impacted your career.

Telesa Via: I’m going to go a little different with the answer to that. As I mentioned to you, the person who brought me into the industry was Valerie Ferguson, and she still continues to be a mentor. As my career progressed, I actually worked with a young lady who was the GM of the Hyatt Fair Lakes. Her name is Gail Smith-Howard, and she came up on the operations side. My expertise is sales, and of course she is the general manager, so she knows a lot of everything. She’s the general conductor of that particular hotel. While sales was not her day-to-day job, because she was responsible for all facets of that organization, I was able to learn the importance of operations. If you sell it, someone has to operate it and execute it; if they don’t execute it well, then the customer is not coming back. At that point of my career, that was an eye-opener and a game changer for me to understand the nuances and how things must work from an accounting, from an operations standpoint. So while that’s not a sales response, I will just say that salespeople have to understand the nuances of the operations part because if the experience is not good, the customer does not come back.

Fred Diamond: With Kimpton Hotels, how do you prioritize your customers? Do you prioritize corporate, business-to-business, or individual or associations? I’m just curious as to how you view your customer and how you target specifically.

Telesa Via: All customers are important, I want to first and foremost say that, and each hotel has a little bit of a different life—a resort property versus a city property versus a different type of property has different nuances behind it, so I don’t know if I can give you a one-size answer. But what I will say is that what’s important is to figure out who your top potential accounts are, who’s going to give you that baseline business so that you can build repeat, because it’s less expensive to book a repeat business than it is to go out and find a new piece of business from a sales perspective.

And then, once you’ve completed that and you’ve built a strategy, then you’re going to look at what is the icing on the cake, what can I put on top of that. Let me figure out my baseline that’s going to give me the best return on investment, and then what area do I go to, to put that icing on the cake, whether that’s transient or whether it may be another form of a transient business such as FIT [free independent traveler] or retail, which is what was booked online. It varies by hotel. But the goal is “What’s your foundation?”, “What is the base business that you’re going to put on the books?” and then how are you going to manage that upwards in order to get to your 100% occupancy from a hotel’s perspective.

Fred Diamond: What specifically is it about sales that you enjoy today? Is it dealing with customers? Is it managing teams? Is it working with marketing, being in the operations side, at the C-suite table? 

Telesa Via: My priority would be with my customers. Secondly, I would say that it is the team that I work with because I can only be successful if I have a great team. And then, the third piece of that is recruiting. That is another important piece of this because if I’m not bringing in the right people then I can’t spend time with my salespeople because I don’t have the staffing to do it. Those would be my three top.

Fred Diamond: As it relates to that, Telesa Via, what are the two biggest challenges you face today as a sales leader?

Telesa Via: Recruiting. You can never have enough people. There is always turnover, and turnover is not necessarily a bad thing because that means people are also growing and getting promoted up, so that’s exciting. And then, my second area is marketing and working on the right marketing solution for the issue that you may be faced with.

Fred Diamond: When you say marketing, I presume Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants has a marketing organization. You have a peer, I presume, on the marketing side as well. Is it homing in on the message? Is it getting the word out? Is it getting your salespeople in sync with what the message is? What are some of the marketing challenges that you believe are the biggest challenges?

Telesa Via: To answer your question, it is all things. So we’re looking at what does a salesperson need to have so that when they’re going out to sell to the customer they have the correct information. For example, we have a sales app so that if a sales manager is meeting with the customer, we have a sales app that will take them through the 66-plus hotels that we have. If they ask a question they can actually email right then and there the information that they’re looking for.

But it’s also what’s on our website. It’s also how do we proactively market to customers that may not have been introduced to us in the past. And then the other piece of marketing could be our internal customer and how do we get them to come back. Things are so different than when I started 20 years ago. How leads come in, now we are working with systems that are more electronically based. So we have to market digitally to them, and that wasn’t the same 20 years ago.

It’s a big job. We do have representation in our team of individuals at our home office from a marketing perspective who’s responsible, but I think that it takes a team to be able to make sure that we have solidified the correct and right way. While my expertise may be in sales, theirs maybe in marketing, but we have to work together to make sure that it’s the right sale to the right customer.

Fred Diamond: I want to ask you a follow-up question about recruiting. How do you overcome that? First of all, tell us a little more about what the actual challenges. Is it hard to find people? Just tell us, in general, what is the problem with recruiting and then what are some of the things you’re trying to do to overcome that as a challenge.

Telesa Via: I had to look at recruiting as different levels. In my mind you’re looking at it as it relates to entry level, then you’re looking at it as mid-manager level, then you’re looking at as director level, and I can go on and on and on. Each of those areas will actually require a little bit different of an approach.

I’ll give you an example. We’ve been talking about how do we recruit for internships and how do we get entry-level individuals out of college. We’re building a plan so that we can work with the colleges to build that relationship so that we can get people in on an entry level. Our goal is for them to have a lifelong experience with Kimpton. We’re also looking at using a company that will assist us as well on the higher levels. That has worked, but at some times it may not be as successful for every single level. What we also work on is requiring our managers to talk to individuals, whether it is at an industry event or sitting down having dinner with someone, because we all know someone.

That has been a big focus of just having general conversations in order to make connections as it relates to recruiting. To me, recruiting is the recipe that will either make you successful or not, and if you don’t have the right ingredients in that recipe, your strategy, whether it’s marketing or sales or whatever, may be may not work. Nine times out of 10, for every single deal that comes into the company, I interview via phone or in person. That is extremely important because they’re going to be messaging my leadership and my strategy. I want to make sure that it’s good, that Kimpton is going to be great for them and vice versa, so it is extremely important and is one of my top priorities.

Fred Diamond: Telesa, you’ve had a great career of success. Take us back to the number-one specific sales success or win from your career that you’re most proud of.

Telesa Via: I’m going to have to tell you about when I actually got the opportunity to step into this role as VP of sales. I can tell you many, many stories, but as I look through the audience who may be listening to this, I think a lot of salespeople really want to hear “What is out there for me?” and “How did someone achieve their goals?” When I started I didn’t necessarily have a lot of that, so I think it’s a great opportunity for me to share that. When I started in the industry over 20 years ago, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t think that sales was for me. And then, once I got in and embraced it, I built a strategy. My goal was to be a VP of sales, so I could do so many other things.

I achieved my goals on a quarterly basis. I was creative. I built out plans. I did kick-butt site inspections to be able to get customers to select me. But this was a personal gain and a personal achievement to be able to achieve this goal. Out of all of the millions of dollars that I’ve booked as a salesperson, as a career this was the most important. Just to let you know, when I came into Kimpton, which was about nine years ago, I came in thinking, “How long am I really going to stay here?” Because I’d left Hyatt and had been with Hyatt just short of 10 years, and when I came over to Kimpton I did a shift. Hyatt and Kimpton, while they’re both great brands, they’re also different. There’s a lot of difference between the two, but both of them are great companies.

When I came over to Kimpton, I knew it was the right move for me. It was different. It was outside of my comfort zone because I was in big boxes, very different strategy, and now I was going to more boutique. I mapped out my plan thinking I was going to stay here for X number of years. Nine years later I’m still here, and I will just say that this is the best company that I have actually worked for. In mapping out my career and understanding who Kimpton is I was able to be a part of so many things that I may not have been in other companies—building strategies that I never had the opportunity to but also being able to get my feet in arenas that were brand-new to me.

When I achieved this goal of VP of sales, which was my dream 20 years ago, I accomplished so many things. One is, I think that I validated to the clients that I have booked over years that I’m a salesperson at heart. Wherever I go they come with me, which is awesome. But most importantly, I had been able to accomplish things that I put on my list. That is my best achievement, and it is the thing that will go down in the history in my life: accomplishing something that seemed so far 20 years ago but it’s here today.

Fred Diamond: Thank you so much. You’ve had a great career in sales. You’ve told us some of these successes along the way. You’re representing a world-class brand right now. Did you ever question being in sales? Was there ever a moment, Telesa Via, where you thought to yourself, “It’s just too hard. It’s just not for me”?

Telesa Via: Twenty years ago when I came into the industry, I probably said that a thousand times. But I will tell you, after I got over that first six-month period and I had the opportunity to build some contacts, also develop the mentor I felt was going to provide a roadmap for me, there has not been one time that I’ve looked back and asked myself, “Is this for me?” Since that day, six months into my job, have not turned back and looked at it anything differently than the plan that I have actually have gone through over the past 20 years.

Fred Diamond: Telesa, what is the most important thing you want to get across to selling professionals to help them improve their careers?

Telesa Via: The most important thing I would say is to find someone who is going to provide constructive feedback to them. I think what happens when you’re starting out in the industry, you want to continue to hear “You’re doing great, you’re doing great, you’re doing great,” and what happens is that may not be the way you can actually learn from your mistakes and/or areas that you may not be perfecting. While you could simply say “mentorship,” I will go a step further and say find someone that you can connect with who is always going to do a reality check and provide you with a different way of looking at things, because the one lens or the one way is not always the best way.

That is one, and I will add another one: Always continue to find avenues to advance your learning. Sometimes in a professional setting they may have areas of training, things of that sort, but not all sales companies offer that. So I would just say push yourself, go out and reach out to see what tools are out there to educate yourself on how to continue to sharpen your saw because you cannot rely 100% on the company that you work with as the only way.

Fred Diamond: You mentioned “sharpening your saw.” What are some of the things you do to stay fresh and sharpen your saw?

Telesa Via: I am constantly taking classes and continuing to stay very relevant, so that’s one thing. I also will go and look at websites of companies that are not necessarily in the hospitality industry—it could be, for example, Uber or Google or other companies that are out there—because the way that they may be doing certain things are things we should probably take a look at and see‘how would that be relative to where I am and what I’m doing.

Fred Diamond: What’s a major initiative you’re working on today to ensure your continued success?

Telesa Via: I’m going to answer this question from the standpoint of, from a business and in my role. Right now, one of the things that I am really working on is, in our world we call it group. That means that that is a contract that comes in and it has over 10 rooms on peak night. That’s our baseline business, which is what I was mentioning earlier. What we’re wanting to do is be able to expand our client familiarity in that particular arena, and we’re looking at all of the tools that are out there for us to really maximize.

We want to look at our unique visitors from a group’s perspective. We want to get into markets that we have been performing well but that we know [offer even greater] opportunity—maybe, for example, pharmaceutical, retail, etc. We want to just make sure that we’re spreading the word out there as it relates to Kimpton Hotels. We do meetings and events, and we are rock-star status in that, and we will continue through that over the next couple of years because everyone can grow.

Fred Diamond: You’ve given us some great insights, Telesa, on how people can be successful as sales professionals. But, sales is hard. People don’t return your calls or your emails. Why have you continued? What is it about sales as a career that keeps you going?

Telesa Via: I don’t like no as an answer, so as I have moved on into my career and looking at 20 years, I could probably tell you a lot of stories, and you probably don’t have enough time to listen to all of them. But “no” means “yes” to me, and so that has allowed me to continue.

The other piece is that from a hotel’s perspective, if I’m talking to a meeting planner, they’re looking for a home. I just so happen to have the best home, in my opinion, and it’s my responsibility to sell them on why my home/hotel is the best place. That’s up to me to do it, and I don’t stop at no. It continues on until we get business from that particular account.

Fred Diamond: It’s apparent that you’re very passionate about the brand that you’re representing right now, Kimpton Hotels. One of the words that comes through on the Sales Game Changers Podcast is “passion.” You got to have the passion, the enthusiasm for what you’re selling, or else it’s going to come through to customers, obviously… Does everyone on your team have that same passion? And what if someone doesn’t: Can you teach them to be passionate, or do you have to just get them off the team?

Telesa Via: That’s a big question, and I will say that not everyone has that. Because if that’s the same, then everybody in the world would be exactly the same, and that’s not the case. I also just think that sometimes people have passion but then it may be a passion for somewhere else and another opportunity. It’s not that they don’t have passion, but the passion may not necessarily be parallel to where we are and our brand. What I will say is that as leaders it is our responsibility to work with them by doing weekly one-on-ones, doing training, to be able to help that individual, because where a person may be today doesn’t mean that they can’t be at my place 20 years from today.

There’s opportunity out there. I think that the leader and the person we’re talking about both have to be open and willing to be able to work towards it.

Fred Diamond: Give us one final thought that you would like to share with the sales game changers listening on today’s call?

Telesa Via: Give me a fish and I’ll eat for a day. Teach me how to fish and I’ll eat for a lifetime. I think that sums up, especially from a sales perspective, so many things. You can’t just be given something. You have to take the opportunity to capture it yourself.

There are opportunities are out there. There are unlimited opportunities, but it’s up to the individual how they’re going to fish.

Produced by Rosario Suarez

The post EPISODE 020: Kimpton Sales Executive Telesa Via Reveals What Leads to Exceptional Success in Hospitality Sales first appeared on Sales Game Changers Podcast.