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[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a replay of the SALES GAME CHANGERS LIVE Webinar hosted by Fred Diamond, Host of the Sales Game Changers Podcast, on August 12, 2020. It featured Destination DC President Elliott Ferguson.]

Register for next Tuesday’s Women in Sales: Sales and the Culture Mindset as We Lean Into A New New Normal here.

Find Elliott on LinkedIn here.

Listen to Telesa Via’s Sales Game Changers episode here. Listen to Melissa Riley’s Sales Game Changers episode here.

EPISODE 261: Destination DC CEO Elliott Ferguson Recommends That Sales Professionals Implement These Steps to Bring Value to their Customers Right Now

ELLIOTT’S TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: “People can see when you’re happy. I gave my entire team mirrors years ago and I said, “Every time you pick up the phone, I want you to look in the mirror and look at your facial expression. I want you to smile when you’re talking to them and see whether or not they see a difference in how you’re talking because that’s how people perceive you, that’s exactly what they hear and that’s really important as we’re looking at developing our brand – because each of us are a brand – as we’re looking at moving forward and getting out of COVID.”

Fred Diamond: Let’s get right to it. First off, how are things going for you as the leader of Destination DC?

Elliott Ferguson: First of all, Fred, hello to you and good to be here. Melissa Riley reminded me that she was on well before me so she greased the pathway for me, so I’ll try to live up to what she delivered a few months ago. I had a choice between an hour with you or watching TMZ and I chose you because that’s where we are now, we’re all stationary, not traveling, doing a lot of calls and talking about business and clearly not wearing suits anymore. I don’t miss that part at all but as you can imagine, the disruption of COVID and things that are not happening has been pretty detrimental to us economically here in DC.

Fred Diamond: First, give us the perspective prior to the pandemic and even post. Again, your job is to bring associations, companies to do their conferences here. By the way, I’m based here in Northern Virginia, you’re in DC, whenever I broadcast the show I always tell people I’m in Northern Virginia just right outside of Washington DC. I’m looking at the people who are watching us today, I know we have people from all over the world, we have some people here from Europe, we have a couple people from Australia, of course we have a lot of people in the United States as well but what is it about DC as a destination? Prior and post pandemic, why would an organization want to come here for their conference, for their big events?

Elliott Ferguson: Very good question. What we do is really economic development, it’s disguised as tourism and fun stuff and I accept that, as a matter of fact, I appreciate it because I started my career on the other side of economic development. DC is an attraction for a variety of reasons, it starts with the thing that we like to sell the least which is the federal government and the fact that we’ve got thousands of associations headquartered in the DMV – that’s DC, Maryland and Virginia – with them in this area to lobby members of congress, there are several opportunities to do business with them. That plus the fact that you’ve got business leaders and corporations from a global perspective and of course domestically coming to Washington to lobby congress to do business.

You’ve got a lot of businesses, a lot of different industries that have state ground in the DMV, specifically tech, medical and others that also leads to meetings. Then of course the infrastructure is there, flights, international, domestic and convention centers, hotels, all those things have to play a role in this as well. From a leisure perspective, I’ve always said that a strong leisure destination lends itself to be a great convention destination. Just imagine Orlando or Vegas without the things that attract people there, it would not be a strong meetings place but for Washington it’s the things I referenced plus the fact that we’ve got a lot of amazing things to see and do and the fact that there are so many of them, Fred, that are free. When you have 16 free museums and you’ve got memorials and monuments that you can visit, especially now during the pandemic, you still can come to the city and enjoy these things.

That makes us a value-added attraction and a great destination. The thing about our museums – and I’ll cut it short here – is that usually you hear the word ‘museum’, you think Picassos and you think sculptures, that’s not what we have to offer here. It’s one of those things whereas you can go into the Air and Space Museum and you think you’re going to be there for an hour and four and a half hours later you’re still there because it’s so interactive and so amazing, so many things you can see and do in Washington which really makes us a cool destination.

Fred Diamond: Like I mentioned, I live 15 minutes outside of DC. Whenever we go into DC which is frequently – not frequently in the last 5 months, but frequently prior to everything – it’s like going on a vacation. There’s great restaurants and so many great things to see. Here we are, it’s August 12th and we’re in the pandemic, conferences have been cancelled, the big, beautiful convention center I presume has been empty since March 13th and probably through the end of the year as well. What is your team focusing on? Again, you run the entire organization but from a sales perspective what are your people doing right now where there’s so much uncertainty with when things might come back especially in the conference and the event center?

Elliott Ferguson: For us it really ties into what they can do versus what they cannot do, who can meet, right now you can’t meet in DC if you’re over 51 people coming together so that parameter limits a lot of things. From a city-wide perspective we’ve hemorrhaged all business in 2020, we’ve lost it all, we’re losing business in 2021, we’re not alone, that’s happening nation-wide because of the pandemic. Sometimes we look at who will rebound first and what should we be focusing on. Fred, I could sit here and commiserate on what’s not happening in DC, what’s not happening globally or we can be optimistic and see how we rebound. To answer your question, our team continues to focus on ways in which we can continue to engage with our customers.

I’ve been in the industry for 30 years, for those newbies to think that communication starts and ends with an email or a text message, now they’re learning that picking up the phone, building a relationship with a customer goes a long way because if you did not have that relationship beyond email or text then you’re behind the 8 ball. We did an amazing event yesterday with one of the wineries – yes, we have wineries in DC – where we shipped customers a red, white and rosé and we spent an hour and a half talking about wine, talking about the culture. I see my red sitting on my desk here just in case this is really tough, I might have to take a glass of it. We’re doing things creatively to continue to engage the customer, to give them ideas as to how they can engage their members. It’s not just about bringing the business to the city but also making sure that the customer knows that we are looking at things in which they should consider doing because they’re concerned about their membership and they’re concerned about how to continue to keep the individuals that are members of their associations or their corporations engaged. There’s a lot of that.

City-wide right now we realize we’re going to probably lose business until something is developed to deal with COVID, but we are also focusing on smaller meetings, we’re focusing on what we can do now and equally as much with what we can do in the next phase which opens us up a little bit more to larger meetings. Then of course, how do we continue to service customers? Because they’re hurting too, how do we become that source that they can call that we can encourage them in a positive way as they’re looking at losing staff, losing revenue and all the things which we’re all dealing with?

Fred Diamond: Talk a little bit about the conversations that you’re encouraging your sales organization to have with the type of customer that is struggling right now. Again, everyone’s struggling, but those entities are struggling even more so.

Elliott Ferguson: I think that with empathy comes a sense of relationship. Our industry is all about relationships, very few are not but especially hospitality. I’ve said to the team – I’m hoping that Melissa said this two years ago – that it’s more than just heads in beds, butts in seats when we’re bringing people to the city. Yes, we’ve got great restaurants and night life and theater, things you can see and do outside but we’ve got to learn a little bit more about what the customer’s goals are, what their program is all about and to your point, what their city-wide convention means to the bottom line of the organization, and we’ve been doing that for years. As we are talking to customers that we know we’re definite for the city, we have a better understanding as to what this does to them.

Some of them, 70% of their operating revenue in a given year is tied to their annual convention so they need a lot of empathy, perhaps they need a lot of red wine. To your point, this is not a one-dimensional situation. When I moved here December 2001, we had just experienced 9/11. Yes, the whole nation dealt with it, the global community figured how impactful it was but it was New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania because that’s where the attacks happened, that people were afraid to come to our destinations. Whereas the rest of the country, once airline travel returned they were starting to see business. We were fortunate that we saw business return as well, this is so different so the relationship, the conversation with the customer is not necessarily about, “When are you booking again?” It’s more along the lines of, “How can we help you? Here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we’re thinking.”

Digging a little deeper with the customer to truly understand what their issues are and also offering them ideas as to how they can move forward. Every time we do something that we find is successful or we hear about something that was successful in terms of online meetings and revenue generators we’re sharing that with our customers because it’s important to them. Something like a wine social sounds hooky but let me tell you, those customers were really appreciative of the fact that we were doing something different, giving them some ideas and even though we were not physically together, we were still trying to connect with them. That’s really what it’s all about.

Fred Diamond: Elliott, a question comes in here from Leslie and Leslie is in the DC area, she’s actually in Maryland and she wants to know what are some of the other ideas that you’re directing your team to do. It’s interesting because we want to constantly have activity, a lot of people were saying they’re busier than ever but they’re not really selling per se or transacting. It’s even the middle of August, it’s busy, what are some of the things that you’re telling your people to do? Are you expecting them to be pounding the phone calls the whole day, are you having them on Zoom all day? What are some of the things that you’ve been directing them to do with their customers like the wine idea? Did that come from you or from a rep? What are some of your thoughts along those lines?

Elliott Ferguson: The one thing that I also worked on as an organization is to make sure that the idea pool, the creativity is not tied to the sales. I want sales managers to sell, I know they can be somewhat creative but I have a creative department, I have a team that focuses on the customers’ experience and right now, as you can imagine because we’re not doing site inspections, they’re not working. But what they are doing is they’re giving us ideas and looking at things that are happening within other industries and within the industry itself that we can offer to customers because right now that’s extremely important.

We’re fine with Zoom and webinars, WebEx and what have you, but we’re really sick and tired of them at the same time. The idea of someone saying, “Let’s get on a webinar” and having another meeting, we know it’s the only alternative right now for the most part but we’re looking for other ways in which we can keep it interesting and keep people engaged. One thing about being in a city like Washington and the more we learn about this virus, we are positioned to say, “Let’s meet at the national mall and rent bikes and go for a bike ride.” Get folks outside, you get a customer that hasn’t been on a bike in 20 years. You can get in a canoe by yourself and canoe on the Potomac and do an event here in the city. I think it’s all about recognizing that people need a break, they need a break from their families, they need a break from the four walls of their home and also, they need a break from the stress of what is or what is not happening within the organizations. It’s all about being creative, it’s great when you live in a city like Washington whereas you can do some really cool stuff and that’s what we’re going to continue to do to keep people motivated in the next coming months.

Fred Diamond: We have another question here, it comes in from Eric and Eric is in Belgium. Thanks, Eric, for chiming in, I guess it’s a little bit after 8:00 o’clock your time. The question is, “How is Elliott staying motivated himself?” You look great, by the way, you’ve got a lot of energy, you’re running a big organization, you’ve got a lot of responsibility. In good times you’re competing with Orlando, Chicago, Boston, you mentioned Vegas. Right now it’s August 12th, we’re five months in, what are you doing personally as a leader to keep yourself in the highest productivity mode?

Elliott Ferguson: Good question, thank you, Eric from Belgium. We talked about the domestic cities but we also do a lot of international and we actually have a relationship with the city of Brussels to promote our destinations. As an organization, we actually teach a boot camp on Thursdays and we’ve been doing it for a long time because we’re all kind of health nuts. On Thursdays at 4:00 p.m., anyone who wants to join or who wants the Zoom information, we’ll give it to you. For 45 minutes to an hour we are working out as a team and we’ve got other DMO’s that are Destination Management Organizations and people that join simply because you need that relief, you need that option.

We also go running to the national mall when it’s not terribly hot or just go walking around the mall because we have that right close to us. My wife’s in the industry, she actually was a speaker on this series as well and she’s doing the same thing, it’s all about mental and physical health, eating well and trying to make sure that you’re not too stressed out by what’s happening right now in our industry. If all else fails, you can go to the district winery and get you something to drink, but I don’t condone that, I’m just saying that’s an alternative – in small quantities. [Laughs]

Fred Diamond: We’ve become experts on tequila here at the Institute for Excellence in Sales as well, that’s been one of the positive things. Speaking of positive things, what’s been a positive surprise that’s come out of this situation for you as well?

Elliott Ferguson: Because I’m a glass-half-full thinker, we’ve had to do the same painful things everybody else, we’ve had to furlough and reduce days, reduce hours, I’m very happy to hear how team members have taken advantage of not having the responsibility of working right now to do other things. I’ve been encouraging that, it’s one of those things whereas when you finish college and you start your career, whatever time you have in between then, that’s probably going to be it before you have other life experiences and things, short vacations that Americans normally take. I’ve been very pleased to hear how people are taking advantage of time off, I’ve been encouraging it, I’ve been encouraging people, you don’t have to be in the DMV, if you’re working remote you can work remote in the Himalayas as long as you have access to the internet and Wi-Fi.

That’s one of the good things and the other thing is sometimes as an industry I chair the US Travel Association, there’s a lot going on there as they’re lobbying very diligently for our industry to really look at things through a different lens, take a step back since we’re not traveling and do more research, do more thinking than we normally do because we’re always on the fly. It’s those things, time with your family, I know that’s a positive thing but six months in it may not be as positive but at the same time, when will you ever have this opportunity to ever spend this much time with your family? These are things that you should be able to cherish because before you know it, if you have kids they’re going to be out of the house and you’ll look back at this opportunity, hopefully the good parts of it. These are the things we’re focusing on with our folks.

Fred Diamond: Elliott, another question comes in here from Ruben in Georgia, probably around Atlanta, I guess. You actually came from there, you mentioned before. You mentioned a professional association, do you compete with the Chicago’s, Orlando’s of the world and how does that look today? You mentioned that the industry is coming together for some ideas. Normally if a large organization wants to hold a conference there’s a whole bunch of options and then there’s even smaller options around DC, Tidewater, Richmond, those types of things. There’s a lot of competition for people to come to places. A, is it a competitive space where you are? And B, what does it look like right now? You mentioned the industry is coming together, where is the competition today or are you all together to hopefully figure out some ways to get everybody through this?

Elliott Ferguson: Good question, Ruben, I also lived in Savannah, I have to shout out Savannah. The reality is with the DMO world we are the friendliest competitors ever. If we are going after city wide or a small piece of business I always say to the team, “Most groups meet annually. If you lose it in 2024, you need to be going after it for 2028.” That’s the reality of it all, we are competitive, it’s very friendly in terms of that competition and right now we are more along the lines of sharing ideas and sharing how we are going to focus on our future. My new fiscal year starts October 1 so all the things we normally do, set goals, set marketing plan, all these things that have imploded in 2020, we’re looking at a hybrid approach to 2021 and we are relying on and talking to all of our DMO’s in terms of what makes the most sense. It’s just who we are, again, hospitality is a very sociable group so competition is what it is but simply because we all move around. I’ve been here for 18 years but I was in Atlanta for 10 years with the Bureau there, I was in Savannah for about 2 1/2 years in the Bureau, it’s not out of the ordinary. It’s friendly competition.

Fred Diamond: A question comes in from Mason and Mason is in Maryland as well. Mason says, “You mentioned that DC is capped on events right now for 50 people or less, what kind of venues are hosting events with less than 50 people and is that commonly happening right now?” Are there any events going on 50 people or less or are we pretty much in a nothing-going-on pattern waiting for things to hopefully clean up a little bit and move to the next stage?

Elliott Ferguson: It’s all the above. We recognize that health and science is far more important than anything else so we’re really asking people to use common sense. As we look at what’s happening nationwide there are certain hot spots in various states that concerns all of us and it may not be good for them to travel. We’re not at a point whereas we know how to do it and do it I like to thing relatively well, I’ll give you an example: US Travel Association, we have a Meetings Been Business coalition, we had a meeting here in DC two weeks ago and we had about 35 people. They were all itching to get on a plane and go somewhere, I was wanting to get on a plane and go somewhere else [laughs] but they came to DC and the others that could not travel were on a call.

You are seeing things happen within the guidelines of what the mayor has put in place for us. The nice thing about sitting outside, I literally leave here – I live on Capitol Hill – I drive through the National Mall, I literally drive around the mall and then I live on an area called Lincoln Park and I see the number of people meeting and congregating outside practicing social distancing. You’re seeing those things happen and you’re seeing people that are coming to town for meetings and doing those things and that’s very encouraging because folks are wanting to get back to normal.

Fred Diamond: We have another question here and this question comes from Suzanne from Pennsylvania, thank you, Suzanne. The question here is, “How often should I be calling a customer when I know they’re not ready to buy? It’s an interesting question, that’s a question we get in some various forms along the way. You talked about relationships before, you talked about maybe go meet somebody on the mall, go for a bike ride or something but let’s say you’re trying to sell an association in Cleveland to come here for a big conference or Chicago or something. You know that we’re all in the same boat where we’re still waiting for things to happen before decisions are going to be made. How often are you encouraging your sales team, the people on the team, to interact with the customers? Are you saying, “Let’s give them space” or, “I want you to call them every day” or, “email them an article”? What are you thinking along those lines when you know that we’re all in flux with deadlines?

Elliott Ferguson: Suzanne, if you’re calling and selling you’re probably frustrating the customer a lot more right now because there are certain realities about where we are with this pandemic and I think that if you’re calling to check on a customer and/or to share ideas and what you all are doing wherever you are in Pennsylvania, that will resonate much differently. Calling me now and asking me about 2024 when I’m dealing with 2020, if I don’t have the relationships with you I’m probably not going to want to talk to you about that right now – depending on what city you’re in, of course. I think it’s really important to recognize that being an aggressive salesperson is probably not going to resonate well with whoever you might be reaching out to. It ties to all the other stuff we talked about, how are they calling you and saying, “Suzanne, thanks for this really cool thing you did”? There’s an event that I attended whereas they sent me dinner through a local caterer and they did it with 50 people in other cities and we all got together and we all ate our dinner and some of us were outside, we talked about our experience. I reached out to those folks afterwards and said, “Thanks for doing something out of the box.” I think that’s what a customer is going to want from you right now versus a hard sell.

Fred Diamond: A question related to that just came in from Claire and Claire’s in the DMV. I’m going to read her question but I’m going to follow up with a little bit of a twist to it. She says, “Thank you very much, Elliott, how do you advice people who are trying to plan meetings for dates beyond the October 9th deadline of the mayor’s executive order?” A little bit of a twist to that which is are you getting into the politics when you engage with customers? Are you prognosticating or are you telling people, “We don’t know, just continue to develop the relationships”?

Elliott Ferguson: I’ll start with the last part of that first which I think might be what you added. The political spin, there’s just no place for politics in terms of a pandemic and I think if there’s something, we all have our opinions about how it’s being handled but the most important thing for all of us no matter if you’re red, blue, what have you, in between, independent, is safety or some type of a vaccine for this pandemic. Anything beyond that, I don’t have an appetite outside of the frustration that many of us feel as to how it’s being handled politically. That’s all I’ll say about that. Planning beyond the deadline, I think that it depends on what you’re planning to do. If you’re looking at a group of 50 or so then you can plan. If your anticipation is, “In October we’ll move to this next phase” which we all want to do, then I would be very cautious because it’s all tied to how smart we are about wearing a mask and what are we doing to make sure that we limit the number of COVID cases. That is not something the mayor can say or you can say to any group that’s looking to meet because you just have to wait and see and see how smart we are.

Right now it’s been very painful to see what’s been happening with people not wearing masks and recognizing the fact that this is spreading this virus. Our mayor has been very adamant which has worked to our favor, but the negative is we’re in a business of attracting people from other places. That could be the difference between us doing well until someone comes and they’re not doing well because they’re not wearing a mask. It’s a gray area, Claire, that I would say I’d wait until we get into the next phase if you have that flexibility.

Fred Diamond: Elliott, how are you coaching your people at this time? You had mentioned before about cherishing the opportunity to be with your kids and all those kinds of things but there’s so much going on right now that’s out of people’s control. As a matter of fact, in our webcast yesterday we talked about focusing on what’s in your control and the fact that all you can really focus on are things that are in your control. How are you coaching your senior people and how are you coaching your junior people as well? It’s funny, when we started doing the webcast in the beginning, back in March and April people would say, “I’ve been through 9/11 and I’ve been through the banking recession of 2008, I even remember 1987.” We had one guy who said he remembered the Spanish flu, but I think he was joking. This is different, this is going longer, there are so many more factors that are affecting everybody for the first time in the world. How are you coaching your senior people and how are you coaching your junior people that may have a lot of different concerns and different challenges?

Elliott Ferguson: I think it’s back to the e word, empathy. One, if you’re just starting to coach then you’re behind the 8 ball, this is something that we do all the time and it’s paying off for us, the fact that we communicate. We have a weekly meeting with the entire staff on Wednesdays which we had this morning and I’m being as transparent as I can be because this is a very sensitive time. People have different stressors and as I talk to the collective group it’s all about taking care of yourself, things which we’re doing, they actually have a wine hour on a weekly basis – there we go again with alcohol. We are trying to get them to think differently and work with our creative team in terms of their area of responsibility which is extremely important.

When I’m talking to the senior team, I have an exec team which are the VPs that report directly to me and senior staff which we all meet as well. I’m charging them with being responsible for knowing the needs of the individuals that work for them, there’s a lot of sensitivity about when the offices reopen, are you required to come to the office? Am I going to make you? The answer is absolutely not, it’s all about doing the job you’re doing but at the same time there are people that are coming into the office now because they’re like, “I love my kids but I just need four hours in the office to get stuff done and to get away.” Right now there are probably five people working in here whereas we normally have 90 so I’m asking them to be understanding of people’s individual needs, make sure that they know that we care about them, because we do.

Again, it did not start in March when we shut our doors and that is the message that we’re continuing to share with the team as we’re looking at getting out of this. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback about that which is important to me.

Fred Diamond: I want to thank Elliott Ferguson and your team for getting you on today’s webcast. Great insights, great ideas, you’re deep into so many things that are emblematic of the pandemic, you’re broadcasting from DC. Thank you again for your time, I appreciate it, and for your insights. Before I ask you for your final bit of advice for the sales professionals around the globe, you’re not just a sales leader, you’re a business leader. I’m curious, how have you changed over the last six months? Again, it’s the middle of August when we’re doing this interview, we have dozens of people from around the globe, we had somebody who asked a question from Belgium, thank you to all the people who’ve asked questions. How have you changed? Is there anything that you’ve noticed about yourself that’s different from before March 13th?

Elliott Ferguson: My wife and I always talk about the fact that we’re always going in different directions and sometimes it’s like, “Is that your plane in front of me? I think you’re about to take off.” That hasn’t happened in six months and I don’t think I’ve been this grounded in terms of not traveling, not mentally, since… I don’t remember the last time because I’ve always had a job that required me to travel. This has caused me to slow down, restructure my day, make more calls, talk to people, talk to friends and redevelop relationships and also be there for the team. We have five different committees, marketing, tourism, all the various committees, I’m on every one of them now whereas before I was not always. I’d stay on it but I’m giving an update as to things that are happening, we’ve got a thousand members. This pandemic has really slowed me down in terms of the speed in which I was doing business but it hasn’t slowed me down in terms of the things we’re doing in the office.

Fred Diamond: Elliott, thank you so much for all the great insights. Give us one final thought, give us an action. It’s interesting, when I interviewed Melissa for the podcast two years ago we talked about, “Give us an idea for how you can improve your sales career.” Now people want to know something for today, something they specifically can do today. Give us an idea that we can end on. By the way, a lot of thank-yous coming in, Mason says thank you, Leia says thank you, Martha says thank you, Suzanne says thank you, Ruben who asked the question says thank you and I thank you. Give us one idea to send us off.

Elliott Ferguson: This is always the scariest part of it all because everyone can give you advice and there’s always a percentage of it that is accurate. I will tell you that when you’re looking at where you are now in your career, we’re using the word hybrid because whatever we used to do and how you used to do it, if you come out of this and you go back to doing it the way you did it then you’re going to hit some plateaus, you’re going to fall through some cracks really quickly. Use this opportunity to develop a hybrid of who you are and what you will do in terms of building relationships, going after business and being more successful. Equally as much, I think if nothing else, this has all taught us the importance of just taking care of ourselves so I’ll go back to how we started. Because you’re not traveling you’re not eating unhealthy, I would think. I cook more food and bring it to work than I ever have before and I’m probably doing more for my own physical health which also leads to mental health.

Just remember those things as you’re moving forward because these things resonate when you’re doing what you do on a regular basis. People can see when you’re happy, I appreciate, Fred, what you said about how we look and that’s important because even when I’m on a phone call, I gave my entire team mirrors years ago and they all rolled their eyes as they normally do and said, “What kooky idea are you coming up with?” I said, “Every time you pick up the phone and you talk to someone, I want you to look in the mirror and look at your facial expression, and I want you to smile when you’re talking to them and see whether or not they see a difference in how you’re talking, or I want you to see how you sound when you take that first call in the morning and you’re like, “Hello?” Because that’s how people perceive you, that’s exactly what they hear and that’s really important as we’re looking at developing our brand – because each of us are a brand – as we’re looking at moving forward and getting out of COVID. That’s my loosely knitted advice to everyone as we’re moving forward here.

Transcribed by Mariana Badillo

The post EPISODE 261: Destination DC CEO Elliott Ferguson Recommends That Sales Professionals Implement These Steps to Bring Value to their Customers Right Now 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.