By Gissell Moronta, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Atrium Hospitality
With decades of experience and unique insight, Gissell Moronta, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Atrium Hospitality, shared valuable insights at the HSMAI Sales Leaders Forum during the SFL Lightning Round.
Below are some hotel sales ideas and trends:
Comprehensive experience in hospitality:
Gissell Moronta described her career as deeply rooted in hospitality, with a special focus on sales. Navigating all facets, from services and catering to group sales and global commercial strategy, her journey has provided her with a unique and comprehensive understanding of the discipline.
This journey, combined with her passion for understanding all aspects of revenue optimization, formed the basis of the executive's ideas.
The evolution of technology has had a transformative impact on revenue management, digital marketing, and, consequently, the sales landscape over the past decade.
Today, sales needs to grow and adapt to remain a commercial leader. The key and most recent lessons learned from sales leaders are:
- The importance of leveraging strengths, building relationships, and being creative, always making technology an ally.
- The need to expand business knowledge, looking beyond sales and understanding how to add value to the business as a whole.
While areas such as revenue management and marketing have seen significant progress, sales have stagnated, resulting in a decline in its position as the global revenue leader. It's necessary to shift the focus from mere sales to a more comprehensive sales strategy, with the goal of inspiring the next generation and rekindling the commercial spark lost by sales leaders.
The sales certification HSMAI will launch in 2024, for example, will aim to develop well-rounded sales leaders capable of understanding more than just managing the sales function. It will also cover the principles of revenue management and digital marketing.
For those looking to deepen their understanding, we recommend exploring areas such as finance, cost of sales, data analysis, market share, and general revenue management principles. And we can't forget to cultivate broader business knowledge.
Tips for future sales leaders: cultivate constant curiosity.
Rather than limiting themselves to the sales discipline, sales professionals must seek to understand and impact the entire business. Emphasizing that relationships and creativity are valuable attributes, understanding the broader picture with solid business acumen is crucial to success in today's marketplace.