How to Build a Hotel’s Sales Team: A Guide for Hotel Owners

The sales department in a hotel plays a prominent role in maximizing a hotel’s revenue.

But is having a sales department enough? Nope!

YOU NEED AN A-TEAM.

You need a group of people who understand sales and go out of their way to drive measurable and incremental revenue. 

But again, how do you build a winning hotel sales team?

Well, that’s exactly what I am going to talk about in this blog.

Tips on Building a Great Hotel Sales Team

Building a hotel sales team isn’t a cakewalk; it requires a strategic approach. And to help you understand and make your job easier, I have created four phases.

So, if you have been wondering how to build a successful sales team, the points in the following phases will give you a good idea of what factors to consider.

Phase 1: Analysis and planning

Analyze your current sales strategy

Before you go about building your hotel sales team, you must analyze your hotel’s current sales strategy.

In other words, you have to determine if there’s any loophole or something that you want to change in your current strategy.

This will help you create a better plan for your hotel’s sales team-building initiative.

Determine the role you want to fill in

Next up, you have to figure out what kind of a team you need

How to do that?

Figure out exactly what are all the roles you want to fill in.

Based on your current analysis (the previous point), look for all the roles you already have employees working in. Do you see the need for a different role? If so, then that’s a point to note.

Additionally, identify whether you have enough employees for certain tasks or roles? If not, then you might want to fill that in as well.

Create a well-thought-out budget for hiring

A hotel’s sales process doesn’t come cheap. Be it about tools or hiring some team members, there’s always a cost involved.

This is why you need to have a significant budget and it has to be concise. You not only have to think about the investment during hiring, but also consider the payroll and other miscellaneous costs.

Now, speaking of hiring and budgeting, there’s a little something I would like to add:

Pay your employees better than average. The reason behind it is that when you pay your employees well, your expectation from them gets higher. And it’s not just that, employees also develop a sense of feeling to perform excellently, and go above and beyond for work.

Phase 2: Hiring the right people

Properly define the roles and skills

First things first, make no mistake in defining the roles and responsibilities. This is the first impression that talents get about your hotel when looking at your job post.

You as a hospitality hiring manager should always give candidates precise expectations of the role and what success looks like in it.

Furthermore, it improves your hiring process by filtering candidates in the initial stage itself. When roles, responsibilities, and skills are defined properly, only suitable candidates are likely to apply.

Write a job description sans jargon

Jargons can overcomplicate even the simplest of concepts.

For all those hiring managers from the hospitality industry, if you have been using jargon in job descriptions then it’s time to avoid them.

What’s the need to show your intellectual prowess in a job description?

(And yes, that’s a rhetorical question.) 

According to several professionals and experts, jargons are one of the major barriers that restrict a talent from applying to a certain role.

Above anything else, it has been found that jargons negatively impact a candidate’s confidence, by intimidating them and making them think less of themselves.

Make your application process easy

I have seen hotels making their sales job application process too long, overly complicated, and asking the same questions over and over again.

If that’s the case with your hotel, then that’s something you might want to change.

A complex job application process reflects poorly on your hotel and worst still, many candidates even close down the application.

So, whenever you’re hiring for your hotel, make sure the process is simple and on point. 

Assess the candidate properly

When it comes to assessing an applicant for a hotel sales role, it isn’t an easy task. But then, if you know the right ways of assessing, you might successfully hire great talent.

While there are various factors, I consider skills (both hard and soft) as a prominent one because of the technicalities involved in sales.

Always assess your candidates on their hard skills as well as their soft skills. Not just that. You have to prioritize candidates who have the required technical skills to perfectly perform the duties as a part of your hotel’s sales team.

Next up, you can assess the applicant on various other factors such as experience, cultural fit, emotional intelligence, behavior, etc.

Phase 3: On-boarding

Familiarise your team with every aspect of the hotel

Once you hire the top talents for your hotel sales department, it’s time to make that A-team. And the first step is to familiarise your new hires with every aspect of the business.

Let them know how things work at your hotel.

Not to mention, if you already have a few members on your hotel sales team, introduce your new hires to them and allow them to bond.

Brief them on the existing sales strategy

Most accommodation providers already have an existing sales strategy. And when you have a new team in place, it is always a good practice to brief them on the same.

This will not just allow your sales team to understand the hotel better but also allow them to share their opinion. In turn, you as a hotelier can tweak your strategies based on different thoughts and opinions.

Make them comfortable

A hotel sales team is always on the go. It is most probably one of the fast-moving departments of a hotel. And this is why it’s normal for team members to experience burnout.

Now, to avoid such scenarios and help your team stay motivated, you have to make them comfortable and let them know that you got their back, no matter what.

When they get a sense that you’re a good leader and always there for the team, it helps them work without any fear or doubts.  

Phase 4: On the job

Set realistic goals for your team

I am sure, you are excited to start working with your talented sales team, achieve every possible goal, and bring in revenue to the hotel.

 But, pal, hold your horses. Being a leader, you have to be practical.

Set goals that are realistic and achievable. Further, don’t take the call all by yourself; include your team members as well. It is important to ask for their opinion while setting goals. After all, they are one of the key people in the hotel.   

Not to mention, when goals are realistic and achievable, it stimulates a person’s brain toward a certain objective that has to be achieved in a certain period.

Host training sessions (also cover emotional intelligence)

For a hotel sales team to be successful, it is important to provide them with a high level of training.

Make a practice to host regular training for the team to improve seller skills, knowledge, and attributes to maximize revenue to the hotel.

However, do not limit your training to conventional aspects. 

I suggest you host training on emotional intelligence as well. It will help your hotel sales team understand human behavior better.

Allow your team to put their ideas on the table

Another key to building a great hotel sales team is to allow every team member to brainstorm and put their ideas on the table.

And as a leader, be open to ideas from everyone. This will not only enhance your hotel sales process but also help your team take ownership and accomplish goals.

Appreciate them for every single milestone

APPRECIATION is what everyone one of us seeks as humans. And your hotel’s sales team is no exception.

A good rule of thumb is:

Praise in public and criticize in private.

Celebrate every single milestone as a team effort. And if you do that sincerely, your team is going to perform at the highest level.

Note: When I say criticize, I mean constructive criticism.