While the news has revolved around the endless furloughs and job cuts of frontline hospitality workers, hospitality sales teams have also taken a significant hit.
The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) discussed how these forced changes will impact the future as the hotel industry start opening back up.
On a call, HSMAI’s Sales Advisory Board (SAB) discussed what permanent changes will likely result from the global pandemic.
There seems to be more cross-departmental collaboration now, as teams and budgets get squeezed.
"We don’t have as much money to spend, and so we have to work together more in order to make things happen. It’s been a good change, though and one that I think will move forward," a SAB member said.
Revenue management tools are gaining more credibility with sales teams now, said another SAB member.
"With the adoption of these tools, the revenue management team is empowering the sales team a lot more, and the salespeople feel like they’re able to make a lot sounder decisions because of this."
There is evidence sales directors are working more ‘hand-in-hand with marketing’ the discussion heard.
Another fundamental change to come out the pandemic is sales staffing levels and new compensation models.
SAB members mentioned new compensation structures and plan to continue with the downsized team models they currently have. This includes gradually bringing back salespeople who had been laid off as consultants on a different commission based compensation.
