An empowered team is a happy team

To be a successful Sales and Marketing professional in the hotel industry, planning with clarity of thought and direction is critical. One needs to have relevant market knowledge, stay abreast with the travelling trends and buying behaviour that impacts the hotel business.

At IHG, we follow a zero-based budgeting process every year and have very clear success measures for both internal and external benchmarks. This includes RGI performance, enterprise delivery, effective distribution and marketing strategies. The management and delivery of results take place through high-performing teams at the unit level, supported by a robust review process at the corporate office. Each property has its part to play in achieving their targets and out-performing their identified competition set.

To move up the ladder, it’s imperative to focus on three things with a view to engage with internal and external stakeholders effectively and meet your objectives: Understand their expectations; ensure that they are reasonable and realistic (sometimes that means you end up disagreeing; communicate in an effective and timely manner even things that they might not want to hear; offer cost-effective solutions across the functions of distribution, sales, marketing and revenue management that are GOP-friendly and sustainable in the long run.

A FLEXIBLE MANAGEMENT STYLE WORKS

I follow a flexible management style. My style of dealing with the team changes based on what the situation demands from me. Largely, it is democratic in nature, with a lot of emphasis on coaching and mentoring. There are times when you need to use the authoritative style to ensure compliance and delivery on time.

Good managers care about their team members’ overall happiness and professional development. No matter which style you choose, we must treat our team members with the respect they deserve. I truly believe that "an empowered team is a happy team, and they’ll do wonders for a mission they believe in.”

When it comes to Sales, Sales people are often expected to have the gift of the gab to be able to sell anything to anyone! However, I am an exception to that rule. I tend to be very direct and practical. Being analytical, I can break down issues and situations to their root cause - this is what has helped me to build credibility with my stakeholders as well as enabled me to look at most situations in a balanced way.

We, at IHG, are constantly looking at areas to improve and evolve our structure and processes, to ensure that we are future-ready and relevant in times to come. I led the restructuring of the NSO team at IHG to ensure that we attract and retain the best talent in our teams.  This meant rightsizing the existing NSO portfolio and increasing their accountability towards hotels. The addition of secondary account managers across the region has resulted in better account penetration and increased RFP acceptance rate by as much as 18%.

WOMEN SHOULDN'T SEEK SPECIAL STATUS

To all young women colleagues out there, I want to say, “Do not think being a woman entitles you to anything special. You need to work just as hard and as smart as anyone else to get wherever you want to be! There are no shortcuts to hard work. Be true to yourself, take risks, and rise to the challenges. Be that girl who wakes up with purpose and intent, who shows up, and never gives up!