That Dog Won't Hunt

Abstract

Professional selling skills that were developed 20 or 25 years ago to promote small consumer products are still being taught to hotel salespeople today, even though those skills never really applied to hotels and have become outdated even in the industries they were designed to serve. The author contends that the old sales process doesn't generate new business and that in fact marketing-not selling-should be the focus of the hotel sales staff. The article looks at traditional sales-training programs and offers an alternative to them, as well as discusses a communityrelations-based approach to marketing.