Tag Archives: SMERFE groups

SMERFE Sales Manager Saves the weekend…..

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A client of mine was killed in a car accident a couple weeks ago.  I didn’t find out until today.  I was devastated.  I had to fight with myself to get back on track and complete my goals of the day.  It was hard to focus since we also lost an employee this past Friday.  Even though I had ordered a yummy lunch, it sat on my desk until it got mushy as every ounce of my energy left had to go to sales.  I couldn’t let this get me down.

The office is nearly completed.  Now will be the fun of moving the rest of the junk back in that we had stored in a meeting room.  Finding a spot for it all….we are going to have to be creative.  Still so loud and noisy but I managed to get some good contacts and possibilities for future sales. 

I found out that they are interviewing for another Catering Sales Person.  Thank goodness and finally.  With so much flexible meeting space, you need two.  And as far as the Transient Sales Person, I haven’t heard anything but I hope they fill that position too.  I don’t know how the hotel’s revenues are going to afford more in salaries, but my Catering buddy made a good point…don’t worry about it.

The front desk still struggling, I hope they hire a new Front Office – Rooms Division Manager soon.  I’m frankly embarrassed with the desk operations right now. 

We are preparing for a busy weekend over this Labor Day.  Mostly with sporting teams and that means, kids out of control.  Do you have that?  When the parents go into the bar and the kids run all over the building?  Certainly we make them all sign “the waiver” at check in….yea and that works.  Oh how nice they are on the phone when you spend time going out of your way to assist them in every beckoned wish.  You think they would appreciate and respect your property?  But NOT.  So anyone out there with some ideas, let me know.  (other then not booking them or locking them in their rooms)

I can only imagine how the old front desk staff and the new front desk staff are going to handle these groups.  These guest’s are going to eat them up alive if they don’t get it right.   It’s going to be interesting.  I wonder if any of the new staff will quit.

It took about 2 hours to finalize the details for the additional groups that I booked for this weekend.  They all came through….but….it was like pulling teeth to get a couple to understand that yes, I need your credit card!

Well, another busy day ahead and lots of new clients to solicit.  Good luck to all of us crazy Sales People!

Pure Energy

A New Dawn for The Screamin’ Sales Manager

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Today I was pretty busy. I did some soliciting over the phone this morning working on trying to get some appointments for next week. Finally all of my letters went out and are completed. And my traces are caught up. Since we don’t have any sales program in the office, I still use the old trace system writing down the group name on index cards. We even still use the big “bibles” for our function bookings. Pretty amazing and what a pain. I waited for my tour bus to arrive tonight…est 5pm…just 16 rooms and found out that they weren’t arriving until after 10pm. Everything was all ready for them so I left to go home about 6:30pm.

I have almost 16 years experience in the hotel industry and I have worked in every department with the exception of Housekeeping….can’t even keep my own home clean! My most recent hotel – full service mid class – is just under 350 rooms with 15,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.

We are located 2 miles of an airport so we draw a lot of business from the airlines and distress passengers. The hotel is newly renovated but still has area’s that could look better and there are projects that we are still working on. They renovated for over 3 years so a lot that has been done is looking worn now. There was no preventative maintenance program ever in place. Yes, I have never experienced a 3 years renovation plan either until now.

I’ve been there almost 2 years to date working mostly as Director of Sales in a 3.5 man office – p/t secretary, 2 catering sm and me the DOS…by 2008 we were down to 1 catering sm (1 had to be let go) and myself and finally I got more hours for the secretary to work with the Catering sm. I mostly booked SMERFE groups. We did increase sales but not enough although we did make budget 9x out of 12. Still many service issues and rude staff. When the new GM came aboard about 2 months ago, I simply was tired of being beat up by my guest’s and the back stabbing, gosh. I asked to be a Sales Manager and for them to bring in someone new to handle this mess.

My new boss is pretty cool and I like her. So I was asked to work in Corporate Transient Segment which I did for 2 weeks and then I was asked to take on the SMERFE Sales Manager position that they were interviewing for. Although at first I was a bit offended, but when I thought about it I realized that I really enjoyed working with the groups….so I’m settled now and plugging away. I have the gift of patience and I’m very friendly so I fit well with all types of SMERFE clients.

Most of the Management Team was let go and new people are being brought in. At first I felt like I was walking on eggs shells each day as these new people were so hard to read. They were and still are always behind closed doors and you just don’t know what is going on or if you are going to be the next one fired. I’m in my 40′s now and I simply want to settle down, book tons of business and have some fun.

I don’t have an interest in hotel hopping anymore as like I did when I was younger simply to make a few bucks more. I did think about looking for a new sales job but my positive benefits list simply out weighed the negative. I like the staff and I know the product and I want to be a part of the team that turns this hotel around. I don’t feel like that everyday though….

Good luck selling tomorrow. I’ll be back.