Salary Negotiations - FOR THE NEW SALES HIRE

No matter what anyone tells you, the General Manager sets the salary. You hear differently, they lie.
    If anyone in the hiring process every says, during the intial talk - " this is what the job pays, " $ X dollars a month! That's it, no more." You, then, have three choices:

• If you're starving, accept the inevitable, go through with the interview, tell the jerk what he needs to hear to get your next job, and keep looking while you work for him, or,
• Nrgotiate with him by saying, "Ok, then this is the highest goal I will aceept based on your highest salary offered, - $ X, thousands of dollars of room revenue per year, no more." Or,
• Get up, smile nicely, shake the dummy's hand and tell him as you exit professionally that the interview's is over that the low salary indicates a lack of commitment on the part of hotel, and, when the GM decides that someday, if he does, - call YOU.
• Then leave. If he's smart, you won't make the door.
• If you make it to the street, you shouldn't work there anyway.

My experience: I made it all the way to the rear door of the cab, followed by the Vice President who offered me the job. I accepted it in the back seat. He told me to start the moment my planed arrived back in my home city. I got what I wanted in salary.

Years later, in that same hotel, as General Manager, I won an award from the chain's VP as the third most improved in the entire chain for revenue improvement - in the entire US, and the franchise net profit champ.

###

Things NOT to say during a Hotel Sales Interview

1 What's the salary....Never ask for money during first interviews. I don't care how broke your are. Here, the first one that blinks, loses. If the General Manager says, " ok, peasant, the job pays no more than car fare, lunch money and a few bucks to keep you out of the poor house," you get up, shake his hand and politely say,

• You know, it's been a pleasure meeting someone of your caliber, anyone bigger laying around?
• What did you say my responsibilities were? And you want me to work for WHAT???
• Call me when you're serious, please...
• How many sales people did you say you had in this position in the last week, month, six months, year?

You get the idea.
###

Interviewing for a NEW hotel sales position

Questions YOU should ask:

• Who is my immediate boss?
• How often will sales meetings take me away from my primary duties?
• How many sales managers (that's code for representatives, you don't manage ANYONE but yourselves) have their been in this job before me in the last year?
• What are my goals for the year?
• What were the goals for the same period last year?
• What was the percentage increase for the market area (all of the hotels you compete against) just this past year? That is called the "competitive set." You need to know this because last years 'goals' and this years may be as high as 33% higher, and the total of your competing hotel may only have gained 5 or 6 %. Doesn't make sense, does it. B E W A R E. Like pushing a peanut up a hill with you nose.
• What is OUR competitive set? (five hotels, three, ten, twenty?) These are the hotels you will have to worry about.
• Who is on your "team." These are the people you will sell with, also the people you must watch out for, some sales people will steal your accounts, lie, cheat and swindle you for credit.
• Ask the question, does your Director of Sales DOS have a territorial assignment? (if he or she does, ask the General Manager how the DOS assigns various accounts to each sales manager. (chances are they 'cherry-pick' the best ones for themselves and throw YOU the pits)

More to come later, angels.
###