End of an ERA - Sales & Marketing

They say everything comes in a circle. Even in the time of Christ, ancient Innkeepers had someone out in the desert flogging their digs to the locals. In the 20th Century, some anti-deluvian attempts (cocktail waitresses in short skirts with brochures) hustled in the hustings blindly covered the neighborhood. Now and then, for the sheer lack of weight, they fell up. I worked for one in Denver.
     Bad News.
     The Hospitality Business got "sophisticated" in late 20th Century and a bit in this one with the infusion of Europeans, who, by and large, always thought they were better than Americans at pouring wine, serving dinner, draping towels over their arms and teaching us "Mericans" a thing or two bout service.....sure.
     So, we got Belgians (mini-Nazis), Danes, some Nazi-like,French, Eastern Europeans, (garlic on everything), Italians (Jesus!), and a smattering of others everyone had a better idea than everyone else - and they all were unified in hating the Americans. We just were poor, sub-standard morons, however, "trainable."
     In my experience, hotels had the history of hiring the least educated, porly experienced lower waged rung of American workers. In many cases I saw them abused as to their rights on the job, and, uneducated, they accepted the unfair treatment and continued laboring under those conditions. Towards the end of the 20th Century, a degree of legal sophistication had arrived in the industry, law suits blossomed, HR departments got smart(er) and so did some of the lower waged workers.
    Sales and marketing people did not. Always considered the "Kleenex" division of Hospitality, they were often fired or hired on the spot making any career plans impossible. It was uncommon to find a person at one hotel in that slot longer than two years. A massive shift in the national economy would drag down travel patterns, the hotel manager would fire the sales dept to protect his own job in the eyes of his boss, then move on to hire " better " people.  This continued forever. Today, those Generator positions have pretty much dissolved now and shifted to other lower salaried positions, eliminating the headache for hotel General Managers. As a career, I would no longer recommend it.
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Salaries in Hotel Sales - How to negotiate

If you're new to hotel sales, and I suspect if you are, your last job was in the front desk, checking people in, or as a cashier in the restaurant, you probably looked at the hotel sales job as an enviable " promotion" up the ladder towards success, right?
     Understand who you will be negotiating with: a general Manager in all probability will be an ex-chef, line cook, operations manager from what is known as " the back of the house" in the hotel business.
     His practical experience in dealing wit people face to face is this: " heads in beds, baby - YOU go get em." And that's pretty much how you can expect to be treated. Hotel General Managers last time I looked are still the last bastion of total control freaks of thei kingdoms. What they say goes. In hotels, Inns, any establishments of 300 rooms or less, don't expect a G.M. with a college degree to go around spouting Plato, or a high degree of public intelligence.
     To whit, a life-long friend of mine, former Area Director over 26 Holiday Inns tells me of a story of one such 300 room hotel where the GM and his faltering numbers employed 4 20+ something single "chicks" to run around " enticing" male clients over for lunch and a hotel tour to sell the on using their hotel.
     Understand, all 4 kids didn't know a rack rate from a master key, but his favorite qualification was a short skirt and pretty face will go farther to fill a room than an education. That was just 3 years ago.
     In my vast experience, I was lucky to find a half dozen GMs who could speak English properly, let alone manage people: it was ego and control that managed bricks and mortar, not an education from college.
     Negotiation: If you're desperate, (single mom, kids at home, DO NOT TELL THEM) You make your own peace with that. Tell them you're desperate, you'll get a low salary AND an occasional offer for a higher salary pinned to one of the pillows in one of those bedrooms over your head. (just trust me on that will you?) If you're a stalwart, set a figure, and stick to it.
     If they say, Yes, right away, ask, " does that include......then ask for something additional, anything. If they say yes, do it again. Ditto, ditto, ditto.
     When you hit the wall, say to him, " you have my assurances that our salary agreement is confidential between us."  And let it go.
      Lastly, in a hotel, everyone gossips, it's endemic. .........DON'T. Not ever, don't trust anyone, and I mean it. I don't care if they seal it in blood, it will wind up in the GM's secretary's desk who will rat you out to the boss. Be 1001% professional and confess nothing to anyone, no matter how much you want to.
     If you're a man, stay away from the women, that is the surest way to get fired. If you dally with one of the staff, everyone will know it by the time you get back to your desk. Trust me. The Hotel Business attracts psychological low self esteemers.
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