Reporting From the Siloes; a POV from Commercial Strategy Week

Fresh off of a week spent at the HSMAI Commercial Strategy conference and still ruminating on the irony of a conference title that promotes the collaboration of three siloed disciplines yet still finds each singled out. The new title for our combined disciplines is Commercial Strategy, where Sales, Revenue Management, and Marketing not only have a seat at the table but collectively have equal parts of the table. Why have companies not evolved to changing the titles and more importantly evolving the strategies that require all three equally in attendance? Go on a ride with me while I explore where we have been, where we are today, and where we need to be to evolve to Commercial Strategy as one discipline as the norm and not an exception.

A history lesson on how we got here:

• In the early years, Sales and Marketing was one position typically held by an on-property Director that would not only lead the sales effort but also decide what publications they would use to feature their hotels. Revenue Management was locked in a Reservations Department yet to be identified as a discipline in itself with rates proudly published on brochures in lobby racks. These were also the years of “hard keys” and exterior corridors; truly a thing of the past.
• With the evolution of the internet, we realized a new and emerging discipline in Revenue Management that allowed us to track supply and demand and publish rates in real-time. Revenue Managment initially found its direction under the Directors of Sales and Marketing who would position transient rates only after the group segment took the share that served their goals leaving peaks and valleys to be filled by the many channels that served the transient traveler. We would soon realize that this was not sustainable as we could see the dollars left behind.
• As Marketing found its legs in this new online revolution it would branch off from its creative roots and evolve into digital existence that brought about new complex languages and a strategy that required far more than a creative eye. Marketing now had a chair at two tables; creative and digital. The separation of one discipline, Marketing, would bring the convergence of two, Sales and Revenue Management.
• Fast forward to a world of analytics that has created a hunger for the ROI and ROAS. Creative marketing evolved from publications with little tracking to digital campaigns with dizzying analytics and an ability to fail fast and optimize what worked with a click. Digital marketing required the participation and collaboration of the three disciplines to create one strategy that would encompass creative assets placed on targeted channels tracked in real-time.

This is the intersection of Commercial Strategy, where the three drivers of top line revenues come together in the race to optimize for a collective win of profitability. Commercial Strategy invites sales, revenue, and marketing to coexist on a three-lane highway where merging, passing, and HOV lanes are welcomed and encouraged. We will have collisions; however, this is where new roads are paved and safety features are born. We will learn how to work together better when aligned in our respective expertise as one cross-functional team free of guardrails. Our speed limits are determined by the organization, not by each discipline’s ability to speed despite the rest. We are no longer planes, trains, and automobiles. We are one vehicle that has the ability to drive beyond the line where revenue meets expense.

Next destination…the P&L Meeting.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.