The Transformation Dilemma

We were in an office tower, meeting with a sales executive at a global hospitality company with a sales force comprising thousands of individuals worldwide. Like most global hospitality companies, the sales organization included two kinds of teams: corporate teams that pursued contracts with regional and global companies and “on property” sales teams that worked on-site at individual hotels to increase business for their properties. The executive we were talking with, Jane (not her real name), needed these two historically siloed groups—each with its own metrics, goals, and processes—to work together to better serve corporate customers. Jane’s goal was to create a “common sales language” to improve collaboration and communications. In a far-reaching conversation about her vision and the processes she wanted to drive, we turned to Jane and asked, “Do you think your sales team will buy in and adopt these changes?”