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Ramping Up Hotel Sales with Proactive Efforts and Systems Design | with Amy Infante

GAIN Momentum · 2026-03-19 · 44 min

0:00--:--

Key moments - from our scoring

Substance score

57 / 100

Five dimensions, 20 points each

Insight Density12 / 20
Originality11 / 20
Guest Caliber13 / 20
Specificity & Evidence10 / 20
Conversational Craft11 / 20

Amy Infante brings her experience from GitGo Group - an execution-focused agency - to GAIN Elevate, a new program designed to help hotel companies design, pilot, and implement revenue-generation strategies at scale. The core problem she identifies across the industry is the absence of true proactive sales funnels; most properties remain reactive, responding only when customers are ready to book rather than systematically building pipeline. Infante and co-host Vincent Somsen emphasize the importance of defining an Ideal Client Profile (ICP) at the corporate level, then cascading it to properties via segmented email campaigns, data enrichment tools, and a unified scorecard between sales and marketing teams. Rather than throwing massive consulting engagements at hotels and disappearing, GAIN Elevate holds clients' hands through phased implementation - piloting programs, setting up systems, and embedding best practices in-house. The conversation covers how branded versus independent properties face different constraints (data access, brand restrictions), the critical metric of sales conversion rate (actual closed deals, not just form fills), and how the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association (HSMAI) is pushing the industry toward better commercial alignment through advisory work on organizational structure and metrics.

Key takeaways

  • →Build a documented Ideal Client Profile (ICP) at corporate level that defines specific group segments (e.g., association, construction, incentive) rather than generic targeting, then enforce it across properties via CRM and segmented messaging.
  • →Proactive sales requires a structured marketing funnel with targeted email campaigns, data enrichment, and consistent cadence to build awareness - not just reacting to inbound leads when customers are ready to book.
  • →Align sales and marketing under a unified scorecard and common language (e.g., agree on what 'conversion' means) so both teams optimize for the same revenue outcomes and use complementary tech stacks rather than siloed systems.
  • →Know your conversion rate from lead to closed deal, your revenue gap versus forecast, and the historical data explaining why - then use these metrics to diagnose root problems before implementing solutions.
  • →Implement organizational change through meeting cadence and systems (like EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System) rather than just restructuring titles; phased, hands-on execution reduces risk better than traditional consulting swoop-and-leave models.

Guests

Amy InfanteVincent Somsen

Topics in this episode

Ideal client profile (ICP)CRM segmentationGitGo GroupGAIN ElevateEmail campaign automationSales conversion rateProactive sales funnelReactive inbound leadsData enrichment toolsCommercial organization structure

Questions this episode answers

What is an ICP and how do you build one for a hotel brand or corporate level?

An ICP (Ideal Client Profile) is your target audience definition. Hotels should identify specific group segments they attract or want to attract - such as association conventions, construction crews, or training meetings - then document these segments and ensure marketing messaging and email campaigns are tailored to each, not broadcasting generic promotions to all.

Why don't most hotels know their sales conversion rate?

Conversion rate in B2B hotel sales means actual closed contracts with customers, not form fills or leads generated. Most properties don't track this metric systematically, which obscures whether their sales problem is a pipeline volume issue, a sales execution issue, or both.

How is GAIN Elevate different from traditional consulting?

Rather than swoop-and-leave advice, GAIN Elevate combines GAIN's industry advisors (who design programs and playbooks) with GitGo's execution team (who pilot and implement), then stays embedded to help internalize the changes - sometimes for months or years - reducing risk and ensuring the systems actually stick.

What's the difference between proactive and reactive sales in hotels?

Reactive sales responds when customers initiate - finding you on booking platforms and asking for rates and space. Proactive sales systematically builds a target list, enriches contact data, runs segmented email campaigns, and initiates relationships before customers are ready to transact, creating pipeline and awareness.

How do branded and independent hotels differ in commercial strategy execution?

The core strategy is similar, but execution varies: branded properties often face data access restrictions (brand keeps data at chain level), compliance constraints, and less flexibility in digital marketing, whereas independents have more autonomy - though both need structured ICPs, clean data, and alignment between sales and marketing.

What our scoring noted

Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.

Insight Density

12 / 20

The episode covers practical frameworks (ICP, proactive vs. reactive sales funnels, scorecard alignment) that would be useful to hotel operators, but much of the content is introductory and high-level. While Amy provides tactical recommendations (email campaigns, target audience lists, conversion rate measurement), the discussion frequently circles back to problem identification rather than diving deep into implementation specifics. The insight-to-filler ratio is moderate; there's substance but also considerable throat-clearing about the nature of GAIN Elevate and repeated emphasis on 'taking a step back' without proportional new ideas per minute.

building a good target audience list. So the understanding, the ICP of the hotel and a lot of properties, um, are just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
What I see at the hotel level is. We're on shelves, we're on different platforms, and so we utilize those for our inbound leads. But what's happening is the customers are using those as portals, so there's a disconnect because we're seeing that business come in when the customer's ready to connect with the salesperson, right?

Originality

11 / 20

The core advice - use ICPs, align sales and marketing, build proactive email funnels, measure conversion rates - is not novel within B2B SaaS or modern sales best practices. Amy frames these as insights for hospitality specifically, but the frameworks themselves (marketing funnels, lead enrichment, unified scorecards) are standard across industries. The mention of EOS and the problem-solving emphasis add some originality, but the episode largely repackages conventional sales and marketing doctrine for a hospitality audience without significant counterintuitive or first-principles thinking.

Um, it's ideal client profile. That is what A ICP is. Um, it's your target audience.
There's a lot of discussion too around, uh, attribution, right? That's a big, um, debate.

Guest Caliber

13 / 20

Amy Infante is the founder of GitGo Group (an execution-focused agency) and Director of GAIN Elevate, bringing real operating experience in hotel sales and business development. She has served on HSMAI advisory boards and co-authored a chapter on hotel sales leadership. However, she is primarily a service provider and consultant rather than a current hotel operator or executive at scale managing a commercial team. She has operational credibility but is not a sitting VP of Sales at a major hotel group or operator, which limits her caliber for this specific episode's audience of hotel operators.

I'm the founder of GitGo Group, which is a agency that really focuses on delivery.
I started out on the sales advisory board and did three terms on that board where I was co-chairing the commercial strategy work group

Specificity & Evidence

10 / 20

The episode is notably light on concrete examples, data, and named case studies. Amy repeatedly mentions 'a company' or 'a hotel' but keeps client details vague to protect anonymity (e.g., 'a company reached out because they wanted to enhance their global sales organization'). There are no specific metrics cited (e.g., lift from email campaigns, conversion rate improvements, revenue uplift percentages). No named hotel brands, regions, or comparable benchmarks are provided. The discussion stays abstract: 'what should you measure' rather than 'we saw 23% improvement in X' or 'Brand Y implemented this and saw Z results.'

Um, it happens all the time, but one that comes top of mind is, um a company reached out because they wanted to enhance their global sales organization. Let's just say that I'm gonna try to keep this very, uh, broad because I'm very particular about keeping my, my clients anonymous.
I talked to a hotel company recently and it was like, well, here and there we're sending MailChimp emails into our, to our existing database. But that's not consistent.

Conversational Craft

11 / 20

The hosts (Adam and Vincent) ask reasonable setup questions and allow Amy to develop her points, but follow-ups are generally soft and affirming rather than challenging. When Amy makes claims (e.g., 'hotels don't know their conversion rates'), Adam clarifies terminology but doesn't dig into why this is true, what percentage of hotels lack this, or push back on her prescription. Vincent offers supporting commentary more than probing questions. The conversation feels collaborative and friendly but lacks the tension and pushback that would test Amy's thinking or surface disagreements. There are no moments where a host challenges an assumption or asks Amy to defend a claim with evidence.

Uh, just a note of clarification, because conversion rate, are you talking about. A conversion, like a form fill, or are you talking about a conversion As in a sales close.
Vincent Somsen: Yeah. So Amy, um, is the intention here to okay, offer re, you know, you design enablement and really execute this program, um, to stay, the, with the company for the common gears?

Conversation analysis

Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.

Most-used words

sales28gain23infante23adam21problem21marketing21mogelonsky19customers19hotel18revenue17level17help16commercial16together13build13technology13

Episode notes

In this episode, we interview Amy Infante , founder of GitGo Group and the Director of GAIN Elevate. GitGo is a hospitality-focused B2B sales and marketing partner that helps hotel owners, management companies, and travel brands generate revenue through tailored lead generation, sales outreach, and commercial strategy programs. They use proprietary methodologies and tools to drive measurable growth and support sales teams with insights, outsourced staffing, and coaching across the hospitality industry. ************* LINKS & RESOURCES ************* The GAIN Momentum Podcast: focusing on timeless lessons to scale a business in hospitality, travel, and technology-centered around four key questions posed to all guests and hosted by Adam Mogelonsky. For more information about GAIN, head to: Adam Mogelonsky is a GAIN Advisor and partner at Hotel Mogel Consulting Ltd ., focusing on strategy advisory for hotel owners, hotel technology analysis, process innovation, marketing support and finding ways for hotels to profit from the wellness economy. Listen to the GAIN Momentum Podcast: Apple Podcasts: Spotify:

Full transcript

44 min

Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.

GAIN Momentum episode #97: Ramping Up Hotel Sales with Proactive Efforts and Systems Design | with Amy Infante === Adam Mogelonsky: Welcome to the GAIN Momentum Podcast. We are now on our third recording and we have a delightful episode to talk about a new program at GAIN that is really focusing on accelerating groups and other sales efforts. I'm joined today by my co-host, Vincent Somsen and our guest today. Our guest today is Amy Infante, director of GAIN Elevate.

Amy, how are you? Amy Infante: I am great. How are you? Thanks for having me.

Adam Mogelonsky: It's a delight to have you on because for context in 2026, as we're recording this leisure as a segment is where it is in terms of occupancy stagnation in a lot of areas, but there's a lot of potential for group and other sales efforts. So before we get into what hotels can do and what they should consider, let's start with your background. Amy Infante: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so.

I'm the founder of GitGo Group, which is a agency that really focuses on delivery. Um, so a lot of people know us as an outsourced firm. Um, we have a team that actually can execute programs. Um, so that's what really what we've been known for, for a really long time.

Um, I actually joined GAIN last year. The reason I joined GAIN is because I saw this great synergy between having a team like a get-go who can execute and pilot programs, and a group of advisors, including myself, who can help organizations, hotel companies, to really figure out how to execute programs, um, like you mentioned, groups, meetings, programs, but it can be really any type of a program, um, business development wise, commercial wise, and those two sectors can come together really and help these, um, companies to execute, uh, better.

Adam Mogelonsky: Okay. And. Have role at director of Gain. What is that in an elevator pitch before?

Amy Infante: Gain. Elevate is actually a program that was designed based on, I think I, I've talked a, alluded to it a little bit when I was sharing about GetGo. Um, but really what I've seen at GetGo is companies a lot of times will come to me and say, we have this problem. And it's usually something centered around revenue generation, right?

We need more revenue. Everybody's problem, right? Everyone wants more revenue. Um, problem.

And they usually have this, uh. A lot of times the larger organizations will have had a large, uh, consulting firm come in and give a, a structure advice, and then they leave and GitGo, is left to execute that advice. Um, and there's usually very disconnected systems at play. Lot of times it comes to the tech stack tasked with actually.

Trying to put it back altogether. And so when I approached Gain and said, you know, hey, and we were talking about this kind of synergy with our two groups. Um, we talked about how wouldn't it be nice if we could have the gain advisors who are so deeply involved in the industry, lots of great experience, um, both on the tech side and on the hotel group side. Uh, be able to design.

A program help, um, build the enablement like a playbook, essentially KPIs, what should we measure? And then have this execution arm to help pilot those programs to make it essentially more, um, to mitigate the risk for those companies. So that's really. Kind of the background of gain and why it gain, elevate, I should say, and why it exists and why we built it, and really what we're.

Adam Mogelonsky: now let's take a big step back or look big picture. Um. We are now in 2026 and the situation on the ground in terms of the sales process and uh, what people or what companies are looking for in groups is drastically different than what it was even three years ago. So give us some ideas about how the sales process is changing.

Amy Infante: So a lot of times what I'm hearing from customers is they are struggling, keeping up with all of the change that's happening, as you mentioned. And really, um, what I like to do is kind of take a step back with the customers and, and when you say process, right, uh. Yes, it's changing because there's more automation built into technology. There's more AI built into all the technology, like it's there for them, but they're the basics of the infrastructure of what they have to do to be able to build business revenue.

Um. We have to get back to the basics first, right? We have to implement the basics, and that is as simple as, you know, with property level, I see all the time. We have sales managers that are in a seat and they're tasked with doing everything.

They have to prospect for new business. They have to build relationships with customers. They're doing all of the, um, you know. Administrative work.

Um, and really what's missing in that is a marketing funnel, a true marketing funnel. And we see it all the time with our tech vendors, right? That we work with the technology companies. They have a real systematized structure of how they do their marketing funnel and build, uh, leads that come in.

And what I see at the hotel level is. We're on shelves, we're on different platforms, and so we utilize those for our inbound leads. But what's happening is the customers are using those as portals, so there's a disconnect because we're seeing that business come in when the customer's ready to connect with the salesperson, right? they need rate states in space, so it's very reactionary, but there is no proactive.

Sales funnel being built, generally speaking. And that's where I think the biggest disconnect is and what hotels need to do with to build a process. Um, and then really understand how that proactive piece is different from the reactive. So we do a lot of education on that, um, at GitGo because we work in that space so much.

But, um, also in the advisory work that I do. A. Adam Mogelonsky: Could you give us a sense of some tactical items that would be a part of this proactive, uh, sales funnel? Amy Infante: Yeah, absolutely.

Um, it's as simple as, first off, you know, Vincent and I work on this a lot together. So Vincent, feel free to chime in on this if you want. Um, building a good target audience list. So the understanding, the ICP of the hotel and a lot of properties, um, are just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

And they've got a lot of ideas who their target audience is, but they really have not had a lot of conversation with those customers. So they're unfamiliar with their needs and likes and demands. Um, they're kind of making a lot of assumptions and so I think it's really important. Uh, tactically to build a strong ICP, and there's a lot of tools out there that we use that help us to do that.

Um, I also think that it's important to, um, then you build a, an email campaign, a targeted email campaign with clear messaging that's relevant and compelling to the business to business buyer. We're not talking the same as a leisure. Target campaign. You know what a lot of the brands provide, right?

They're reaching out to individuals and leisure travelers. This is really specific to the B2B customers. So building that campaign and making it consistent so that there's series of messages going out to those customers and you're constantly getting the impressions, the visibility, the awareness. And then you've gotta build in your structure with the sales team to be able to action on what's happening with that email campaign.

Um, so that's kind of a gist, a little bit of the tactics and some of the strategy as well, Vincent Somsen: I think Adam, what, what we've seen, um, in the past as well, that every property. Um, every asset within a group has their own specific strategy or tactic. Um, and what we're saying is really determine on a portfolio or even corporate point of view, um, the strategy and enable your properties, um, with the tools to drive the strategy that you, that you, um, you know, from a corporate level set.

Uh, so if you have tools like that, uh, can actually enrich your entire contact list, your entire target list within a couple of minutes. Having to, uh, research or decision maker the specific, company every time. Um, you know, every time you do that, you know, there's a lot of stats out there, um, that, uh, talk about how many minutes or many hours are spent enriching and researching lists of, of, of companies, right? So if you have the tools in the system.

Again, from a corporate level, um, to enable you to, uh, actually spend more time talking to these folks, talking to your potential customers instead of, uh, just doing manual, uh, and mundane work, uh, that a robot or an AI can do for you. Uh, is what, is what? Something that we really, uh, try to encourage, uh, the clients that we talk to, uh, you know, nowadays, and that wasn't possible in the past. But now with the technologies that we've seen, uh, you know, in the last 12 months, it's possible to, you know, increase your productivity of your prop, of your, uh, teams, your marketing teams, your sales teams, um, sometimes double.

Uh, so it's really important to, to look at the technology, um, that enables your strategy. Adam Mogelonsky: So just to backtrack here, uh, what is an ICP so we're clear on it? And how would you go about building an ICP on paper? For the corporate level or brand level to then by guide the asset or the property level, execution.

Amy Infante: It's ideal client profile. That is what A ICP is. Um, it's your target audience. So most hoteliers that might be listening to this, uh, probably understand building a.

Your segmentation and the target within that segmentation. So like one segment would be corporate group business. So if your a property or a specific brand, it's important to think about what types of group would come to your hotel or what does your brand really attract? Is it entertainment groups?

You know, the cruise, is it, um construction crew business, is it, um, consulting and training types of groups that come to the hotel? It could be many different types of groups. You know, I, we work with large properties or companies that have very large convention hotels, and so it's, you know, association market and, um, large training meetings and incentives groups. So it can vary but.

I think it's really important to be very specific and write those out, document them, and then make sure that when you're building that audience that you're marketing, your email messaging is driven towards that audience, right? So you're not throwing promotions out at an association that you know would not pertain. Adam Mogelonsky: Right, so you start with the ICP, and then from there you're applying that to a CRM to figure out who's gonna be in each segment within the ICP to then develop very, very bespoke.

And marketing journeys that really, really drive the, uh, the engagement open clicks and. Amy Infante: Absolutely. And in a lot of cases, you know, customers already have, uh, client lists. They're very messy though.

Um, and it's difficult, you know, that, like Vincent said, you know, making sure that the, uh, the data is accurate and clean and you have the right contacts. Um, that's a lot of work. And, but ideally you combine, um, new targets. Companies that you have not ever spoken to with more low hanging fruit that is, um, you know, they may have heard of you and you can do messaging to those types of groups differently as well.

Adam Mogelonsky: And there is a org chart nature to this evolution in 2026, where we've talked about, you know, developing an ICP at the corporate level, and then that needs to be enforced and directed on the property level. Uh, horizontally we are seeing this, um, evolution towards a unified commercial department, which. Communications and a few others, is that what you're seeing on the ground? Amy Infante: it's a wide variety to be honest.

I think the reality and the vision still have room to come together. Um, but there are companies that have completely restructured in terms of title and org chart, but it's a lot of change management right now. What I talk a lot about, I know we might be talking about this in a bit, H-S-M-A-I, um, the Hotel Sales and Marketing Association when, so I'm on some advisory boards with them and the conversation is really huge around commercial and the structure. Um, and what I've really been trying to promote is.

Within the change management. It's also, it's about simple things like meeting cadence and bringing the team together on the right topics and aligning. Um, it's not just throwing titles out there and saying, okay, now you report up into this one, one commercial role. Um, it's really making sure that.

We do it all, all the time in the entrepreneurial environment. Um, I follow something called EOS, the entrepreneurial Operating System. And it has a real clear structure around how your meetings run and how you know your, what metrics you're looking at, your scorecard, and I think that's something that the hospitality industry can and should adopt when we're talking about. Going more commercial and looking at this structure.

Adam Mogelonsky: So this organizational reorientation, uh, and you know, your EOS, how would you help to bring. Sales and marketing teams closer together knowing that we have this ICP, which needs to be segmented within a CRM and then goes out to, uh, email communications, e-blasts, or marketing journeys that does involve. A piece of technology that are used by both sales and marketing teams. How do you bring them together so there's co more cohesion?

So therefore, therefore you can make the messaging even better. And then. Amy Infante: Yeah, I think ideally you want them to be working on a unified scorecard around that and understand, you know, um. Where does marketing really fit in on that scorecard?

Like, uh, so often, I mean, in other industries we see that marketing owns lead generation, right? They really are. Their job is to bring leads into the funnel, um, and if we're looking at property level in the hotel world, in some, in some cases even, um, above property, a lot of times we say no sales is lead generation in the hospitality industry. So I think it's within the organization becoming really clear on what that means and what the scorecard is.

Um, and when you talk about technology, you know, so many of the customers I've worked with have. Marketing's been using this piece of tech and sales has been using this, and revenue management's been using this, and they, none of them speak to each other. Um, and so I think you have to take that in a very careful, phased approach to figure out what makes the most sense. I mean, that's, you're talking CapEx there, so we've gotta be smart about it and really.

That's where advisory can be very beneficial, I think is, um, taking a good outside perspective assessment of that and then really being mindful around what makes the most sense, I think. You know, all of us have kind of been in an entrepreneurial environment ourselves, and I think that's one of the benefits of gain is having both a corporate level and an entrepreneurial level perspective. am very much, um. About phasing and being reasonable and risk mitigation when it comes to implementing new things.

Because I've seen so many companies, you know, we've been, like I was saying earlier, at GetGo, we kind of come in at the backend a lot of times of these big projects and there's been a lot of CapEx expense on certain technology pieces or structures, and it. Is a nightmare. It's a mess. And so why not think about that more intentionally on the front end of how you can phase it and mitigate the risk and the change management and all of that, and then, you know, piece it together reasonably and responsibly for the company.

Vincent Somsen: Yeah. So Amy, um, is the intention here to okay, offer re, you know, you design enablement and really execute this program, um, to stay, the, with the company for the common gears? Or is there, is this really an approach? Um, where at one point you take your hands off.

Um, yeah. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Amy Infante: I think it's dependent on the organization that you're working with? I mean, from my experience with GitGo, I mean our intention is in a lot of cases to help customers accelerate the process of everything we've just talked about, because we know ultimately in a commercial organization, it's about hitting the revenue targets.

Simple as that. We've gotta, we have to accelerate to revenue. But all the while doing that, you've gotta set up your structure and get it sound and implemented. And so our intention ha is in a lot of cases to accelerate that and get it internalized as quickly as possible, um, without having to go backwards.

And that's what I see so often is with, um, you know, traditional consulting, swoop in, tell you what to do and then swoop out and then the company is left to figure out how to put all the pieces together and make it work. Where this is really to hold the hand. Throughout all of that process very intentionally. And then the execution piece can be as simple as a pilot for, you know, 60 days, 30 days, six months.

And in some cases it lasts longer because the company realizes, hey, we don't wanna bring on more headcount, more overhead, more risk. We're gonna continue this path for a year. Maybe it's two years. Some of our, some of our programs have been, you know, nearly a decade, but it evolves and changes over time because our industry is evolving and changing over time.

And so they realize, okay, this program needs to graduate into something else. Adam Mogelonsky: Uh, there's one other element to your work here, and this is a thing that is confusing to everyone outside of the hospitality industry. How does your work vary from independent to branded or flagged or franchise hotel and also with management companies? Amy Infante: That's a great question actually.

I could see why, why folks would get confused by that. Um, so I think, you know, in terms of the work. It doesn't change that much. Like from a GitGo perspective, we're constantly focused on business development and generating revenue, right?

Doing the actions that need to be done. But the nuance of how that gets done from a branded to an independent can be quite different just because of. some of the, I don't wanna say restrictions, but I mean, let's just be honest, restrictions with the brand. Um, we don't always have the access to the data, um, because they keep that at the brand or the chain level, and so the property level doesn't have that much.

Um. Visibility all the time. And so there's that, there's a little bit more flexibility with the digital marketing aspect, um, from an independent side. Um, I would say that maybe this isn't answering your question, so feel free to keep, keep digging, Adam, but, um, I would say that the work is very similar.

It's the, it's how we execute that. Because my main thing is always we're meeting our customers where they are today. Right? That's, that's the whole thing, is you can't, you can't get further along unless we truly understand what's happening right now and what the challenge really is.

And I think salt. Problem solving today with the world of AI is going to be the most important piece of what advisory can do for customers and leaders inside of organizations. You have to be a great problem solver, but you have to figure out what the actual problem is that you're trying to solve. And a lot of times what happens is we get a call and this is the problem.

But that is the surface level problem, and we need to go layers and layers deeper. And I don't think that changes, whether you're a management company or an independent or a brand. that's the foundation. And then how we execute that is the fun part because that's where the variety comes in and the creativity and really, you know, rolling up our sleeves and getting into the work.

Vincent Somsen: Yeah. Amy, can you give an example of, um, a problem that, uh, somebody mentioned to you, they called you up and said, okay, we have, we have this problem, but actually there was a deeper root cause, um, that was causing that problem. Amy Infante: Yeah, absolutely. Um, it happens all the time, but one that comes top of mind is, um a company reached out because they wanted to enhance their global sales organization.

Let's just say that I'm gonna try to keep this very, uh, broad because I'm very particular about keeping my, my clients anonymous. Um, they needed to enhance their global sales organization, um, but the root. Problem. The root challenge was actually that they did not have the infrastructure and the technology designed so that they could, um, that they could, you know, share opportunities across regions really show what they're doing to their stakeholders.

It was a technology issue, and so we have to first tackle the tech stack and designing that so that it can function globally. Adam Mogelonsky: On the note of using technology to help solve these problems, or at least reveal the problem under the problem. What data or metrics would you use to reveal that problem or another problem like it as well as to show that the plans you're enacting are. Amy Infante: typically when a customer reaches out and they say they have a revenue problem, right.

We need revenue, um, we need to dig into. What's the volume coming in today? These are kind of, these are some of the kind of little things that I look like. What kind of volume do you have coming in and where is it coming from?

What is your revenue gap? Are you versus what you originally forecasted or where you thought you would be? Um, why did you think you would be there? You know, what, what's the history?

What is the historical data to that, and what's the conversion rate? And it's shocking how many hotels and companies do not know what their conversion rate is. Um. From, whether it's inbound or they're creating the opportunities.

Mostly it's reactive sales, right? Adam Mogelonsky: Uh, just a note of clarification, because conversion rate, are you talking about. A conversion, like a form fill, or are you talking about a conversion As in a sales close. Amy Infante: A sales close.

Yeah, that's. On my side of the house and B2B we always talk about like, 'cause we're signing contracts with customers right? Adam Mogelonsky: yeah. And that, yeah, that's part of the problem, bringing teams together.

'cause in marketing a conversion, it can be whatever you define it to be in terms of a measured call to action. Right. So it's. Bringing teams together across a common language as well as common data as well, and common systems and Amy Infante: yeah.

there's actually, I mean, there's a lot of discussion too around, uh, attribution, right? That's a big, um, debate. And we have that same debate too, even on, even in, on the group side of the house. And when we're talking about, you know, even signing like corporate transient contracts and things like that for cu with customers.

Um. Where did it originally come from? Right? Who takes credit for it?

At the end of the day, I believe that the metrics that we should be looking at are the key metrics to the stakeholders, to the owners, what are their care abouts? Because every, um, property owner is a little bit different and. The reason why they have their asset and what they're trying to do with it. And so I think that's where commercial teams need to be aligned and have better business acumen around profitability and, you know, looking at the asset in that same way.

Adam Mogelonsky: So to bridge the gap now, again between sales and marketing, you mentioned earlier that you're part of an organization called h. SMAI. How are you involved and what's the value for hotels to be involved in this organization? Amy Infante: Yes.

Um, I have been involved with H-S-M-A-I, I can't even remember the number of years now, but I started out on the sales advisory board and did three terms on that board where I was co-chairing the commercial strategy work group, um, with a wonderful woman named Lori Keel, who many know. And, uh, we helped. Filled KPIs and design a lot of the things that we're talking about today, um, around, you know, what should you be measuring against as your, as a commercial organization and each of the different kind of departments, marketing, sales, revenue, optimization, What should they be looking at, you know, kind of guidelines and benchmarks in that regard.

Um, and now I'm on the marketing advisory board and so I switched. 'cause you can only be on one advisory board for so long and then they kick you off. And so I was like, I'll do marketing now. Um, which is great.

And uh, I think, and then I actually was, I helped to, uh, co-author a chapter in the certified hotel sales leader. Certification program. So there's a book and um, Kiera and I wrote the chapter on leadership for that, which was a lot of fun. And it also incorporates some of the things we talked about around cadence and, um, just building your organization.

Within your commercial structure and leading that organization to success? Um, I think that the benefits to HSM AI membership are twofold. It's definitely education. So having the access to those benchmarks and the articles and the thought leadership that they put out is really important.

Um, as well as the networking. I mean, you really, you know, it's. H Commercial strategy conference is at the same time as high tech, so they're always in the same location, and it's great because there's so much. Cohesion now and synergy between tech stacks and the vendors that are needed for these commercial leaders.

And so I hope to see in 2026 that the, the two converge a little bit more. Um, and hopefully gain can be a huge part of that with our new gain elevate program. Adam Mogelonsky: Yeah, that's, uh, well that brings us full circle back to gain, elevate. So we've talked about the unique problems, uh, across different hotels, teams not talking to each other, technology, uh, silos, everything.

What are the biggest challenges that gain elevate, solves? Amy Infante: It's a great question. I think really we solve complex. Problems when it comes to, um, sustainable revenue generation.

And I don't just mean like what GetGo has been doing with business development all these years, right? Like that's one piece of it, but, um, companies have the ability and the opportunity to build. Robust programs that can, allow them more. Of a foundation and a like consistency, right?

We, we see so many peaks and valleys in our industry. You know, it's seasonal and we like, you know, we've got our teams that it's all of a sudden we build a business development team because we see there's a dip coming. So now everybody puts all these resources into outreach and business development, and then things get good and that slows down and we decide to cut that team like. That happens all the time.

Um, and I think what gain has the opportunity to do with the experience of the advisors and with the execution of the GitGo side of the house is we can really help solve these problems more sustainably and, and, uh, help customers see the opportunity to keep that consistency. I don't know. Vincent, what are your thoughts on that? 'cause you and I spend so much time talking about this.

Vincent Somsen: Yeah, I mean, I think the, um, you know, one of the, one of the great opportunities here is really to work with, uh, with people that have done it before. Um, it all the, the gain advisors and especially Amy, uh, are so experienced and, you know, actually worked with, um, hotel groups in the past or worked for Hills and Marriot, uh, or even smarter boutique, uh, hotel firms, right. Um, so, you know, and that's also what sets what I believe sets us apart from traditional consulting or advisory firms.

Um, it's really this senior. Team that actually has experience on, on the floor in the industry, at corporate level or on property level, um, that now, you know, show the experience and provide the, the value to multiple companies and multiple hotels. And, that's really something that, that I feel, uh, sets us apart. And also we're here to stay, right?

Like Amy said, it's not in and out. It's okay. We design, enable, and execute, right? So, uh, it's not just a report here, Mr.

C, CO, uh, or Mrs. CCO, um, and be, uh, and, you know, see you next year when you are, um, when you are still in trouble, right? We actually execute the strategy, um, that, uh, that the advisors plan. And it's like Amy said, multiple times, it's, it's really risk mitigation.

and that's why, um, you know, hotels choose us in order to, to create that strategy and also execute it. Adam Mogelonsky: So when we're looking at deploying, uh, gain, elevate. At a hotel or a group or a brand. And you mentioned this idea of consistency in revenue generation and sustainability.

What are some common missteps that hotel groups, uh, are taking to achieve, uh, consistency and sustainability in, uh, revenue generation? Amy Infante: A common misstep I see is not creating the infrastructure so that sales and marketing can work together. To build that revenue. Um, and really aligning on what are the, the, what's the scorecard, what are the KPIs that each is going to contribute, and how does that align to the overall goal of the, the property or the portfolio, the group, right.

Um, so to get a little bit more specific around that, um, I get calls all the time from. Hotel management companies even that say, you know, we have properties that are really struggling and then we have properties that are doing great and I don't need your help with the properties that are doing great. I need help with the ones that are struggling. That's, you know, fine, fair.

But when we look at the holistic picture, I see that there is no structure for marketing and um, and sales to really work together. And so, uh, what I mean by that is kind of what we've discussed a little bit earlier was, um, you know, having the infrastructure within your CRM so that you can put out consistent messaging, especially in the. B2B space. A lot of hotels and even management companies, they don't have strong databases, and so the contacts are outdated or they're incorrect, inaccurate, they're not familiar with their ideal target customer, and so there's no, there's nothing being done proactively to push messaging out to those customers to gain visibility and engagement.

Or there's very little, it might be like, I talked to a hotel company recently and it was like, well, here and there we're sending MailChimp emails into our, to our existing database. But that's not consistent. I think that's, you know, it's real basic, right? You gotta have consistent and you need the infrastructure in place, the technology.

The systems and the processes in place to make sure that your sales team isn't just sitting in the seat saying, who do I call today? What do I do next? And because they're not gonna make cold calls, right? They're just not going to do it.

In today's world, and your customers don't necessarily want. A cold call. So how do we warm up those contacts and generate some engagement and excitement around the property? And that there has to be a system to do that.

And I think that's the biggest misstep is um, you know, companies are dabbling in it here and there, but not taking a step back and taking time to build it out so that it is best in class. And that's. You know, one thing that advisory can bring to the table. Um, and I think what's nice is all the while you're building it, you can, um, be executing on a program because at GitGo, we already have the infrastructure built in place.

And so the nice thing with gain elevate is we can build it for you while. The execution team has it already built outside of your infrastructure, and you can start seeing those revenue results before you even have it built inside your own organization. Adam Mogelonsky: It's really, uh, really insightful about, you know, just this whole idea of system design and, and really deploying it and getting that outside expertise to sort of see the big picture for what it is and how teams can better function together using technology and unified systems.

So, Amy, to to, to finish off here. What do you see on the horizon for the remainder of this decade in terms of trends and disruptions that are going to impact commercial strategy, um, for hotel teams? Amy Infante: Well, I hope that we're not having these same conversations in, you know, six years, because I thought in 2020 that, um. Things would change a little bit more and we would see more companies adopting this, uh, this kind of commercial system that we're talking about, uh, a little bit more quickly.

But I do see that it's happening slowly but surely, which is great. And I think that some of the things we have to watch out for, obviously we all have been talking about ai, um, and the search and how customers are actually going to be booking. Think that's gonna impact group business as well. Um, and you know, there's travel agencies, all the different customer segments that are out there for, um, the commercial team to focus on in terms of B2B I think are, are going to be impacted by AI and new ways of, of, uh, booking the business.

And so I think there's this fear that that cuts out. Some of those commercial team players, but like I said, um, I don't think it cuts out the ones who are really great at solving problems because what AI can't do for you is it can't actually tell you what the problem is. You have to give it, feed it the problem, and then it can help you. Solve it, right?

It can help you put some of those pieces into solve it, but you actually have to understand and know what the problem is. And I think that, you know, we all just have to be really, uh, engaged and intentional around our business to be able to do that. Adam Mogelonsky: Those are incredible words to live by, and I really hope that, uh, we've made some progress, uh, in the next five years. But, uh, you know, it's, it's oftentimes once you're on that hamster wheel, it's very hard to get off.

And, uh, that's what we're here for. And, um, with the gain elevate program and others to help help people see the big and up, um, their sales efforts by improving the. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute delight.

Uh, and um, yeah, uh, again, it would be great to follow up in two years time to get you back on the show to see has things actually changed materially. Amy Infante: Absolutely. I hope it's sooner than two years, but Adam Mogelonsky: Amy. Thank you Vincent.

Thank you again. Amy Infante: thanks everybody.

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