Best Job You Never Heard Of_S1_Ep1_Welcome + Intro

Best Job YNHO_S1_Ep1_Welcome + Intro

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Best job you've never heard of. The podcast that shines a light on an amazing career that doesn't get nearly enough attention as the fabulous career path it is. I'm Grace Taylor Segal, and today I wanna tell you about the job that changed my life. Hotel sales manager. Now I know what you might be thinking.

Hotel sales manager, what the heck is that? But stay with me because this job is packed with travel high-end client entertaining perks galore, and incredible advancement potential. Honestly, it might just be the best kept secret in the entire job market, and that's why I call it the best job you never heard of.

I don't say any of that lightly. I spent over three decades doing this type of [00:01:00] work, and it took me places I never expected to go. Fancy hotel suites, think the Plaza Hotel, power lunches, business trips to gorgeous destinations like St. Thomas and. Bam Springs Canada and New York City and San Francisco.

That's just a highlight reel. Let me set the scene for you with a quick story. As a hotel sales manager, I went on many trips to various locations in the US and beyond, but I think for me, the most exciting trip was the first time I went to New York City. I had just been hired at a new hotel and if within one week they wanted to send me to New York for a big trade show, I had never been to New York, but I'd always wanted to go because I am, and I always have been a total theater [00:02:00] geek, yet I'd never been to New York or seen a play on Broadway.

So you can imagine. How thrilled I was to be in the Big Apple, staying at the Marriott Marquee in Manhattan for the very first time. The first play I saw was Beauty and the Beast, big hit at the time. I was just seven rows back and I saw Dolly Parton there walking up the aisle after the show. I visited New York and saw many more Broadway shows after that.

But. You never forget that first time, do you? Well, perhaps you're wondering what does a hotel sales manager do? In short, we bring in business conferences, business meetings, sports groups, executive retreats. You name it, we book it. We are the ones out there [00:03:00] creating relationships , making sure our hotels are bustling with happy guests.

I'd say job number one for any hotel sales manager is building and nurturing relationships. That's the key to success. It's a role that blends strategy with charm. You're working closely with clients to understand what they want, and then working with your hotel team to bring it to life. You're not just selling hotel rooms, you're selling an experience a moment.

You are selling the dream and trust me, that is not a bore. One minute you're pitching a major company. The next, you're solving a last minute problem with the convention services manager and the team. For a high profile in-house client conference, the variety is one of the things [00:04:00] I loved most. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps things exciting, and yet the hours for a hotel sales manager are reasonable.

Now, how did I find this job? Well, let me take you back to how I stumbled into this because I didn't major in hospitality and I didn't know anyone in the industry. I didn't even know the job existed, so my dad also lived. In the area, which it's, this is the Palm Springs area that I still live in, and he was, uh, in business and he and a friend of his went up to the Ritz Carlton that was here in town because there was a rotary luncheon happening there.

And my dad [00:05:00] was seated. With the general manager of the hotel, a very stately German man, very handsome, very suave. And my dad looks over and says to this general manager, Mr. Bear, can you give my daughter a job? And Mr. Bear, in his very courtly way, said, I don't know. Have her call me, gave my daddy his card.

Well, after you come to work at the place, you realize, uh, calling a general manager at a Ritz Carlton like cold call. Basically, it's not. A, an ordinary kind of a thing. Now, Ritz had a policy of no screening phone calls. So if you call, they're not allowed to say, who's calling?

[00:06:00] Please? Uh, can I take a message? You know, they can't do that. So I called, uh. The number on the card, not really understanding any of that, and you know, fully expecting not to get to him. And it, I think it went through the switchboard. And you say, may I speak to Mr. Perry? Yes, certainly my pleasure. Uh, the next layer, certainly My pleasure.

The executive office, certainly My pleasure. And can you believe it? Next thing I know, I'm talking to Mr. Bear. And I said, I don't know if you remember my dad, he remembered. He said, why don't you come and we'll have a meeting? So I came up there. I looked nice, you know, I had a nice dress on. Went to the front desk, asked for Mr.

Bear. You should have seen the way they looked at me. This didn't happen very often, [00:07:00] so he cannot comes out and he's like. Like I said, very sophisticated, very well dressed, very handsome. You know the, the gray at the temples anyway, so there's a love seat by the front door. He sits on one side, I sit on the other and he said, well, what would you like to do?

And I said, what have you got? Because I didn't know about the jobs in the hotel, so he said, I'm gonna have you talk to my two senior assistants. So one of them was in charge of the room side and one of them was in charge of the food and beverage side. And I really hit it up with the rooms guy. And when the room guy introduced me to the food and beverage guy, he said, uh, she's got a great story.

But no resume. I didn't bring a resume. I [00:08:00] really, that's how green I was. I didn't know. And just FYI was 30, so. It. It took a couple months, but they called me and offered me a job in reservations as a reservations agent, and it was a great job. I loved it. I worked that three to 11 shift because I was going to paralegal school in the daytime.

Eventually I graduated paralegal school, but there were no jobs to be had in this area. So I thought, well, maybe I'll just. Go the hotel route. Things were going very well for me there, and eventually the director of sales invited me to come and be her assistant. Sadly, she was fired the day before I moved into the sales office, and the new guy wasn't exactly into promoting assistance, [00:09:00] but.

The one thing that happened for me sitting in the sales office was watching all the sales managers do their thing, and I'm like, man, this is the best job I I I've ever seen. They took the clients out for lunch. They traveled to cities. They called them in their offices. They wrote them letters. They entertained them when they came to the hotel, checked in on them when the event came.

But the convention services managers handled all the details. I mean, this was a great job. So I set my sights on that job. And I'll tell you, those early days were, let's say humbling. I made mistakes. I asked so many questions. I worked weekends, holidays, you name it. Off the clock, there were tough days [00:10:00] and so many disappointments.

One painful one was when I left Ritz Carlton after that fairytale experience of getting acquainted with the hotel, courtesy of the general manager of the place, and ending up in reservations. I just fell in love with the hotel business, the whole thing, particularly Ritz Carlton because of their service standards and their amazing properties, and I took it for granted that I would be able to advance there into the sales manager role, which I set as my goal, and it didn't work out.

I had kids, and even though that was never a problem for me work-wise because I had. Very reliable childcare. My mother, no one wanted to promote me because in those days there was a lot of discrimination toward women, especially [00:11:00] women with children. So after trying to buck that system for quite a while, I realized.

I had to give up and go to a different hotel, and that taught me something important, which was that sometimes in order to move up, you have to move on. And that worked for me a few times. You don't wanna bounce around, but you want to make strategic moves, and that's the lesson that I learned from having to leave Ritz Carlton.

This sales manager role isn't just about closing deals. It's about building long-term relationships, understanding people, and creating exceptional experiences. That's the magic of it. And over the years, I had some wins. I'll never forget booking Levi's for the first week in December, which is debtor than Superman's kneecap.[00:12:00]

At that time in the California desert, the hotel business, that was a magical moment for me. The general manager came running into the sales office. He was so excited when I booked the group, probably because of the big bonus he was gonna get due to that booking. But he and I worked hard to build a relationship with.

The Levi's meeting planner, Deborah, writing personal notes, holding a special dinner in her honor during her site inspection. But I always have believed that the thing that really moved the needle for Deborah was when we first met. I came to her office in San Francisco and I brought her a copy of a book that I was reading that I thought was really good and I told her I thought she might enjoy it too.

I've always felt that personal touch really start us, us off on the right foot and put us on a level [00:13:00] where we entered a path of becoming friends and not just client and salesperson. That meant a lot to me. Okay, now let's talk about the fun stuff, because yes, this is a job that comes with plenty of perks.

As I've mentioned, I got to travel for conferences, site visits, client meetings. I often stayed in beautiful hotels that most people only dream about and entertaining clients. Well, that's big part of the gig dinners, VIP experiences. I've done it all and it. Never gets old. I've attended exclusive events, stayed in luxury suites, and made lifelong connections.

And while the job can be demanding those moments of glamor, they're real and they're a big reason I fell in love with this career. As I mentioned, I went to New York City and went many times on sales [00:14:00] trips. I went to San Francisco even more. I've been to quite a few US cities, including Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, LA, and others, and even outside the country to Canada, Mexico, even St.

Thomas and the Virgin Islands. I never thought I'd have a job like that, let alone a career where I would get to travel. Especially not like that as a hotel sales manager,

so why is this job such a hidden gem? Because it blends business savvy with creativity, people skills with strategy, and the result is a career that is. Never a bore plus. All the fantastic people. You'll meet clients and colleagues. Some will become lifelong friends. It's fulfilling, fast-paced and full of potential, whether you're just starting out pivoting careers or [00:15:00] looking for something more exciting than your nine to five hotel sales.

Might be exactly what you've been looking for. And best of all, it's a career that doesn't require a hospitality degree or years of experience to break in. That's what I teach in my course age school, but more about that later. That's it for today's episode. I hope this gave you a peek into a world that you may have never considered a world I've loved being a part of.

If you've got questions or wanna know more, you can find me in my Facebook group or on social media. All of that information is in the show notes. And if you know someone who's looking for a great career, please share this episode with them. You never know whose life it might change. Next time we're digging deeper into what a hotel Sales Manager's day actually looks like.

And [00:16:00] spoiler alert, it might not be what you expect. Thanks for listening. I'm Grace, and this has been the best job you never heard of.