Why do commercial strategy silos persist? Here’s a perspective from a marketer, undoubtedly biased but fueled by a desire for unity and efficiency.
NB: This is an article from Cogwheel Marketing, one of our Expert Partners
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Constructing a Champion Football Team
Imagine if sales were the offense, the unit charging forward to score goals or points. They directly engage with prospects and clients, transforming opportunities into revenue through aggression and direct action aimed at securing business.
Marketing then serves as the midfielders, pivotal for both defense and offense. They create opportunities, set the game’s pace, and strategically position the hotel in the market to support the offense’s efforts. They bridge the gap between revenue management’s defensive strategies and sales’ offensive goals, ensuring the hotel’s message reaches its target.
Revenue management acts as the defense, including the goalkeeper, tasked with optimizing pricing and inventory to prevent losses and ensure the hotel’s profitability. Their strategic positioning and market trend analysis are crucial for informing the tactics of both offense (sales strategies) and midfield (marketing campaigns).
The success of each team is interdependent, crafting a winning playbook. If revenue management becomes too rigid or disconnects from sales, the chance to score (win business) might be missed because marketing couldn’t properly set up the play due to a lack of strategy alignment.
Silos hinder synergy, leading to missed opportunities, inefficient strategies, and potential losses in the competitive market.
Breaking down the Silos
For years, discussions have revolved around the silos separating sales, digital marketing, and revenue management. Despite claims of focus by various software products, achieving unity and defining a solid process that merges expertise toward harmony of the three distinct disciplines remains a challenge. The goal is to harmonize three distinct disciplines, each with unique skill sets and objectives, onto the same page.
Why Perspective Matters
Much of this discord stems from entrenched perspectives. Deeply ingrained in one’s role, sharing comprehensive insights with other departments challenges, as does education, which is both hard and time-consuming. Yet, assuming all parties are open to learning, sharing a marketing perspective on persisting silos is crucial.
No offense to sales and revenue management counterparts, but it’s time for marketing to claim its rightful place at the commercial strategy table.
Fallacies of Revenue Management
Booking vs Planning Window
It’s vital for my colleagues in revenue management to understand that the “booking window” and “planning window” are fundamentally distinct. Marketing needs to engage with its audience well before the booking window, often 1-3 months in advance, to make a meaningful impact. By the time your revenue management system tells you are behind pace, or the competitor is showing pick up, relying on OTA ads at the eleventh hour is insufficient.
