In this edition of our “Getting to Know You” feature, Stephanie Pinto, Vice President of Sales, shares with us what she thinks makes Interstate stand out from the crowd and what she enjoys most about working with the team.
Tell us about your role and what it involves:
My role is primarily to lead the sales function here at Interstate. I oversee our team of Sales Effectiveness Directors and Specialist Sales Team each of whom have their own sectors to work within: leisure, entertainment, MICE, associations and sport.
I support and advise the team, working with them to set clear key performance goals and ensuring that together we take a strategic approach to sales.
The industry has changed so much in the last 18 months, the role of our sales leaders is to offer solutions and to be specialist in key verticals. Our we focus a great deal more on the mix of the business we target, working hand-in-hand with Interstate’s wider commercial team to identify gaps in the market and ways we can offer increased value to our customers.
What does a typical day in your role involve?
The reason I love my job so much is because there isn’t a typical day! I could be meeting with one of our hotels along with the commercial team, to help them tackle a specific issue, I could be pitching for a new management contract, working with our brand partners, delivering training to our sales leaders or spending time with the regional commercial leadership teams.
You never know what new opportunities each day will bring – and that’s all part of the attraction!
What’s your favourite part of the role?
As well as the variety of the job, it’s also the team at Interstate. Everyone is so friendly and passionate about what we do and how we do it – it’s a great place to work.
Equally, I love the buzz of helping our owners achieve success through the sales and commercial strategies we put in place.
We don’t own any hotels, we are a pure third-party management company so 100 per cent of our efforts are focused on making the properties we manage for our owners a success.
Seeing them flourish and the teams go from strength-to-strength is a great feeling.
What, in your opinion, makes Interstate stand out from the crowd?
The people really make it. A large proportion of us have worked our way up through the hotel industry – I myself started out as a sales executive in a hotel twenty five years ago – and so we have a lot of first-hand experience between us that is invaluable to hotel owners and new investors.
In addition, the fact we don’t own any of our own properties and focus wholeheartedly on the success of our owners’ businesses makes us truly unique.
I love the buzz of helping our owners achieve success through the sales and commercial strategies we put in place
Stephanie Pinto, Vice President of Sales
Team
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