When you are in sales, there is a time to verbally sell and then there is a time to stop talking. Once you have explained the deal completely and done all you can, there comes a point where you “ask” the buyer if they want to buy whatever it is you are selling. It is common knowledge in the sales world that once you propose the “ask,” you need to be quiet until the buyer has answered. If you continue to talk after the ask question, you almost always will kill your chances of the buyer buying what you are selling.

The first time I got to the point of asking a buyer if he was ready to move forward with an offer was on some ding dong hotel in Florida 25 years ago. I had been selling hotels for maybe a month. I will never forget that moment because to this day, it still makes me chuckle. Here I was at this hotel in Florida and didn’t know what I was doing.  We walked through the hotel, the market, the construction and answered every question except what size underwear the seller wore, and we were standing outside the hotel on the grass. I looked intently at the buyer and “asked” him if he was ready to move forward, and then I purposely closed my mouth and stopped talking. We stood there quiet as a church mouse for maybe 45 seconds while the buyer decided what he wanted to do. As I looked down, I noticed that the buyer was standing in an ant bed, and he had a thousand ants on his shoes and pants. I decided I should probably tell him what was about to happen because he was about to be crying like a baby. Well, I looked at him and told him about the ants, and he looked down and just about fainted. He ran off to his room to jump into the shower. Well, you guessed it. He did not buy that hotel. Maybe if I had waited until a little longer before that first ant found skin, the outcome might have been different. It still makes me laugh today.

I know this other broker who is probably the smartest person I have ever met, but the problem is he is so smart he cannot shut up. He would get to the “ask” question and just keep on talking and almost always talk the buyer out of the deal.

There is a time when you have people’s attention, and there is also a time when you began to lose their attention. In sales, it is important to know which phase you are in. I have literally been in presentations before with a client where you sense a shift in the client’s attention; you just know that you have reached the peak in the meeting, and you had better make a hasty retreat if you want to save the deal. The more you talk, the less likely your chances are.

So, I guess in summary, there is a time to be in selling mode and there is also a time to be in listening mode. In business, you need both gears, but you need to know when to shift. KT

There are many things I do not know about working with people or leading a company, but I do know that people want to work with people they trust. Honesty is like being pregnant, you either are or you are not.

Working with a leader that you trust could be the most important reason people stay with a company long term. I have witnessed many great senior leaders up close like Bill Marriott of Marriott International, Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops, Kirk Kinsell of Intercontinental Hotels, Truett Cathy of Chick-Fil-A, and Senators and Congressmen from Georgia. In every case, they were loved by the people that worked with them.

These leaders were approachable and looked people in the eye when they spoke, actually listening when people talked to them. They all had an open door policy, meaning they were accessible. They will also tell you the truth, not just so you feel good, but so you know really where you stand.

In my opinion, you can take all the education, fancy suits, and expensive cars and they are worthless attributes of a leader if that leader does not have the two characteristics he/she really needs: honesty and transparency. You have seen people, just like I have, that are in leadership roles and after you meet them you feel like you need a shower.

I recall one person in particular that was the head of a global hospitality practice group; when I met him, I knew I didn’t have to worry about his company beating our company in the marketplace. He would not look me in the eye, had slick gelled hair, alligator shoes, and was a true bonehead. He thought that looks and graduating from an Ivy League college was going to get him respect. He was wrong, and the company he worked with let him go only after a very short period of time.

To lead, you obviously need to know what you are talking about and have knowledge of your business. Beyond that, you really need the attributes that education or entitlement will not teach you and that is an honest spirit and the ability to be trusted. KT

In business, it is easy to overthink it. Many businesses grow stagnant for the simple reason that the people involved start to overthink strategies and decisions. I was in a meeting earlier this week, and it was something of a strategy session for 2015; it involved everything from logos to sales pitches.

I have a fundamental believe in business that clients hire who they like and trust. Even if you know the client, it is always beneficial to get face-to-face again. Sure, email and conference calls are great, but when you go to the expense of time and money to meet, I find that the real opportunities come out in that setting. In business, there is something special about being face-to-face and reading the eyes, facial expressions, and meaning behind the words spoken. In emails or conference calls, you miss all of that.

In the movie, “We Are Marshall,” about Marshall University, the college football team was flying back from a road game in 1970 when the plane crashed and almost everyone on board died. In the movie, produced in 2006, Matthew McConaughey starred as the new head coach of Marshall University. It began with the last three players that were not on that plane. NCAA rules at the time stated that a college could not play freshman; Mathew McConaughey asked the University President to go to the NCAA committee to ask for a waiver so Marshall University could recruit and play freshmen players. Playing freshmen was the only choice they had if they were going to save the football program at Marshall.

The University President sent three letters to the NCAA and was denied all three times. There is a scene in the movie where the University President and Matthew were standing in the gym holding the third rejection letter from the NCAA. Matthew looks at the University President and says something very, very important. He asked the president if he was married. The University President said yes. He asked him if he proposed to his wife in a letter. The University President said no. He then asked if his wife accepted his marriage proposal over the phone. The University President said no again. The University President realized that Matthew was asking him to physically go see the NCAA and not just write a letter. Long story short, the University President drives to Indianapolis to physically meet with the NCAA board and gets approval to play freshmen ball players and basically saved the Marshall University football program.

My point is to never overlook or overthink the power of meeting face-to-face. In business, it is so easy to complicate strategies and to think that texts, emails, websites and conference calls will grow the business. They will help, but they will never replace making an appointment and shaking someone hand who knows you took the time and the money to come see them.

All business growth plans should include a face-to-face strategy. One of the main ideas that came out of our meeting earlier in the week was to plan to go see the top 100 hotel companies in the first 60 days of 2015. Lofty goal and maybe not practical, but even if we met with only 50, our business would be rewarded greatly in the 2015 year.

So in business, the point I am making is not to overthink what you should do, rather keep it very, very simple and just go do what your competition won’t do. KT

This blog post is taken from one written earlier in the year, but the subject is something that defines us here at Hotel AG, and I wanted to share it with you again.

Years ago, I read a book on the different stages of business, and it made such an impression on me that I have never forgotten its content. The title was called the “Four Stages of Business.” Stage (1) the personal contact or the face-to-face of what you do for a living, (2) the management stage, (3) the analytical stage, and (4) bankruptcy.

It’s really very, very simple and so incredibly true. Stage one for a doctor, painter, lawyer, CPA, builder, hotel broker, car salesman or pretty much any other sales profession known in the world, is meeting someone and doing business with someone this week that you didn’t know last week. If you are a manager, consultant, trainer, writer, receptionist, your stage one is being the best at seeing and interacting with people in your care. Simply put, whether you are meeting clients, training staff or answering phones, don’t hide behind emails. Get on the phone or face-to-face, but whatever you do, put the human element to it. Emails are great and needed, but you also have to have the personal contact. Everyone that has a business and has had to meet a payroll understands the value of the personal element; I have found that this is really when the relationship starts, and it is what keeps the relationship fresh. It is literally the very lifeblood of a company and of a profession.

Stage two and three are also easy to understand as well. When people get afraid and intimidated by what is required in stage one, they hide behind emails, busy work, idle chatting, and then want to analyze everything. What happens is a slow fall into stage four, which is bankruptcy. That’s right, if you are not spending a good deal of your time in stage one you are headed for stage four.

The Bible says in Proverbs “the stall that has no oxen is always clean.” Do you understand it? It means that if you don’t have any oxen, sure it’s easy to keep the barn clean. It is always easy to keep it all straight and organized and in its proper files and the desk clean when you don’t have anything going. Stage one is the raw, uncomfortable, unpredictable part of business that is also the very most important part of business and life itself.

So, regardless of your profession or your business, the place to spend 60-70% of your time is in stage one. It’s the most uncomfortable stage, but it’s also the most rewarding. KT