ark Bello has been putting together a posse. He and Gail Gerber, director of sales and marketing, have formed a team of sales specialists to fill 43,000 square feet of function space at the new InterContinental San Francisco.

The 550-room property—located on the same block as Moscone West convention center—opened February 28. Bello was brought over from the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel to serve as director of group sales. “I started in January of 2007, the second employee hired for the project. I’ve seen it grow from parking lot to running hotel,” says Bello. He provides a candid glimpse into forming a sales team and his approach to group sales.

“I started at the Renaissance in Washington, D.C., out of college. It’s a great training program. For a year, you work in every department. You had to book and cook—develop accounts up through contract negotiations, then switch over and service it all the way through. I call it the Gemini approach. When I’m hiring, I look for someone with the same experience in selling and servicing because it’s necessary to know how tough it is to service a group.” Bello extended his sales experience at the Washington and Capitol Hiltons before stints at the Hilton San Francisco and the InterContinental Mark Hopkins.

“Every hotel is different. Some divide their sales geographically. We’re market specific,” says Bello of the new sales team. In addition to two salespeople who handle individual business travel and three for cateringonly sales, Bello’s five group sales managers each specialize in a particular market. The balance of business is important.

“The dot-com bust was a big hit for a lot of properties. It was a lot of high-rate businesses that shoved out the more reliable, less glamorous notfor- profits. All the bread was in one basket. After the crash, suddenly there were no bookings. I was at the Washington Hilton—1,900 guestrooms, big property—we took a hit,” Bello says.

It was a learning experience that informs his sales strategy today. “We want to balance our sales,” explains Bello, “so if something happens to a particular market, we have our bases covered. We’d like the hotel mix to be 60/40, group and transient—we’re at 70/30 right now.” Of that 70 percent, 30 to 40 percent is corporate and pharmaceutical; associations make up 20 percent; incentive business is 8 to 10 percent; and 2 to 5 percent is tour and leisure.

“The nice thing about opening is getting to build your own team. We targeted the best in specific areas.” Wendy Coale was one of the first. She handles associations. “She worked with Gerber in D.C. at Omni. She was in global sales with a lot of relationships in the Bay area. The idea is for her to eventually become director of group sales, and it’s important to have a senior person booking associations since they plan so far ahead.”

Relationships are a constant in Bello’s approach. “I worked with Patricia Gueterres at the Mark Hopkins. She did pharmaceutical and biotech there, and we just shifted her over here. Next we wanted someone in the corporate high-tech sector. I did that at Mark Hopkins, and I knew they needed to know the players here, so we interviewed and found James Gregg. He was with a Doubletree here and before that a San Jose conference center, so he was experienced with bundling catering and rooms. His main focus is corporate high-tech, but he also does legal and retail.” Jeanette Perez rounds out the team, covering small meetings, anything between 10 and 50 rooms on peak nights (except for pharmaceutical and incentive). “I focus on financial consulting and incentive,” Bello says. “Gail and I split citywide business coming from the convention center.”

INCENTIVE MARKET
This was a market with some challenges after 9/11. Corporations stopped putting as much money into rewarding employees. “We’re seeing a lot more incentives from Canada; the exchange rate is certainly helping. Otherwise, it’s very specific to the Midwest. It’s necessary to get out there and meet the companies that plan these trips for corporations. Incentive Travel and Meeting Executives (IT&ME) is the big incentive travel tradeshow. It’s at the end of September every year in Chicago and brings together these companies with hotels looking to host. You build relationships and carry them with you from one company to the next.

“Selling incentive business is all about distinguishing your hotel from the average experience. First is always location. Companies traditionally look at resort destinations. Before 9/11, cruises were the big destinations— we’re not a resort or a cruise. But San Francisco is definitely a plus with lots to do in the city and within a 45-minute drive. After that, it’s matching their needs to San Francisco. We’re a brand new hotel, and I consider us an urban resort. The spa is a big amenity and selling point, as are the health club, pool, and destination restaurant Luce. The name restaurant helps.” The hotel calls Luce a “celebrity wine restaurant” with Chef Dominique Crenn and a close partnership with Mondavi wines. “If employees know they’re winning a trip to San Francisco and staying at the new InterContinental, it gets their mouths watering.

“For the welcome reception, a taste of San Francisco works well, offering local flavor.” They’ll also plan some outside dinners, then close with the gala dinner. “It goes from meat and potatoes on up, depending on where they’re from. If it’s a group of high achievers and they want something upscale, we’ll do wine pairing with the sommelier involved.”

A typical group is looking for what’s available in-house. Incentive wants other todos— Napa for a couple days, a cruise, a wine tour. “Some just want a beach, and we’re not that. But groups that just did the beach want something else. They’re here to be rewarded, so they’re relaxed. They worked hard, met a goal, and they’re here to have fun—but they still want to be treated like VIPs.”

PHARMACEUTICAL SALES
“It’s a very specific niche. They need really fast turnaround. They send the RFP, and the meeting could be in 30 days or less. Patricia’s job is to get back to them immediately. They might be waiting for FDA approval, then launch the product immediately and train everyone. It’s a very short-term window.

“They’re on the high-end with food. They pamper the doctors and take good care of them.” U.S. Government regulations don’t allow five-star junkets, so four-star is where they’re going. “It’s not required in the contract wording, but they frown on the word ‘resort’ in order to limit the amount of pampering. For a product launch, we have to make it fun and get them energized. Energy is the most important thing for them. But if my research shows their annual meeting is on the heels of poor performance, I’m not going to try and sell them a high-energy event. They’re not celebrating.”

THE WINNING TOUCH
“When we get a major account like Interstate Batteries with 1,500 employees from around the world coming in, we have the whole executive team greet them. For Interstate, we had their products in the guestrooms so they’d know we knew their product. Additionally, we used a big battery of theirs in the dining room and special food amenities with their logo on the crème brûlée or piece of cake. We show them this is going to be their home for the meeting, and we want the business. They’re going to be VIPs. It gets them excited.

“Every hotel has beds and rooms and meeting space. Some put more money into it, but we all have the same essential product. Fifty percent is the product we have to offer, but the other fifty percent is relationships. I’ve seen my exposure grow through professional organizations and events, continuing those relationships throughout my career. I want to know your Rolodex. What new clients can we expose to the hotel? Relationships make the difference.”

John Paul Boukis is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.