Why Your General Manager Is Your Most Underused Salesperson
When hospitality businesses want to increase revenue, the conversation usually centres around marketing, sales teams, booking platforms or new technology.
Rarely does anyone look at the general manager.
Yet in many venues, the general manager is the person with the greatest influence over both the guest experience and commercial performance. They understand the team, know the guests, have visibility of the bookings diary and are present for the moments that drive revenue every single day.
The problem is that sales is often viewed as someone else’s responsibility, and the opportunity cost of that mindset can be huge.
Sales Isn’t Just The Sales Team’s Job
One of the biggest misconceptions in hospitality is that sales belong to the sales team.
The reality is that sales happen throughout the business every day, whether you’re actively managing it or not. It happens when a guest enquires about a private dining space, when a team member recommends an upgrade, when a regular guest mentions an upcoming celebration, or when someone leaves having had such a great experience that they immediately decide to book again.
The best-performing hospitality businesses understand that sales is not simply a department. It’s a culture. It’s a collection of behaviours, habits and conversations that happen across the entire venue.
General managers play a critical role in creating that culture. If they see commercial performance as part of their responsibility, the rest of the team usually follows. If they don’t, sales often becomes reactive, inconsistent and dependent on luck.
Why Most General Managers Never Get The Chance To Think Commercially
The reality is that most general managers are busy dealing with operational priorities. They’re managing rotas, handling guest complaints, supporting team members, solving problems and keeping standards high. Hospitality moves quickly, and it’s easy for the day to disappear before there’s any time left to think strategically.
The issue isn’t capability. It’s a lack of structure and focus.
Many general managers have never been shown how commercial thinking fits into their role, or maybe they have but their day-to-day jobs mean they just don’t have time for it. Others are expected to influence revenue without being given the tools, training or support to do so effectively.
As a result, opportunities are missed. Enquiries are processed rather than converted. The bookings diary becomes an administrative task rather than a commercial tool. Revenue is reviewed after the event rather than actively influenced before it happens.
Over time, businesses become operationally strong but commercially inconsistent.
What Great Commercial General Managers Do Differently
Throughout my career, I’ve worked with General Managers across sites ranging from £1.5 million to £5 million turnover. The strongest performers all had one thing in common, they understood that hospitality and sales are not separate disciplines.
One of the best general managers I worked with, let’s call him Tom, never viewed the bookings diary as admin. He viewed it as an opportunity.
Before every service, he knew who was coming in, whether they were celebrating something special, whether they were a returning guest and where there might be opportunities to create memorable experiences. If there was a large birthday booking, the team knew about it. If a regular guest hadn’t visited for a while, he would make a point of welcoming them personally. If there was a quieter week ahead, he would already be thinking about what could be done to drive bookings rather than simply accepting it would be slow.
None of this felt like sales.
It felt like great hospitality.
But commercially, the impact was significant. Guests returned more often, spent more when they visited and recommended the venue to friends and colleagues. The venue built stronger relationships and created more opportunities for future revenue.
The best general managers I worked with often knew guests by name and remembered important occasions. That’s not just hospitality instinct. It’s commercial instinct dressed up as warmth.
Small Changes That Can Make A Big Difference
The good news is that general managers don’t need to become salespeople overnight.
In fact, some of the most effective changes are surprisingly simple.
Reading the bookings diary before service rather than during it can completely change how a team approaches a shift. Introducing one commercial focus into every pre-service briefing helps keep revenue front of mind without turning the meeting into a sales session. Encouraging managers to spot opportunities instead of simply reacting to problems can gradually shift behaviours across an entire team.
Another often-overlooked improvement is building a stronger relationship between operations and whoever owns sales within the business. When those two functions work together, opportunities are far less likely to fall through the cracks.
Individually, these changes seem small. Over time, however, they create stronger habits, better awareness and a more commercially focused culture.
The Mistake Many Hospitality Operators Make
When it comes to sales accountability, operators often fall into one of two camps.
Some don’t involve general managers in sales at all. Others expect them to deliver commercial results without providing any training, support or clear expectations.
Neither approach works.
The most successful businesses find a balance. They recognise that general managers have a huge influence on revenue, but they also understand that influence needs to be developed. They provide coaching, create accountability and help operational leaders understand how their role contributes to commercial success.
Most importantly, they make sales feel like part of hospitality rather than something separate from it.
Your Biggest Revenue Opportunity Might Already Be In The Building
Many hospitality businesses don’t have a sales problem.
They have a structure problem.
The opportunities are already there. The guests are already walking through the door. The challenge is creating the habits, accountability and commercial focus that help teams make the most of those opportunities.
When general managers understand their role in driving revenue, sales stops being something that happens by chance. It becomes part of how the business operates every day, creating stronger guest relationships, more consistent bookings and better commercial performance as a result.
Let’s Talk
If any of this sounds familiar, or you’d like to explore how sales could work harder for your business, I’d love to hear more about your venue, your team and your goals.
About Naomi Dallas
Naomi Dallas is a hospitality sales consultant with over 11 years’ experience building and leading sales functions within high-growth hospitality businesses.
As former Sales Director at The Alchemist, Naomi helped scale the business from 5 venues to 25 across the UK and Berlin, managing over £25m in pre-booked revenue and building the commercial structures that supported that growth.
Today, she works with ambitious hospitality businesses to create stronger sales cultures, more consistent revenue and commercially focused teams. Read more.
