How to Build a Successful Hospitality Sales Function
I Spent 11 Years Building a Sales Function. Here’s What I’d Tell Myself on Day One.
When I joined The Alchemist, there wasn’t a ready-made sales function waiting for me. There wasn’t a blueprint, a playbook or a team of people with years of hospitality sales experience to lean on.
What followed was 11 years of building, refining and scaling a sales function that eventually supported 25 venues across the UK and Berlin, generated more than £25 million in annual pre-booked revenue and became a core part of how the business operated.
Looking back, there are plenty of things I would do differently. Some lessons came from successes. Others came from mistakes. But the biggest lessons weren’t about sales techniques or revenue targets. They were about people, culture and leadership.
If I were starting again tomorrow, here’s what I’d want to know on day one.
Build The Culture Before The Process
One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make is assuming that sales is a process problem. The reality is that most sales problems are culture problems first.
You can create the best enquiry journey, the most detailed CRM system and the clearest KPIs in the world, but if the people in the business don’t believe sales is part of their role, none of it sticks.
Early in my career, I spent too much time focusing on processes and not enough time helping people understand why those processes mattered. Today, I’d start differently; I’d spend more time creating buy-in. I’d help people understand how sales supports the guest experience rather than competes with it. I’d focus on building belief before building systems.
Because when people understand the purpose, the process becomes much easier to implement.
Sales Is Still A Dirty Word In Hospitality
One thing that surprised me throughout my career was how much resistance sales can create within hospitality businesses.
Mention the word “sales”, and many people immediately think of pressure, targets or pushy behaviour. That’s understandable, because hospitality professionals care deeply about guest experience and often worry that sales will undermine it.
What I discovered is that the most successful hospitality businesses don’t separate sales from hospitality. They see them as the same thing.
Helping a guest plan the perfect celebration. Following up on an enquiry. Recommending an experience that genuinely improves someone’s visit. These are all sales activities, but they are also examples of great hospitality. Once teams understand that, everything changes.
Leadership Matters More Than Technique
Over the years, I’ve invested time in training, coaching and developing teams, and what became clear very quickly is that training alone rarely changes behaviour.
People don’t consistently adopt new habits because they attended a workshop. They adopt new habits because the people around them reinforce those behaviours every day.
That’s why General Managers are so important.
You cannot build a sales culture without operational leaders who support it. If the GM sees sales as someone else’s responsibility, the rest of the team usually follows. If they embrace it, commercial thinking starts becoming part of everyday decision-making. Read more in my blog about GMs here.
Some of the best-performing venues I worked with didn’t necessarily have the most experienced sales teams. They had leaders who created an environment where commercial awareness was encouraged and rewarded.
Keep It Simpler Than You Think
Looking back, I definitely overcomplicated things at times. Like many people building something from scratch, I wanted the perfect process, the perfect reporting, the perfect structure.
The problem is that hospitality moves quickly. Teams are busy. Complexity creates friction.
Some of the most effective changes we made over the years were actually the simplest.
Clear ownership.
Consistent follow-up.
Simple reporting.
A small number of meaningful KPIs.
The businesses that perform best are rarely the ones doing the most. They’re usually the ones doing the fundamentals consistently well.
Hire For Attitude, Teach The Skills
One of the achievements I’m most proud of isn’t a revenue figure, it’s the people. Over the years, I’ve seen junior team members develop into managers, managers become leaders and individuals who never saw themselves as commercial people become incredibly successful sales professionals.
What those people had in common wasn’t necessarily experience. It was attitude. They were curious, they cared about the guest experience, they wanted to learn and they took ownership of their role within the business. Those qualities consistently mattered more than previous sales experience.
Sales skills, product knowledge and systems can all be taught. Attitude is much harder to teach, which is why it’s something I’ve always looked for first when building a team. If I were starting again tomorrow, I’d spend less time worrying about technical capability and more time identifying people with the right mindset and potential.
Don’t Wait For The Perfect Moment
Another lesson I’d give myself on day one is not to wait for the perfect moment to make improvements.
Many hospitality businesses delay commercial improvements because they’re waiting for everything to line up. The new system hasn’t arrived yet, the team is busy, a restructure is coming or next quarter feels like a better time. The reality is that hospitality is never quiet and there will always be another reason to postpone action.
The businesses that make the most progress are usually the ones willing to start before everything is perfect. They introduce structure, measure what they can, learn from what’s working and refine things over time. Progress rarely comes from having the perfect plan. It comes from taking action and building momentum.
What I Wish More Hospitality Operators Understood
If there’s one thing I wish more hospitality operators understood, it’s that sales isn’t a department, it’s a culture. Too often, commercial performance is viewed as the responsibility of one individual or one team, when in reality it touches almost every part of the guest journey.
Sales shows up in:
The conversations teams have with guests
The way enquiries are handled
The confidence people have in recommending experiences
The habits that become part of everyday operations
The strongest hospitality businesses don’t rely solely on walk-ins, seasonal peaks or good fortune. They create systems, behaviours and expectations that make revenue more predictable and sustainable. Most importantly, they recognise that commercial success belongs to the whole business, not just the sales team.
Looking Back
Eleven years later, I’m incredibly proud of what we built. Not just because of the £25 million in annual revenue or the growth from five venues to twenty-five, but because we created a culture that scaled alongside the business. Sales wasn’t viewed as a separate function, it became part of how the business operated and part of how great hospitality was delivered.
If I were starting again tomorrow, I’d spend less time searching for the perfect process and more time building belief, trust and buy-in. Systems matter, but they only work when people understand them, support them and believe in what you’re trying to achieve.
Sales infrastructure doesn’t happen by accident. Someone has to build it deliberately and, in my experience, it always starts with people.
Let’s Talk
If you’re building a hospitality business and want to create a stronger sales culture, I’d love to hear more about your team, your goals and where you’d like the business to go next.
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.
