Stephanie Linnartz
Marriott International in June promoted Stephanie Linnartz to senior vice president of global sales, replacing David Marriott who was named regional vice president for market management in the Eastern region overseeing hotel operations in key markets like New York City. Linnartz in 2007 helped the company launch Sales Force One, a program dedicated to increasing revenue from corporate, association and group sales. She now is tasked with providing strategic leadership for global and property sales, reservations and customer care offices. Linnartz recently spoke with The Transnationalabout the latest corporate sales efforts, negotiating trends, Marriott's global portfolio and brand competition. An excerpt follows.
How does Sales Force One relate to corporate accounts?
Our overarching idea around Sales Force One is to make it easier to do business with Marriott. In an effort to do that, last year we organized our global sales team--the folks who focus on our larger clients--and began redeploying folks in the market to be much more customer-centric. In the past, we used to have our salespeople deployed in individual hotels; now, we are organizing our sales force around the customers. It is not necessarily where there is a Marriott hotel where we put a salesperson, it's where there is a customer. Those salespeople act as primary sources of contact for that customer and will sell all revenue streams. So for corporate clients, they have one primary person they can work with that will help them with all of their needs across all of our hotels. I liken it to one-stop shopping, and it is very different than the way we deployed in the past. During these tougher times, it's all about strengthening those relationships.
What are some of the other major initiatives Marriott is rolling out to help retain corporate accounts?
Sales Force One is the biggie, but there are a lot of other things that we are doing to win customers across all different industry types and all different sizes. We just launched QuickGroup on marriott.com. QuickGroup allows our customers to shop for group [reservations]. If they want to book a group from anywhere, from 10 to 25 room nights, they can shop online at marriott.com, which they couldn't do before. They can check availability across 2,700 hotels, can get pricing online--the price that they get is the same as if they picked up the phone and called the hotel. They get a simple standard contract online, and they don't need to worry about negotiating. They can request meeting space and catering rooms, and then at the end of it, they get an email confirmation. We also just launched an enhanced business Web site on marriott.com, and we have all sorts of tools for meeting planners so they can do customized Web pages, etc. The idea is that it is not just about direct salespeople and bodies, but it is also about being creative with e-commerce and marketing solutions for our customers, too.
What are you telling clients they should expect for 2009 negotiations?
With regard to 2009 pricing, it's probably still a bit too early to tell exactly where the various markets will be. Regardless, we are making sure our customers are assured that we are going to offer competitive rates and that those rates are going to be backed up with a great product and great service quality. We are not cutting back at all on our product or our service or anything like that as a result of the economy, so our rates will be competitive. It is important to point out that in terms of pricing it really varies by market and by account; that's where the pricing takes place.
Do you think travel managers are more hopeful this year as opposed to previous years?
That's a tough one. I honestly don't know if they are more or less hopeful. But what we keep stressing is the long-term nature of our relationships. We want to be with them when times are good--when we maybe have a bit more leverage--and we also want to stick together and work with them when times are tough. The big accounts particularly are looking at our relationship from a longer-term perspective. When they know the economy is a little tougher in terms of negotiating rates, we think about negotiating more holistically. We are all thinking about it as we are going to be working together for many years to come. The economy is tough right now, but it will get better and then worse again; that's just how the cycle goes.
How does Marriott plan to compete with the new brands in the market from its direct competitors?
There is so much to reinvent in regard to our brands, and services across all of our brands. We just had a grand reopening for our Marriott Marquis [in New York]. The owners there spent $138 million renovating that hotel, and it is absolutely fantastic. We just completed a $100 million renovation and grand reopening of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. The owners and franchisees that we work with on the Renaissance brand have invested during the past several years over $2 billion in the hotels. In our select service brands, we are completely reinventing our Courtyard brand. It's really a comprehensive redesign of the product and the service, and the centerpiece is the lobby space that is just a whole new way to socialize, work and relax all in one area. We are doing so much across all of our brands in partnership with our owners and franchisees on the product and service front that I think we are very well positioned to be competitive with brands like [Starwood's] aloft. In terms of new brands, what we are doing with Nickelodeon and Edition is pretty exciting. [Edition is] our partnership with Ian Schrager. I think Nickelodeon will be a fantastic product not only for families with young children, but also for group customers who want to do something a little more neat and interesting. Nickelodeon is slightly delayed; we were supposed to break ground in 2008, but it looks like we won't break ground until early 2010. The hotel is still happening.