Newsmaker: Hotel Newcomer Leads Carlson Sales

Carlson Hotels Worldwide last week named Larry Winston vice president of sales. In this role, Winston, who is new to the hotel industry, will be responsible for developing relationships with corporate accounts, as well as other intermediaries on behalf of Carlson's five brands.

Previously, Winston had been director of enterprise and interdivisional sales in the corporate sales and marketing division of International Paper Co. While hospitality veterans were considered for the job, an outsider brings a fresh perspective at a time when the lodging industry is undergoing rapid change, according to Brian Stage, executive vice president of sales, distribution and reservation services, to whom Winston reports.

"Looking outside the industry was an acknowledgement of how quickly the hotel business is changing, particularly in relation to the channels of distribution and the intermediaries we want to develop," Stage said. "Having someone in place who isn't necessarily fixed in how the industry operates potentially could help us break some new ground in our thinking."

Specifically, Stage mentioned Winston's experience in the paper business, moving beyond the sale of commodity products.

"All customers face similar issues," Winston said. " 'What products or services can you offer to help me solve my problems?' At IP, instead of focusing on the products manufactured, we started focusing on the services we offered." In the context of the hotel business, this means going beyond the tangible selling of hotel rooms to focus on the information Carlson can provide to its corporate accounts.

"In particular, it's about the systems and processes we can set up in support of travel management programs," Stage said, "which is a lot of the reason travel managers take Carlson's calls in the first place."

In a few months, Winston will find himself in the midst of negotiations for 2004 rates. "Our expectations for 2004 are that it will look slightly better for suppliers than we think 2003 is going to end up" Stage said.

The focus in negotiations on marketshare, seen in 2003, is likely to continue. "There's been such a change in average rates that it's revenues that we have to keep track of now more than room night delivery. With marketshare comes revenue," Stage said.

As a result, "companies will continue to want to put as much rigor around their policies as possible to be able to save as much money as possible," Stage said. The stronger a policy's mandates, the better the travel buyer's bargaining position. "The purpose of negotiating discounted preferred rates is so we can drive share. The extent to which accounts are able to deliver what's been negotiated makes us more willing to negotiate further."