
Internships and work experience are a proven method of getting your foot in the door. With this mentality and the attitude of “its show time”, I got the opportunity to intern at the Roseate House for my live project.
With heightened excitement and curiosity to learn, I went for the field work on my first day at Roseate House. I was asked to do sales blitz for Global Business Park, a process of an intensive survey of a given geographical area to determine its market potential. In the evening, I met the sales team comprising of 12 members. I had the opportunity to learn from 4 mentors who added value to my learning every day.
I went for a show round on the second day and got to know all the tiny details about the hotel. I learned about the types of contracting and the essence of business on books or BOB. By preparing excel sheets for various things like saya dates, city events and top hospitals, I understood the process of identifying target market and preparing well to present a sales pitch.
I was handed over my main project of conducting an in-depth marketing research of 13 hotels in Aerocity and in the vicinity and their SWOT analysis too. I adopted the mystery shopping technique or shop call, a term used in hospitality industry. I pretended to host an engagement function for my brother and thus was able to achieve my goal. At first, I was a little intimidated as my mentor warned me that sales executives are good at identifying hoax enquiries and can ask you to leave, but with a little dose of self-motivation, I stepped inside the first hotel- Pride Plaza. After about an hour of meeting, with positive result and a boost of self-confidence, I moved forward with the next competitor JW Marriott and so on.
While doing my project, I was constantly taught new things and processes to grab as much knowledge as I can in a short span of 15 days. I learned an interesting process of acquiring new corporate clients. The whole process involves 6 calls ranging from cold call, which is the first interaction where you don’t know is who in the company and try to fetch details. Then, we make an introductory call where you take an appointment from the concerned person whose details you fetched and introduce your product and understand their company. Prospect call is when you get a lead from the company. It is followed by a negotiation call to finalize the deal, then, and feedback call and lastly service recovery call.
I have been called out by various names like new person, new kid and even humari ladki, but the fact that I was told by my mentors to say NO to any person who asks me to do a mainstream trainee job was very nice and thoughtful. I also got the chance to accompany my mentor at the lobby for a guest show round to observe how the guests behave and how a sales deal gets closed.
Out of all the learnings that I have received here, 2 things have engraved in my heart- if you can’t convince a client then confuse them and the importance of writing a thank you mail/note. There was not a single dull moment in the sales department. There was humour, laughter, and productivity together. One of the best part about Roseate House is the fact that all the employees from a car washer,
to a chef, to a general manager ate the same food at the same mess. It gave a huge sense of team spirit and togetherness. Another best part was the presence of a nukkad chaiwala thela in the basement. Taking tea breaks has never been so convenient and fun.
The fact that my mentors asked me to extend my project duration gave me a zenith amount of satisfaction, confidence, and happiness. Glancing at the #NEVERLEAVE on the wall, I took a bow and said my goodbyes on the last day. Whatever we have learned at LCBS has been fruitful since I was able to relate all the theories in practice and it has helped me immensely to achieve the objective of live