Aligning the commercial team: RM, sales and marketing pulling one way

Wednesday morning, a revenue meeting at Hotel Peaqplus City. Barely has everyone sat down before the table is pulling in three directions. Francis, the sales manager, has brought a 40-person corporate group for the conference weekend in March, at 78 EUR: “Ready to sign, all it needs is a nod.” Esther, the marketing manager, would put most of the monthly campaign budget on that same weekend, because the city’s spring festival falls then: “This is where the money should go, this is the big play.” Daniel, the revenue manager, sits quietly, then speaks up: “That weekend is already at 50%, three weeks earlier than last year. It needs neither a group nor a campaign — it fills on its own. What we’re not talking about is the Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week, which are lagging.”

Three smart people, three good intentions, three opposing directions. Sales wants volume, because the contract is tangible. Marketing wants to spend budget, because the festival is eye-catching. The RM defends the ADR (average rate), because they read the pace (how far ahead bookings are running). And left alone, all three put their resource in the worst possible place: the weekend that would fill on its own anyway.

This is where the GM steps in. Not to dispense justice, but to turn all three one way, as a conductor. This lesson is about the GM’s most important data-driven job: how to align the RM, sales and marketing around a single, shared pace mindset — so they pull together, not against each other.

Why the three functions pull apart

The pulling apart isn’t ill will, it’s a built-in difference of viewpoint. Each function is measured on something different, so each sees something different as important:

• Sales succeeds on committed volume. A signed group is certain, tangible, praiseworthy — while the displaced individual guest is invisible, because they haven’t booked yet (the classic blind spot of opportunity cost).
• Marketing often succeeds on “visible” activity: a campaign, reach, a booking count. The big event is attractive because it’s easy to put a campaign there — regardless of whether it’s needed there at all.
• The RM succeeds on RevPAR and ADR. From the pace they see what fills on its own and what lags — but often they have no authority to stop the other two functions.

Leave these three viewpoints to themselves and each is locally rational, but together they undercut each other: sales takes the strong date’s capacity cheap, marketing spends the budget on a day that fills on its own, and the RM explains after the fact why the ADR came up short. The GM’s job is to make sure there’s a shared truth all three align to — and that truth is the pace.

Pace as a shared language

Pace is the only metric all three functions can read the same way, and the one that tells all of them where they’re needed. It takes no pricing expertise, just one shared question for every date: “Is this day running ahead of or behind where it was this time last year, and the budget?”

• Where a date is running ahead (high OTB — on the books, the bookings already committed), it needs neither a cheap group nor a campaign. There the RM can price up, and sales should only let a group in at a higher rate.
• Where a date is lagging, that’s where sales has work to do (a group that fills) and marketing too (budget that brings demand). There, volume and a campaign are worth something, not a loss.

With this shared pace map the GM becomes a conductor: not saying “no”, but saying “not here, but there”. The same group, the same campaign budget, redirected elsewhere, becomes the house’s gain instead of its loss.

Worked example: the same resource, two dates

Let’s look at Hotel Peaqplus City’s March pace map, three weeks out. 80 rooms.

Now let’s put the decisions in their place.

The group on the weekend (Francis’s plan). The Saturday’s expected sell-out ADR is 118 EUR. The 40-person group would pay 78 EUR. What we displace on every group room: 118 − 78 = 40 EUR. Across forty rooms:

40 EUR × 40 rooms = 1,600 EUR of displaced revenue per night

If the group asks for two nights, that’s 3,200 EUR we’d be taking out of the house — on a weekend that’s already running well ahead of last year’s pace, so it would fill even without the group. Here the group doesn’t bring, it takes.

The same group on the lagging Tuesday. On Tuesday 47 rooms stand empty, the pace is below last year, and without transient (individual) demand those rooms mean lost revenue — an empty room today is lost forever. Here the 40-person group at 78 EUR is pure gain: it fills rooms that would otherwise stay empty. The same contract, the same rate — a 3,200 EUR loss on the weekend, several thousand euros of gain on Tuesday. The only difference is the date.

The campaign budget. Esther’s original plan put the money on the weekend — on what fills on its own, so every euro spent is wasted. Moved to the lagging Tuesday and Wednesday, the same budget brings real demand where there’s a shortfall. The marketing principle: the budget doesn’t go to the month, it goes to the dates that are short.

So with a single pace map the GM turned all three functions around: sales’s group became a gain, marketing’s budget became effective, and the RM’s defended ADR held on the weekend. No one “lost” — because they decided along the pace, not against each other.

The revenue meeting as the conductor’s baton

This kind of alignment doesn’t happen in the hallway, it happens in the revenue meeting — if the GM runs it as a decision forum, not an info exchange (that was the subject of lesson 13). The Peaqplus Revenue Meeting module supports exactly this: it brings the pace, the pickup (newly picked-up bookings) and the lagging dates onto one table, so that sales, marketing and the RM see the same picture. The GM’s job is to ask for the number on every proposal — “how much and what does it bring, and on which date?” — and to tie the decision to the shared pace map. The module gives the shared truth; the GM makes the conductor’s call. The operational side of sales–RM–marketing collaboration, from the revenue manager’s chair, is shown in the RM Academy’s Marketing and RM in concert and Discussion Thread — teamwork lessons.

Back to the table

Adam doesn’t call a vote or dispense justice. He turns the map toward the three of them: “The weekend is already there on its own — no group, no campaign, there we raise instead. Francis, take your group to the Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week, there it fills empty rooms, and there I’ll back the decision to the partner too. Esther, the budget also goes where there’s a shortfall, not to the festival. Daniel, on the weekend you price up.”

In three minutes the three opposing directions became one direction. Francis kept his group — just on a better date. Esther kept her campaign — just in an effective place. Daniel defended the ADR. And instead of displacing and wasting 3,200 EUR on a weekend that fills on its own, the house filled its weak days with the same resource. This is the GM as conductor: not louder than the orchestra, but turning it one way.

One thing makes this possible at all: that all three saw the same pace map. There’s no conductor’s decision without a shared score — without a shared, real-time view, the three functions argue from gut feeling, and the loudest wins. The shared system isn’t control imposed over the RM, but the lens that finally lets sales, marketing and the RM be one team.

Key takeaways

• The three functions pull apart by design: sales defends volume, marketing a budget to spend, the RM the ADR — each locally rational, together they undercut each other.
• Pace is the shared language. One question for every date: is it running ahead of or behind last year and the budget? That tells you where sales and marketing are needed.
• The GM doesn’t say no, but gives direction: “not here, but there”. The same group and budget is a loss on a day that fills on its own, a gain on a lagging day — the only difference is the date.
• In the worked example, the weekend group would have displaced 3,200 EUR; moved to the lagging Tuesday, the same contract is pure gain.
• The Peaqplus Revenue Meeting module brings the pace and the lagging dates onto one table, so the three functions see the same picture — but the conductor’s call is the GM’s.