Why Hotel Sales Teams Fail (And Why It's Almost Never About Talent)
Insights from Amy Infante, CEO of GitGo Group, on Industry Chats by Affixify
Every Wednesday at noon Central, Affixify founder Jasmine Seliga sits down with a hospitality industry expert for Industry Chats, a no-pitch, no-paid-placement conversation built around one goal: real education for hotels, vendors, and consultants.
Episode 49 brought in someone Affixify calls a friend as much as a guest: Amy Infante, CEO of GitGo Group and a growth advisor with GAIN Advisors.
The conversation centered on a question that comes up constantly in hospitality leadership circles: why do hotel sales efforts stall out, even with talented people in the seats? Amy's answer, refined over years of working with brands, management companies, and individual properties, is consistent: it's rarely a talent problem. It's a systems problem.
The Real Diagnosis: Missing Infrastructure, Not Missing Skill
When Amy walks into a struggling sales organization, whether it's a near-billion-dollar brand program or a single property, the pattern repeats. Companies invest heavily in headcount: hiring a salesperson or building a sales team. What they consistently underinvest in is the technology, resources, and systems that let that team actually execute.
"Rainmakers do not exist," Amy said bluntly, pushing back on a phrase she used to lean on herself early in her career. Strategic relationships absolutely matter, but salespeople can't build them consistently if they don't have the systems to support that consistency. Without structure, even the right activity (LinkedIn engagement, prospecting, relationship-building) turns into sporadic, random effort instead of a sustainable motion.
Pipeline Isn't Always the Problem, Conversion Is
One of the more counterintuitive points Amy raised: most clients come to GitGo certain they have a pipeline problem. More often, they have a conversion problem. Leads are coming in but the real gap is in the tools, training, and assets the team has to turn opportunities into booked business.
She also named a dynamic many leaders underestimate: patience. Booked revenue today is the result of decisions made 90 days ago and sometimes six months ago. Sales isn't a light switch. Organizations that treat it as one end up chasing short-term band-aids, what Amy calls "nickel bets", instead of fixing the root cause. The fix requires a real discovery phase, even when leadership wants to skip straight to results.
Activity vs. Revenue-Producing Behavior
A particularly useful distinction Amy offered: not all "activity" is equal. Calls, meetings, and check-the-box tasks can be tracked, but they don't necessarily move the needle. What does move the needle is the quality of engagement with sellers who understand their prospect before they ever pick up the phone, and who ask the right questions once they're on it.
She's also a strong advocate for property-level leaders tracking LinkedIn and social engagement as a real metric for sellers which is something many organizations resist out of fear that sales reps will build a personal brand instead of promoting the property. Amy's counter: customers are buying differently now, and meeting them where they are, including on video and social media, is part of the job, not a distraction from it.
Where Technology Fits, And Where It Doesn't
When asked how tech factors into her advisory work, Amy was clear: she doesn't walk into an engagement planning to rip out and replace a client's stack. The process starts with discovery by understanding what systems and processes already exist, and only then identifying gaps. In one recent engagement, the missing piece was simple but critical: multiple divisions of a large organization weren't operating on the same CRM.
Her broader philosophy: technology should reduce risk and increase efficiency, not add complexity for its own sake. As she put it, "money is fuel" which means it is worth spending when it drives a real return, but not worth chasing just because a tool is new or popular. With so many options available, decision paralysis is a real risk, and part of her job is simply helping leaders get unstuck and make a confident call.
The Bigger Takeaway
Across the conversation, one theme held steady: sales teams don't fail because the people in them lack skill. They fail because no one built the systems, training, metrics, and warm-up strategy needed to support that talent. As Amy put it, nothing deflates a sales team faster than being sent to "hit the phones" cold, without any nurture or warm-up in place first.
Want to connect with Amy Infante or learn more about GitGo’s advisory services? She's listed under Affixify's Consultants, Agents & Advisors category so check out https://affixify.net/ to start your search today! You can also watch Amy’s Episode on the Affixify YouTube channel.