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Bob Koboksy 

Name: Bob Kobosky

 

  Title and Company: Global Account Director/Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. 
  Education: BS Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston

  Work Experience: N/A

 

  What I do: My primary responsibility is to represent the Starwood portfolio of 750+ hotels and resorts around the globe to key association and corporate accounts in the Chicago and Milwaukee markets. The goal is to educate and assist meeting professionals on how Starwood can be of service for their meeting and convention needs. I help uncover the needs of the organization and assist them in finding an appropriate "home" at one of our hotels. As part
  of this process, I assist with site selection, contract negotiation and, most recently, attendee registration campaigns
  and the design of meeting specific websites for my customers.

 

How I Got Here:  I have been involved in the travel industry for over 20 years, starting in a retail travel agency. From there I attended the University of Houston's Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, where I earned my Bachelor of Science degree.Following graduation I joined Hyatt Hotels Corporation and entered its Management Training Program. After completing that program, I worked in several different hotels in various sales capacities in the convention and individual business travel market segments. I also served as Director of Sales & Marketing in two hotels where I had the responsibility of managing the sales team as well as directing all of the marketing aspects of the meeting, catering and retail food & beverage operations. In 1997 I joined Westin Hotels & Resorts national sales office in Chicago working with key Association and Corporate accounts. In 1998, Westin and ITT Sheraton merged to become Starwood Hotels & Resorts. 
 

Skills Needed: The ability to listen carefully. It is so easy to want to offer suggestions or solutions to a customer. The real skill is to be able to listen carefully and ask questions to gain a complete understanding of what a customer is looking for. That is the key difference between a sales person and a sales professional. 

 
Where do I go from here? To understand how to develop a strong marketing campaign/program, one has to understand the audience and what he/she is looking for. Sales and Marketing go hand in hand. It is important for folks in Marketing to hear from salespeople as far as what customers are saying so that products and services can be positioned correctly. 
 
Advice: Hotels Sales & Marketing is not an easy career choice. You really have to pay your dues. I feel that the best sales professionals have had some type of operational experience (working in a hotel banquet department or in convention services). They understand what does work and what doesn't work and can share that with their customers. 
 

Biggest Misconception:  Living out of a suitcase isn't as fun as it may appear! Seriously, we have great hotels but sometimes you just long to be on your own sofa. While it may sound fun to be heading to New York on sales calls, it can be exhausting. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

 
To enjoy and to succeed in this position you need to:  Have fun and laugh! Sales is a high pressure position--no matter what the industry. The most important thing is you have to be able to keep things in perspective and have fun while you are doing it and then you will see that it become contagious and your clients will have fun as well.
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