Hyatt Harnesses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Build Valuable Relationships

Hyatt’s purpose is to care for people so they can be their best. Their sales strategy reflects this mantra, guided by a strong focus on building long-term relationships. Embracing innovation, Hyatt harnessed the capabilities of LinkedIn Sales Navigator to enhance their sales operations. The implementation of this tool saw widespread adoption by the Hyatt sales force, leading to the establishment of valuable connections and engaging dialogues.  

“Given the utility we've gotten out of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it's really hard for me to imagine a world where that tool doesn't exist in the hands of our sales teams at Hyatt. I think the potential is frankly limitless.” Asad Ahmed, Senior Vice President of Commercial Services for Hyatt, Americas  

“LinkedIn Sales Navigator has given us that open channel to be able to talk to our customers. It gives our sellers a platform for establishing that relationship long before there's a buying need.” Kaaren Hamilton, Associate Vice President of Commercial Services for Hyatt, Americas  

“We aimed to find a way that all of our network and our entire organization could work together to support our sales efforts. And that's where Linkedin Sales Navigator has made a difference. We are able to drive new connections in an intentional way.” - Melissa Masitto, Vice President of Sales & Marketing 

Challenge: Staying centered on care while scaling digital sales 

• The hospitality industry is embracing a technological revolution in sales while staying true to its relationship-driven roots. Harnessing new technologies to identify qualified prospects and engage with them the right way is becoming a crucial advantage. 
• Previously reliable methods for generating new business, like attending trade shows or arranging face-to-face meetings, have grown less available, compelling sales teams to upskill in digital selling techniques. Kaaren Hamilton, Associate Vice President of Commercial Services for Hyatt, Americas, explains how most of Hyatt sales’ meetings are virtual: “Similar to many industries, we are not always meeting customers in our offices anymore.” 
• Finding the right people, and reaching them at the right time, is the constant challenge. “Many of our buyers are new to the industry, and the challenge for hotel salespeople today is that the buyer isn't always easily identified,” said Hamilton. “The relationship doesn’t begin with the request for proposal,” she adds, “the relationship has to begin way before that.” 

Solution: Technology built to drive organizational evolution 

• To guide their sales teams confidently into the future, Hyatt underwent a broad organizational shift in the way they approach selling. They sought to develop a modernized infrastructure for their traditional relationship-driven philosophies, with LinkedIn Sales Navigator fitting in as a central platform. 
• When Hyatt began using Sales Navigator, they wanted to understand the following, “Who is the key contact within an organization at this point? Nobody really knew,” said Melissa Masitto, Vice President, Sales & Marketing. “We saw the need for our salesforce to find ways to connect again, and we saw Sales Navigator as a way to do that as an organization.” 
• Sales Navigator has been able to help Hyatt build relationships at scale, while maintaining a personalized approach. “Relationship-building really signifies bringing value and being a trusted advisor,” says Hamilton. “Today our customers are looking for us to be the experts and to educate them. That is really the foundation of our successful commercial relationships.” 

Results: A modernized sales culture and impressive revenue impact 

• The Sales Navigator pilot was a big win for Hyatt, cementing the platform’s value as an essential strategic cornerstone for the sales organization.  
• Over the course of roughly three months, Hyatt’s sellers garnered 6,200 saved leads and 2,600 new connections by using Sales Navigator to target key contacts and build new relationships. 
• Hyatt’s individual sellers saw the value of Sales Navigator. “In our surveys, we had responses from the end users saying, ‘This was good for me. It's helping me do my job better’,” said Masitto. “We decided to provide this sales tool to all of our sellers. We made the decision to go into a longer-term partnership with LinkedIn on this.”  

Results:

6,200 saved leads.
2,600 new connections. 
100% of pilot participants wanted to continue using Sales Navigator. 

Unique data and powerful AI capabilities 

• Hyatt’s sales teams have elevated their bespoke selling approach to new heights by harnessing the robust features and AI-driven enhancements within Sales Navigator, such as Account IQ. 
• “Sales Navigator provided the uniqueness of the data set, getting us to more customers and helping us build some of those relationships,” Masitto explained. “We are able to leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s AI capabilities to demonstrate how we can be more suggestive and help our sellers in thinking about searching for customers differently or finding more target lists of accounts to go after.” 
• Overall, Sales Navigator has provided great value for Hyatt, empowering their sales teams to create new relationships and revolutionize their sales approach. 

The term “Hyatt” is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.