About Us
Our Approach
We like tech. We like sales. We like closing deals. We felt like there must be a way to combine everything we like so much. After much research into how people buy today, and how people sell, we discovered there were lots of opportunities to bring technology into sales to making closing deals easier. That’s our approach.
Here are some recent webinars delivered by our founder, Holly Zoba.
LinkedIn as a Branding Tool
Convergence of Sales, Marketing & Revenue Management
Our Story
Our founder, Holly Zoba, spent 15 years in the hotel industry – primarily selling hotel rooms and meeting space. She then spent the next ten years selling and marketing training to hotels. Finally, she went back to school and learned how to write computer code. An odd mixture perhaps, but the perfect start to our story.
Several years ago, Holly began developing targeted sales training classes for clients who wanted something new. A way to reach buyers who were no longer picking up the phones. Instead, most buyers wanted to email, or just send out an RFP. Salespeople were becoming more and more frustrated with their inability to cultivate and develop relationships with buyers the way they used to.
People still want to buy from someone they like, they just don’t want to get to you know the same way they used to! That is when we started to realize that we had to approach buyers in a different way. Instead of being pushy sellers, we had to take a more consultative approach. But even before we could do that, we had to start reaching buyers through sharing content – getting them to take notice of how helpful we can be. It’s a whole new approach and one that has proven to be really effective.
Holly is a current member and the immediate past chair of the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board. During her time there she was a founding coauthor of the CHDM exam and study guide – the certification for hotel digital marketers which has led to her most recent training program – Hotel Digital Marketing Essentials.
She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and author of multiples articles and research in hospitality media including the AHLA Independent Hotels Best Practice Guide for Marketing. She is a recipient of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing for her work on advocacy marketing.
In February, 2023, Holly cofounded HotelBSchool – an online learning portal for hoteliers with her training partner, Dan Wacksman. This portal offers classes in hotel digital marketing, reservations and front desk sales training, operations and leadership programs too. Go to hotelbschool.com for more info.
Meet the Team
Amber Fox, Marketing
Amber Fox has been in the hospitaltiy industry for over three decades with specialized expertise in sales, marketing, training, and leadership. Prior to joining Influencer Sales, Amber was the Director of Business Development for Navis, and previous to this she spent 10 years as a National Sales Director of Signature Worldwide.
She began in a property level sales, moved into management company and brand roles, and most recently consulted with hospitality clients on ways to increase revenue and improve employee performance. Amber currently sits on the HSMAI Sales Advisory Board and is a liaison to the Revenue Management Board to keep her finger on the pulse of the industry.
Amber is a frequent traveler, and travel photographer. She is also the author of many industry articles on sales and marketing.
Michael Civita, Program Manager
Michael is our subject matter expert for developing training programs around hospitality. In addition to training, he owns a property manager company with locations in Pennsylvania, New York and Florida. He was with Signature Worldwide as a National Account Manager, and he was responsible for building long-term business strategies with clients in order to create value and help them achieve a return on their training investment. His experience before joining Signature in July of 2000 includes creating the guest services training manual adopted by individual properties within the Hyatt Corporation. He also had an integral part in developing the revenue management system for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Corporate, which was implemented internationally.
Listen to our Podcast!
Scout Simply
Our parent company, Scout Simply, specializes in sales, marketing and technology. Influencer Sales was our first training program that we launched in 2018. Scout Simply does sales audits, teaches a digital marketing fundamentals program and works with clients to help them grow sales and marketing by breaking down the silos between the revenue producing departments.
HOTELBSCHOOL
In February, 2023, we launched the HotelBSchool.com learning portal. In partnership with Dan Wacksman, Sassato LLC, this portal provides the latest courses around marketing, sales and operations specifically for hotels. Holly Zoba has developed some of the sales programs and has co-authoried the digital marketing programs. But we have also worked with other experts in hospitality to bring a variety of other classes to our clients. How to Read the STR Report, Boost Your Sales with ChatGPT, MetaSearch and Reservations Sales Training are all available online.