Insights

I knew the numbers. I needed to do more with them.

I once sold a hotel’s meeting space 7 days a week. I also handed hotel partners 7-page reports packed with useful information.

The calendar looked good. The reports were thorough. Neither told me whether I was doing the job well.

That became clearer when I spent time with the people on the other side of my work: the team setting up another small weekend booking, and the partner glancing at my report before packing it away.

From clarity to judgment

What deserves our attention?

The weekend bookings brought in revenue. They also required setup, cleanup and staff, while taking space we could use to support other business.

I had been asking whether I could sell the room. I needed to consider which business made the best use of the space and the people looking after it.

Clarity helps you understand the numbers. Judgment means weighing what they tell you against the costs, constraints and alternatives, then making a call.

Sometimes the right call is to stop pursuing business you know you can win.

From confidence to influence

How do we help someone else see what we see?

At Expedia, I reduced those 7-page reports to the pages that mattered, marked the important figures and added a neon pink sticky note with 3 agreed actions.

Sometimes I received a notification that a partner had made a change before I even got home.

I could be confident in my recommendation. The decision still belonged to them. They needed to understand why it mattered, how to act on it and, sometimes, how to explain it to someone else.

That’s where influence becomes part of the commercial work. Your explanation has to survive beyond the meeting.

From repetition to momentum

What is the practice helping us do?

When my team had another report to learn, I borrowed a game from tennis. Each person had 5 seconds to point out something they could see. No repeats.

They had to look, listen and have a go. The report became more familiar, and people learned from what their colleagues noticed.

I’m a believer in repetition. Looking at the same information regularly helps you spot patterns and ask better questions. But producing a report every Monday doesn’t tell you whether anyone is using it.

The next step is to take what you’ve noticed and investigate it, make a decision or change what happens next.

These are 3 things I look for in commercial work: a sound reason for the choice, support from the people involved and progress the team can point to.

The stories below explore each one, with something you can try in your own business.