#250 - Hospitality Meets Dawn Lister - Sales, Service & Stubornness

This week, I sat down with the brilliant Dawn Lister - and honestly, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get someone from the world of sales on the show.

And what an introduction to it this was.

From wanting to be an air stewardess at 10 years old, to building a 20+ year career in hotel sales, Dawn’s journey is packed with graft, growth, resilience… and a lot of persistence (some might call it “relentless follow-up” 😅).

Now Sales Director for B&B Hotels UK, Dawn brings a no-nonsense, people-first approach to an area of hospitality that often gets misunderstood, and massively underestimated.

In this episode, Dawn and I get into…

• How a childhood dream of travel turned into a lifelong career in hospitality
• Starting in conference & banqueting… and quickly being moved out of it 😅
• Falling in love with sales (mainly by talking too much at coffee breaks)
• Why she didn’t go to university - and built her career through doing instead
• The importance of early mentors (and learning under “formidable” leadership)
• Being told to stop calling people so much… and why persistence still wins
• The reality of sales: rejection, resilience, and finding the right fit
• Leading with a “people first” mindset - both with customers and teams
• Why hospitality sales isn’t about the product… it’s about the experience

Some cracking quote-ables from Dawn

“Revenue isn’t revenue until it’s banked”

“Hope is not a strategy” (Dammit)

“If you’re not the right fit, that’s fine, but let’s have the conversation first”

“We’re all selling similar products… the difference is how you make people feel”

“Some people told me to stop calling… those are the ones I enjoyed winning the most”

Why this episode is worth your ears

If you’ve ever worked in sales, or been on the receiving end of it, this one’s for you.

Dawn strips it right back to what great sales actually is:

curiosity, conversation, and care.

There’s no fluff here. Just real insight into what it takes to build relationships, handle rejection, and lead teams in a world where everyone’s selling something similar.

And if nothing else… you’ll never look at a follow-up call the same way again

Show Partners

A big shout out to the first of today’s show partner, RotaCloud, the people management platform for shift-based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from a single, web-based app.

It makes work simple for your team, too, allowing them to check their rotas, request holiday, and even pick up extra shifts straight from their phones.

Try RotaCloud’s time-saving tools today by heading to https://rotacloud.com/phil

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