Lessons to Learn from Fernando Mendoza and the Indiana Hoosiers: Even with a slim 3-point lead, history was against the Indiana University Hoosiers football team last month as they found themselves in the final moments of this year’s Big Ten Conference championship.

On the other side were the defenders of the Ohio State University’s Buckeyes, an iconic powerhouse team that entered the game as reigning national champions, holding an undefeated record and ranked as No. 1 overall in the latest polls. The Indiana Hoosiers, meanwhile, entered the 2025 season with the most losses of any college football program in Division I history, had not won a Big Ten title since 1945 and had not beaten the Buckeyes in 37 years.

Now, with 2:40 left on the clock — which was plenty of time for the opposing Buckeyes to mount a short game-winning drive — the Hoosiers were backed up against their own 20-yard line, facing third down and 6 yards to go. Even with his top two receivers both out with injuries, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza walked confidently back onto the field after a timeout, lined up his team, and fired off a 33-yard laser pass to wide receiver Charlie Becker to seal the win.

Moments later, after Mendoza had won the championship which landed his team the top seed in the College Football Playoff and basically secured the 2025 Heisman Trophy, he shared what it took to emerge as winners.

“We’re process-oriented, we’re going day by day. Whether it’s the offensive line, the defense, the coaches, special teams — we’re all process-oriented to one goal. That’s our thing,” he said to Fox Sports’ Jenny Taft in a postgame interview.

Taft then asked about the long, game-sealing pass to Becker.

“Every single day this summer, we were always throwing before practice, (even at) 7 a.m. on Sundays, doing spots, doing routes, and now you see it come to fruition,” he said.

Rather than obsessing on the intangible, conceptual “goal” of winning, this team had instead focused on the processes needed on the field to win championships.

Why Process Matters More Than Purely Sales Goals

Right then, it occurred to me that this was the perfect analogy for hotel sales success. Too many hotel sales leaders simply set forth the goal of “winning” revenue, overlooking the “process” it takes for their team to be a perennial winner.

The main questions general managers and commercial directors ask when the “game” is in progress are about the status of tentative bookings and what deals have been recently signed and sealed. They celebrate “wins” and mourn the “losses” as if they were the result of fate or luck alone.

Instead, leaders should be focusing their teams’ attention on achieving excellence at each step in the sales process, auditing specific performance metrics with the mindset of a championship team’s position coaches, such as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and defensive line coach.

So, where does a winning hotel sales team’s “coach” start? Here are a few questions to ask and ideas to ponder.

Key Questions to Audit Your Sales Process

• What are the specific, agreed-upon standards for each step in the “flow” for handling leads? How consistently do players adhere to the standards?

• Is it acceptable to simply respond by way of email or in-app message? Or should we also be calling to “discover more details so we can respond with a more contextualized proposal…”?

• Do we prefer conversations held via online meetings, phone calls and — where possible — in-person? Or are we content to simply reply in writing?

• What is the lead conversion rate for inbound leads that are costing us a huge marketing budget to receive? (Conversion = number “right-sized” incoming leads are received vs. bookings secured)

• What is the agreed-upon standard for prospecting activity? What counts as prospecting activity; is it just flinging out emails, calls and direct messages? Does research count? (Hint: it should!)

• What is our agreed-upon cadence (timing) of follow-ups for both inbound and outbound leads?

• How personalized is the sales correspondence? Do buyers feel they are communicating with a humanized team of local area experts? Or are salespeople simply dropping names, dates and rates into a generic template, doing nothing more than an artificial intelligence chatbot can do?

• Are the salespeople recording all their inbound and outbound sales activity in their customer relationship management so that a.) they remember the next steps and b.) leaders can track their efforts?

• Does the sales team even understand how to best use their CRM for the most essential steps in the sales process, or are they overwhelmed with unnecessary, nifty features?

• Do sales leaders know how to run the reports that measure the key performance indicators related to sales processes?

Coaching Winning Sales Habits For Long-Term Revenue

Consistently embracing excellence in every step of the sales process establishes winning sales habits that lead to the endgame of more revenue. Every lead, every time, for the sake of sales excellence itself, and not just for the short-term goal of one deal or one month’s revenue.

So, rather than just handing your team the goal of this year’s budget and telling them to go and “win,” coach them up on the process, measure their progress and odds are very good that — like Fernando Mendoza and his Indiana Hoosiers — you and your team will be celebrating this time next year.

Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of hotel sales, guest service, reservations, and front desk training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he has been for decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hospitality industry authorities. Check out his monthly webcasts at www.KTNwebcast.com or visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com