Hotel Management — February 2012
Change Language:
Sales Clinic
Sales is where it’s at—let’s get it right
All the studies and reports we have seen lately reflect a very good year coming up for increases in occupancy, demand, average daily rate and total revenue. All of this should lead to improved profitability.
Here is the problem: When business is good, we get busy taking care of the business and the productive direct sales effort falls short. At so many properties, the sales teams get busy doing things to “help out” in operations and service, leaving less time for productive sales activity. It just seems like the right thing to do when an operation gets busy; sales folks just want to be helpful in providing improved service to the guests.
Sales efforts need to be conducted regularly during the course of the year. GMs must be concerned that everything is covered properly so that sales staffers are not called upon to help out. This is a time for working on bringing in more future business. An increase in guests creates so more opportunities for a sales person to develop new leads that may be developed into new prospects, creating future business. Spending more time prospecting is the key to increased productivity, which directly relates to more future business.
The idea is to gather information on those who may look like leads for new business. There is a good chance that three out of ten leads will convert to qualified prospects. These three will need to be followed up with phone calls to gather information and determine whether that contact is a real prospect. Then, the selling process may begin. There is a good chance that one out of the three will convert to a prospect.
First, to find the lead, information needs to be gathered from advance reservations. This is available from the property reservations department. Here is where you get names, titles, companies represented and the name of the contact who made the reservation and phone numbers. This is a good start in figuring out what may become a lead. You can’t determine yet if this is a prospect—and that’s what a good follow-up is all about. Make phone calls to the company or organization of the guest to gather specific information to determine if this is a qualified prospect. Once that is determined, then the selling process can begin. It doesn't pay to try to sell to anyone who may not be a qualified prospect.
All the studies and reports we have seen lately reflect a very good year coming up for increases in occupancy, demand, average daily rate and total revenue. All of this should lead to improved profitability.
Here is the problem: When business is good, we get busy taking care of the business and the productive direct sales effort falls short. At so many properties, the sales teams get busy doing things to “help out” in operations and service, leaving less time for productive sales activity. It just seems like the right thing to do when an operation gets busy; sales folks just want to be helpful in providing improved service to the guests.
Sales efforts need to be conducted regularly during the course of the year. GMs must be concerned that everything is covered properly so that sales staffers are not called upon to help out. This is a time for working on bringing in more future business. An increase in guests creates so more opportunities for a sales person to develop new leads that may be developed into new prospects, creating future business. Spending more time prospecting is the key to increased productivity, which directly relates to more future business.
The idea is to gather information on those who may look like leads for new business. There is a good chance that three out of ten leads will convert to qualified prospects. These three will need to be followed up with phone calls to gather information and determine whether that contact is a real prospect. Then, the selling process may begin. There is a good chance that one out of the three will convert to a prospect.
First, to find the lead, information needs to be gathered from advance reservations. This is available from the property reservations department. Here is where you get names, titles, companies represented and the name of the contact who made the reservation and phone numbers. This is a good start in figuring out what may become a lead. You can’t determine yet if this is a prospect—and that’s what a good follow-up is all about. Make phone calls to the company or organization of the guest to gather specific information to determine if this is a qualified prospect. Once that is determined, then the selling process can begin. It doesn't pay to try to sell to anyone who may not be a qualified prospect.
Message