What will it take to succeed in hotel sales in 2023? - continued
Well, I am now more than halfway to the target word count of this article, so let’s now take a look at the solutions to these challenges and explore what everyone from the top-tier hotel leaders to the most novice hotel salespeople can do to succeed in 2023 and beyond.
Reinvent The Lead Intake Process.
Hotels with larger sales teams should establish a centralized role of “sales lead catcher” who can sort and prioritize leads, keeping salespeople focused more on the hottest leads, while responding to even the seemingly “weakest” leads.
As an example, these days too many inquiries which are for dates that are sold-out are ignored, especially if the lead sender indicates that dates are not flexible. Yet when that same prospect finds all hotels are sold-out and is therefore forced to become date-flexible, salespeople who have sent a courteous response will stand-out.
Cross-Train Hotel Sales and Revenue Managers
By training hotel salespeople on the formulations, data points and RM systems which revenue managers use, and by training RM’s to better understand the group and BT markets, parties on both sides will make better decisions together.
Hotel salespeople will embrace their role in getting prospects to move dates, while being able to truly support the concept of dynamic pricing for BT accounts.
Embrace Your Sales CRM
Having had hotel sales training clients that use virtually all available systems, it seems to me that core problem is not so much what sales CRM is in use, but rather a) how it has been configured and b) how well the staff has been trained. The solution starts with whoever the systems administrator is.The top-level sales leaders need to work closely with IT to ensure that all default features have been properly configured or deactivated. One basic example is to look at what “auto-tasks” are generated when a lead is turned definite.
Often, I find that the default settings are unchanged, triggering a flood of tasks that clutter-up on a salesperson’s to-do list and drive them back to a manual process. It is also important that salespeople carve out time to use all available online training and to read through FAQ’s.
An even more foundational solution is that sales leaders need to personally ensure that all salespeople can use their CRM to do the very most important sales tasks:
Review and Update Proposal Templates
Hotel sales leaders should check the actual overall responses which salespeople are sending to ensure they are not simply posting bids or issuing basic responses in online platforms, or just sending quotes in an email with a contract as an attachment.
It is also important to check the basic proposal templates being used, whether in WORD/PDF format or in “electronic” proposals. Make sure all the copy and images are updated, and especially that salespeople are personalizing the details by deleting content that is irrelevant.
Put the “People” Back Into Sales Process
Train salespeople to do more than just reply with an email, in-app message, or platform bid. Pick-up the phone, even if only to leave a personalized voicemail. Follow-up at least three times on every “right sized” lead, alternating between calls and emails.
Encourage a “Tech for Touch” Approach
Train salespeople to use technology in a way to enhance and not to replace conversations. Use online scheduling apps (such as Calendly) to make it easy for buyers to pick a time to meet. Switch voice calls to Zoom whenever possible and turn on the webcam when doing so! Send short, personalized video email messages to “put a face with a name.”
Practice, practice, practice using all these mediums. As we have found out by conducting sales coaching for dozens of hotel salespeople, flipping on a webcam may be simple, but truly mastering these mediums makes the difference.
Prospecting: Research Before You Reach Out
Rather than setting a “quantity” of outbound sales efforts, train your team to research before they reach out, therefore enabling “warm calling” vs. “cold calling.” Personalize reach-outs by mentioning what you have learned and why you think they might be a prospect before you tell them how you can “help fill their needs.” Again, the tech for touch approach which puts people and relationships back into sales prospecting will pay huge dividends.
Certainly, 2023 and the years stacked-up right behind it hold significant challenges, and additional changes which have not even been imagined yet loom on the horizon for the second half of the 2020’s.However, one thing is true. The job of “sales fishing,” which is to say responding to inbound leads attracted by the digital “bait” at the end of the hooks floating around the internet will become increasingly centralized, automated and will devolve into a more administrative type role. However, salespeople who pull on their orange vests and embrace a role as “sales hunters” will increasingly thrive and find their careers soaring to the top of the best org-charts.
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 been for over two decades. . Visit KTN at www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or email him directly doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com
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