Trade journal headlines and online newswires these past few weeks were littered with bad news as public hotel companies and real estate investment trusts across the country released their second quarter earnings. Meristar, Interstate, Wyndham, FelCor, Prime, Lodgian, La Quinta, and Candlewood are but a few of the companies that issued press releases reporting losses of RevPAR in the second quarter from 

While the gloomy news was peppered with an occasional positive proclamation, such as improved market yield or RevPAR deterioration at a rate slower than the national average, these were mostly veiled attempts to put silver-lining spins on news to an investment community whose analysts haven’t been very high on lodging stocks, even when times were good.  Nearly all companies cited a lumbering economy as the principle reason for the decline to last year.  A few tried to diffuse the bad news by announcing drastic measures they were taking to bolster profitability in light of shaky third quarter forecasts.  Wyndham, as an example, announced staff cuts of 850 employees shortly after releasing its second quarter news.  Lodgian similarly reported a reduction of 62 corporate positions.

Undoubtedly, many hotel management companies’ area managers and regional vice presidents – those remaining, anyway – are racking up frequent-flyer miles in four-digit increments as organizations fall into survival mode, looking for ways out of the quagmire.  “Reduction plans”, “austerity measures” and “budget cuts” are some of the sound bites we’ll hear as third quarter results become news and it appears at this mid-point that news will be no less disappointing than those announcements made these past few weeks.

Hotels with a strong opportunistic culture, however, are using this period as an occasion not so much to take from their organizations, but to add to them.  “Getting back to the basics” has a corny ring to it and doesn’t read as well as “corporate layoffs” in a press release, but you’d be surprised how much opportunity there is in discovering how far away from the basics your hotel may have drifted.  Despite the propensity for hotel companies to focus their attention during careworn economic times on austerity plans and staff cuts, we would argue that it is a far better tactic to improve its means of generating revenues by reinstating basic tactical sales practices.

The connection between an aggressive sales effort and revenue per available room should be obvious.  A now retired CEO of a hotel management company once said in a public address, “The amount of cash in the cash register is directly and precisely proportionate to the number of doors that sales people knock on.”  No one can refute the observable truth in this statement, yet how many general managers are specifically looking at the number of doors their sales people actually knock on? 

A reality check for one GM with whom we recently worked occurred as he was queried on how many sales calls his sales managers made during any given day.  He had no idea how often his sales managers were even out of the office on sales calls, let alone how many calls they made, on whom they called or what business was booked as a result.  He rarely attended sales meetings, never reviewed call sheets, and didn’t insist on sales call quotas for his sales managers.  His involvement with sales amounted to a weekly meeting with his DOS to receive updates to the hotel’s group rooms forecast.  You might think this GM was fodder for the unemployment line, but he was actually highly regarded by his boss and in fact, he ran a pretty good hotel.

Here then are some very basic “back to the basics,” sales tactics along with a few good examples from some successful hotels:

Sales Call Quotas:  Lest you missed the point in the anecdote above, we do favor the use of sales call quotas.  These were popular in the eighties, then fell from favor in the nineties but we believe the time to resurrect them is now.  Sales Managers should be given specific expectations as to the number of telemarketing calls and outside sales calls they are expected to make on a weekly basis.  They should also be held accountable for defined numbers of hotel site visits and entertainment functions.  Progress should be monitored with shortfalls discussed and remedied.  Very basic, indeed.

The Daily Sales Huddle:  Every weekday morning at 8:15 a.m. at a successful full service hotel property in Nashville, the GM has coffee with his Director of Sales and the Sales Team in a fifteen-minute meeting.  The discussion is informal, upbeat and mostly informational.  Sales Managers recap what they did yesterday and confirm what they’re going to do today.  Who’s seeing whom?  Which clients are coming to the hotel and when?  The GM makes notes and follows up with them each day. 

“How did that sales call go yesterday?” he asked a Sales Manager at one meeting we attended.  He was referring to a recently relocated Fortune 500 company on whom the Sales Manager had paid a visit the prior day.  The Sales Manager responded that his call went well and that the company was receptive to a proposal. The GM replied, “How about you and I take that proposal to them personally today?  Can you set up a time?”  He instinctively knew that big fish customers like being hooked by big gamesmen.  Never underestimate the impact it makes on a potential client when the GM takes time to accompany a Sales Manager on sales calls and ask for the business. 

During this same meeting, another Sales Manager announced she was bringing in members of the local CVB for lunch that day.  The GM made a note in his Palm Pilot and was later observed at lunchtime stopping by the table to shake hands and introduce himself.

Sales-Savvy Leadership:  Is the GM involved in the sales process?  Does he/she play an integral part of every site tour, attend important client lunches with the sales manager, leave the hotel to conduct sales calls at least once a week and above all, set the tone and example of the kind of sales intensity he/she expects from the sales team? 

At an Atlanta hotel managed by a GM with whom we have worked, a list is prepared each week from Sales of those customers that signed a contract or returned a rate agreement.  The GM takes this list and spends an hour each week on the phone thanking each customer for the business.

Recognition: Sales Goals and Performance:  Is the group sales goal obvious?  Do all Sales Managers know where the “finish line” is and how close they are to it?  One of the more dynamic hotel sales offices we’ve been in lately had one of those cardboard thermometers denoting the team’s total goal and how close they were to achieving it.  While it looked a little like a United Way campaign, the team was proud to show it off, especially since they were very nearly attaining their objective.

Perhaps more importantly was what happened when the team attained their goal.  The GM, DOS and all hotel leadership attended a celebration event where accolades were given and bonus check presented.  Recognition was given to the team for attaining the overall goal and individuals were shown appreciation for their participation.  The US Department of Labor has reported that the predominant reason why an employee voluntarily leaves an organization is because of a lack of being recognized for their contribution or a feeling of being unappreciated for their efforts.   This organization clearly understood how much value there is in helping Sales Managers realize their achievements and recognizing them for their hard work.

Make an Indelible Impression on Potential Customers: Does your hotel conduct site visits that are memorable and creative?  Most hotel site visits are pretty boring and GMs don’t often attend them.  But a GM we know at a hotel in Dallas participated in a site visit by a well-known airline with a culture that encourages employees to have fun and be themselves. 

A large man who had gone prematurely bald, this GM made quite an impact after being introduced to the group.  As he turned to lead them on their tour of the hotel, they took note of the fact that the airline’s logo had been hand-painted on the back of his head. 

While painting a logo on your head isn’t necessarily getting back to basics, knowing your customers, catering to their style and doing something memorable certainly is.  Had this potential client been one with a more staid culture, his tactic might not have been appropriate. As it was, they were ecstatic.

In another example at a property we worked with in Orlando, an important convention meeting planner was coming to the hotel for a site inspection, one of seven properties she was to have seen that day.  The Sales Manager had obtained a good accounting of group history on this convention and learned that in the prior year, the group had experienced problems with housekeeping at another hotel, which was prompting them to look elsewhere on this occasion.

In order to assure the client that this problem would not be repeated at this year’s convention, the hotel rolled out a red carpet at the front door and placed the entire housekeeping staff on either side of the carpet.  As the client entered the building, all housekeepers raised their brooms in an arch above the carpet and cheered as the client walked to the end of the carpet where the GM and the Director of Housekeeping were standing to shake hands and welcome the client to the hotel.  The Housekeeping Director gave her personal assurances to the client that all the room attendants were making a commitment to ensure the group would be satisfied with their service.   It turns out, they were. 

Sales Collateral with a Fresh Approach: Is your Sales collateral fresh and crisp, and does it present the best image of the hotel?  At the recent Pow-Wow Conference in Orlando, a DOS we have had as a client was passing out his business cards.  While that is very basic, the cards themselves were not.  These business cards were actually computer CDs the size of a business card.  “Plug it in your laptop,” he would say.  Tour and travel wholesalers were asking for extra samples to take back to their offices.

Selling the Backyard:  The basics of cultivating customers come also from having an aggressive, direct backyard sales effort.  A hotel’s backyard is a one to five mile radius around the hotel and encompasses all potential demand generators.  Does your Sales team know what companies are located in each commerce building around you, what their market room night potential is, where these customers are presently staying (if not in your hotel) and what rate they’re paying?

A GM with whom we worked in Miami took his sales team on the roof of his hotel one day.  He would point to a nearby office structure.  “Who’s in that building?” he would ask.  When answers were too slow or too brief, “Mark it down,” he would say, “We’re going there after lunch to find out.”
 

To paraphrase Voltaire, the basics are not so basic.  Simple as some of these things are, we have found them absent in some of the hotels we have been called on to assist and we’re willing to bet there will be something gained by forwarding this article onto your General Manager or Director of Sales.  The basics are…. well, basic.  That makes them easy to accomplish with a simple investment of commitment and time. 

Specializing in diagnostics of under-performing assets, Turn Key Hotel Advisors will quickly and accurately assess a hotel's competitive environment and strategic positioning.  Their consultants then provide action plans for both owner and manager that will improve the hotel's RevPAR yield, increasing revenue and drive both profitability and owner cash return.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors guarantees their results.

For hotels undergoing refurbishment, repositioning or re-branding, Turn Key Hotel Advisors created the Delta Process™, which has been successfully used in assets, to date, undergoing $200 million in redevelopment dollars.  The Delta Process™ ensures the hotel's sales and service delivery teams have specific, concrete action plans to deliver on an owner's or lender's return-on-investment expectations.

The company also conducts due diligence exercises for assets undergoing ownership change, market assessment studies for new lodging development, as well as hotel sales training, account management tools and hotel marketing products.  It is affiliated with The Consortium - An Alliance of Hospitality Companies.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors also operates a subsidiary company, Integrated Selling Systems with innovative technologies for the lodging industry, including CD Business Cards, Web Designs and On-Line Customer Reservations Booking Engines.  Turn Key Hotel Advisors is an allied member of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.