Carol Verret Consulting and Training Consulting Training Seminars |
|
. . Back to Hotel Sales Basics: The Basics Have Changed Big Time! . |
March 3, 2009 - 9/11 precipitated the last severe recession and was a watershed moment in the hotel sales prospecting process. Prior to this cataclysmic event it was possible to send legions of sales people on the road armed with business cards and tell them to walk into every door of every building and at least leave their card in the hope of locating new prospects. As a wise person once said, hope is not a strategy.' That is why I am bit concerned when some experts insist that hotels should hire a quantity of sales people that should just go out and pass out business cards. There may be some smaller markets where this is still possible but in most markets it is not due to security restrictions deployed after 9/11. In this recession, with the pressure on hotel sales departments to produce results or be potentially be downsized, it doesn't seem a very efficient way to prospect for new business if it ever was. There are good reasons that vacuum cleaner sales people don't go door to door any more --- if it worked, they would still be doing it! The world of sales has changed and not just hotel sales. Ask any sales person that is told to make cold telephone calls to a list' how many dials' they need to make before they reach a live person. Ask them the response of the live person if they reach them. Ask them the number of cold calls they have to make to get to a closed deal. The call to closing ratio on this activity is astronomical but then even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then'. The internet has exploded exponentially and provides simple prospecting tools that enable a sales person to locate companies and organizations most likely to require the services that their hotel has to offer -- within their area and beyond for those hotels, such as full service hotels, resorts and conference centers who prospect on a regional and/or national basis. Google Maps. If yours is an urban or suburban hotel that relies on the local market for most of its business, this is an amazing tool. It's like walking the territory in the confines of the office. Enter the zip code and refine the search to include businesses. Enter the address of a building in your market and it will pull up all of the businesses located in the building.Does this mean you don't need to call or email them - no. Internet prospecting allows the sales person to identify organizations with the likelihood of having business so that they can develop a targeted, solution based approach to these prospects. Internet prospecting provides a shot gun approach versus the scatter shot' approach of passing out business cards indiscriminately to any one on the street. Internet prospecting is a sound prospecting strategy - hope is not! Check out the online prospecting module developed in conjunction with Newmarket at http://hotelearning.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/sales-in-a-web-20-world-by-carol-verret/ Carol Verret And Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the
areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not
exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company
click on www.carolverret.net
|
Carol Verret 5910 S. University #C-18, PMB 374 Greenwood Village, CO 80121 Telephone: (303) 618-4065 [email protected] Web Site: http://www.carolverret.com/ Email: [email protected] |