SHELTON, CT � July 18, 2001 � What is one of the most valuable tools a salesperson can possess?  Experience.  One hotel ownership and management company is using leading edge database and Internet technology to give its sales teams �virtual sales experience.�

New Castle Hotels� Borrowed Experience Sales Tool compiles sales data from the company�s 24 properties, puts the information in an on-line database, and helps property-level users translate the data by using the same judgment-based interpretation that a seasoned sales professional would employ.  While hotels have been using relational databases for years, New Castle�s BEST is unique because of the scope of information it manages, and its ability to generate reports and recommendations aimed at helping property-level sales teams meet sales goals and standards set at the corporate level.

The brainchild of New Castle�s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Robert Pope, BEST:

• Helps identify issues and potential problems by comparing significant relationships in basic sales information.

• Provides each property with a customized version of the database so that each is dealing only with pertinent information.  For example, limited service properties without foodservice would not be dealing with catering or group sales information.

• Turns the sales report process � widely viewed in the industry as �paperwork� generated for a corporate office � into an actual tool specifically designed to help the properties understand their current sales position versus their goals.

�It�s just being presented in a new way, one that adds experience and depth to the interpretation of the data,� Pope says.  �We�ve built into the program the ability to analyze information.  It mimics what would happen if I sat down with the director of sales at each property and went over their sales reports with them.�

For example, every month, productivity information is entered into the system for each of the 100-plus sales people employed by New Castle Hotels.  BEST analyzes how each sales person is meeting (or not meeting) his or her individual sales goals.  For anyone achieving less than 90 percent of his goals, the system prompts the user to submit an action plan for improving the individual�s productivity.  BEST can generate analytical reports such as each sales person�s booking record, preferred accounts, franchise contributions, key revenue forecasts, and booking pace projections for group and catering sales.  

Pope plans to add the capability to link reports to the company�s SOPs (already on line), so that when BEST identifies a potential problem, the system will automatically provide the user with New Castle�s SOP for dealing with that type of problem.  BEST continues to evolve and Pope expects the next step of development on the database to begin in fall 2001.

�I�ve not seen anything like it in the industry,� says Patrick Beron, who recently joined New Castle Hotels as a regional director of sales and marketing.  Beron, whose 14-year career includes sales and marketing, as well as managerial positions with some of the industry�s largest management companies, points out: �These are not reports generated for the corporate office.  They are reports for the hotels, aimed at helping the properties, not just informing the corporate office.�

New Castle Hotels owns and manages 24 resort and hotel properties in the United States and Canada.