This month's Select Tips
25 Great Ways to Make More Money and Drive Sales in Your Hotel
25 Sales Tips that create Results
Winds of Change require New Methods
Don't Be Left Behind in a Changing World
- Are you having trouble increasing your sales and meeting the revenue goals that are expected?
- Do you find your sales contacts do not result in new or increased business?
- Are you finding that doing the same thing in sales is producing the same results?
- Being creative and finding the obstacles that stand in our way are steps that lead to sales success and guest satisfaction.
Sales Solutions and techniques for result focused companies.
1. Curb Appeal
In order to maximize walk-in potential you must have CURB APPEAL. Curb appeal encompasses many aspects of your property including: well maintained lawns and landscaping, a swept and freshly striped parking lot, well lit building and parking lot, on-site signage in excellent condition, attractive outdoor receptacles, daily removal of trash and debris, and inviting entrances adorned with seasonal decorations. The time and effort you invest in your curb appeal will result in more walk-ins and the opportunity to gain loyal guests.
2. Local Colleges and Universities
Colleges and Universities are great room generators. Each campus has departments needing overnight lodging. Personal visits to each department will help determine the contact person and what their needs may be. The following departments usually need rooms: Student Affairs, Housing, Alumni, Purchasing Office, Information Center, Admissions, Academic Departments, Athletic Department, Fraternity and Sororities, and President’s Office. Be sure to follow up on each personal visit with a thank you note and an invitation to tour your property. Also look for opportunities to advertise in campus newspapers, post flyers, and get your web site linked with the schools.
3. Up-Sell at Check In
Selling higher priced suites with extra amenities during the week is sometimes difficult, especially when guests are cost conscious business travelers. In order to help up-sell at check in, display pictures of the suites. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! The pictures should highlight amenities business travelers are looking for, such as: larger work areas with office chairs, recliners or comfy easy chairs, larger televisions, and king beds. Perhaps your display board entices the guest by offering a special “Tonight Only” discount special.
4. Future Reservations
At check-out ask each departing guest if you may make them a future reservation. This procedure will eliminate possible fees associated with GDS or IDS bookings and it lessons the possibility of the guest “shopping” your competition.
5. Gratitude
With the holidays approaching, now is the perfect time to recognize and thank your top room generating companies and your individual loyal guests. A personal visit to company headquarters will give you the opportunity to express your gratitude for past and future business. Consider bringing small gift items imprinted with your logo. Mugs, water bottles, candy dish (which gives you an opportunity to return with refills), pens, calendars, desk notepads, cell-mates pads, and clocks make great inexpensive gifts. Your efforts will be appreciated and remembered.
6. Consider Your Employees
REMEMBER, NO GUEST IS EVER TREATED BETTER THAN THE EMPLOYEES THEMSELVES ARE TREATED.
7. Stranded Traveler Rates
Develop a "Stranded Traveler Rate" for the upcoming winter season. Contact the local police, sheriff’s office, Red Cross, towing companies, large employers, hospitals, bus depots, and airports; inform them your hotel offers a "Stranded Traveler Rate" during severe winter weather. Print flyers to distribute. When severe weather is predicted, FAX your flyer to pertinent offices. Offering this program will assure high occupancy and promote good will for your property.
8. Ask Your Guests
Because only 4% of dissatisfied guests voice their concerns, it is imperative you ask questions and show genuine interest in your guests. Consider calling guests after check in to inquire if they are satisfied with their room. Always ask each guest how their stay was at check out. They are more likely to express issues if prompted. It is an opportunity to “fix” any problem and retain the guest.
9. Image is Everything
Perhaps it is time to evaluate the appearance of your employees. Uniforms and name badges add a professional image to a hotel. Fresh and crisp uniforms and name badges for each department will increase the positive thoughts guests have about your organization.
10. Knowing and Exercising Individual Strengths
The keystone of high achievement and happiness in people is knowing and exercising individual strengths. The key to hotel sales is taking advantage of the strengths of the hotel, positioning the assets to impress the potential guest and utilizing existing programs to their optimum capacity.
11. Your Secret Client Stream
Who is in a position to send guests your way? Who interacts with your perfect target market? Think about your niche or the hotel industry, who has relationships with your perfect prospect? List at least three types of people you could set up alliances with. You meet significant alliances every day. Think differently about the business associates you encounter and you will find your secret client stream.
12. The Internet Cost Per Reader Is Lower Than Any Magazine Ever Printed!
75% of the travelers today use the internet to research their lodging and flight plans. Good internet marketing is tedious and detailed. It will generate results if you do the basics first and build on the basics.
13. A Website Is Useless Unless People Can Easily Find It.
Building traffic on your site is a matter of submitting to search engines for listing and ranking. Using techniques such as key words and phrases, maximum use of Meta tags and the use of franchise suppliers are ingredients for success. Internet marketing is the single most important sales tool for your hotel today. Its construction, design, functionality and overall marketing plan are critical to the results you will receive. Technology has given us many things but making it simple is the next big thing.
14. Develop Significant Synergy.
Synergy is defined as “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. It is a fact that your ideas combined with another’s ideas, create a third and greater sum of ideas. As we see change when individuals operate outside the vacuum that is often in an organization, it can lead to the effective nontraditional approach. Ask questions that have your reach into the gray area of the edge and encourage participation of dialogue with guests, vendors, and staff, networking groups, competition and other thinkers that dare to do things differently.
15. Capitalize on Your Entire Hotel Staff in sales.
Marketing weaves its way into every department of the hotel operations. Build a vision that appreciates differences in people, but recognizes unique strengths in character and ability. Get the team involved in setting sales goals, post the goals and their results. Ask those who are strong in being an activator to help set goals or ways to improve and your expectations with energize the team. Employees need to feel important because they all are.
16. Sales Coaching and Embracing Strategies
Coach on sales basics and have the team embrace the needs of the strategy in sales. Training and career development continue thought out a lifetime. A significant amount of development lies outside of the technical requirements of the job. True development comes from the environment and in the ability to recognize good business behavior that is fitting and leads to results.
17. Celebrate and recognize the importance of repeat sales.
It is nearly impossible to build sales volume with new sales alone. Identify and develop a relationship with those clients who stick by you through thick and thin.
18. Target Specific Individual Accounts
Each person on the sales team should be "targeting" specific individual accounts. Track and monitor the efforts in order to analyze the efforts and the time invested in the process. There really is no limit to what people can do when they work together.
19. Maximize Each Sale
Revenue per sale per client maximization. Develop the patience in the sales role to find opportunities to maximize each sale. Room sales people need to probe for meeting opportunities and catering sales people need to probe for room sales opportunities with every booking. A strong rapport with competing hotels is an open door to overflow opportunities. Explore every conversation to get more of each contact’s business.
20. Referrals
The referral network has inherent power.
21. Do Not Dwell on Disappointments
The most successful people will assure you they have had thousands of them. If you learn from disappointments and live with them for a short while, it is important to move on.
22. Do Not Become Complacent
Always look for ways to improve your image and your sales techniques. For an example learn how to make presentations with confidence and power! Be prepared, know your prospect, present your message in understandable language, emphasize one point at a time, pause to emphasize important points, practice your presentation, be aware of the nonverbal messages you send as you speak and try to appear calm and self-assured.
23. Pitfals to Avoid
In the sales presentation, here are pitfalls to avoid: Do not use mannerisms or speech patterns that distract the prospect. Do not connect every sentence with “and” or “so.” Do not use crude language or fade away at the end of your talk. Do not continually repeat a certain point of the conversation.
24. Two Ingredients to Motivate
Two ingredients that motivate people to buy from you are clear and accurate information and inspiration. Being successful in selling is the ability to handle your audience needs so the audience buys what is being sold. Ask questions to discover the perception of their needs. Answer your audience’s needs with how your hotel can meet their needs.
25. Create Your Own Natural Dialogue
If you are qualifying your new prospects by the telephone or meeting with them personally, here are some tried and true questions to move you on to create your own natural dialogue: Does your company have a travel coordinator or does each person book their hotel lodging individually? How does your company make reservations? Through a travel agent? External or internal? Call directly to the hotel? Call the 800 #? Reserve on line? How many travelers do you have? What cities do they travel to? How many room nights do you spend there each year? What type of hotels do you usually stay at? Do you travel year-round or is It seasonal? Do you usually stay weekdays or weekends? Do you have specific room preferences? How do you pay for your rooms? How much do you allow for hotel rooms?
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