In December, 2015 we were called upon to assist a hotel partner in one of the hottest growth markets in the country, Nashville, Tennessee.  This particular property has been in the market and successfully conducting business for several years, only to find that new competitors are popping up all around them and stealing share of their business… In particular groups & meetings business!

After a deeper dive discussion with the hotel Director of Sales & Marketing, we determined that our Right Fit Lead® program was a clear fit for this team.  They had a solid sales team that was well situated, and capable of following up with these new opportunities.  However, they needed help proactively uncovering groups & meetings that were not already in the middle of soliciting RFPs from them, and every one of their competitors.  They needed to reach out before the customers were in that solicitation mode, before they were lumped in with all of the other competitors, and before they became commoditized.  As of December, 2015, they were feeling frustrated, always responding to leads and competing on price with very little chance to build relationships with prospective customers, and earn their trust & attention.

We set out with the sales team to come up with the best list of target accounts that met their ideal group & meetings profiles.  Through our planning process, which includes interviews with the property, collecting insights around their “backyard” customers, and taking a deep dive into various databases, we came up with a list of around 600 contacts the hotel was not currently doing business with.

From there, our team of Researchers conducted qualification calls to learn more about the contacts’ hotel needs in the Nashville market. Using our proprietary lead scoring system, we scored each lead, and passed along daily opportunities, specifically for leads level 3-5. Qualifications are as follow:

• Level 3: The contact shares that their hotel business is a scope fit for the hotel, meeting all criteria of size, budget, and history of using like hotels.
• Level 4: All of Level 3 must be true, plus we can determine a next step timeline with the customer. They are able to share when their next opportunity to use the hotel would be, and when they will start planning and/or signing agreements.
• Level 5: All criteria for Levels 3 and 4 are fulfilled, and the contact is ready to engage with the hotel with a proposal, site tour or contract, now!

Our task was to give the hotel a quick-start to generate a new business pipeline, and test the process for future partnership.   The hotel partner purchased a guarantee of 25 leads Level 3-5 with no timeline for deliverable as they wished for quality vs. speed and quantity.

In just two weeks, our team uncovered 26 new opportunities at Level 3-5 for the property, which were broken out as the following:

•  Level 3: 15 Opportunities
• Level 4: 10 Opportunities
• Level 5: 1 Opportunity

These 26 opportunities totaled an estimated 5,365 room nights with four leads stating they had opportunity for Q1 2016, one lead for Q2 2016, two leads in Q3 2016, six leads in Q1 2017, one lead in Q2 2017 and one lead in Q3 2017.  11 of the level 3 leads did not give a known timeline for their next opportunities, yet stated they had meeting opportunities that pop up unexpectedly throughout the year and could not predict their next exact need dates.  Some also shared that they had already booked their 2016 meetings and were unsure when they would start to look at future years.

During the course of the project, our team developed useful insights from the information we found, and determined that 27% of the contacts uncovered Level 1-5 were in the medical industry. We also identified a key single competitor was being discussed by the contacts 24% of the time, versus a very fragmented market of independent and non-competing hotels being mentioned 36% of the time.  This kind of information provides added value for our hotel partner to build upon their strategies for new business development, and for our future lead generation initiatives.

The property sales team came forward with great reviews of the leads, stating that the information was “thorough, accurate and very helpful.”  One sales manager reported that he already had a piece of business out on contract, that when we crunched the numbers would pay for their project four times!

As of February 2016, we are pleased to be continuing our work with this hotel with a more refined strategy for uncovering new business opportunities for their sales team to assist them with narrowing their revenue gap for business in the year.

Plan B Consultants, Inc. provides “done for you” hotel sales solutions in the form of Right Fit Lead® Prospecting, Plan B Activation™, which is our follow-up and nurturing phase of the Right Fit Lead® Process, Plan B Sales Safari™ Sales Blitzes, and our suite of Sales4Hire™ services.  To view our full-menu of services CLICK HERE.

To see how we might be able to help your hotel generate more, consistent revenue, schedule a FREE consultation call with our Founder, Amy Infante! Or Contact: amy.infante@planbconsultants.com   (312) 636-7384