“Hey Amy…can you help us?  We are looking for a company that can find us some really solid leads to close.  We’ve done some prospecting ourselves, and our team is focused on past business & lost business, but we’re just really struggling.  We are really needing some business and 4^th quarter and 1^st quarter isn’t looking that great as of now, either.”  I’m feverishly taking notes in my office, asking a bunch of questions to understand their challenges up to this point.  When it comes down to it, the question that stops this Director of Sales in their tracks is…”what kind of consistency have you had in your lead generation efforts this year?”  SILENCE, and then admittance.  Nothing.  There has been no consistency, and a host of reasons why.  Pause…  “So, Amy…can you help us?  We need some business closed this quarter.”    

We’ll get back to that conversation in just a bit.  This is a discussion that happens throughout the year, but even more prominent around the beginning of 4^th quarter for the hotels in the northern part of the US and end of 2^nd quarter for hotels in the south.  It happens EVERY year, and it seems like the hotels I speak to just never fully prepare for it.  Why?

Lack of planning and reactionary lead generation strategy.  It is my mission to change the way hotels think about lead generation and engaging the B2B buyer.  Why wait until you feel the pain, or see the forecast dip?  Why not implement a consistent strategy for uncovering The Right Fit Lead® every single day for an entire year consistently every year?  Hotel leaders know their own market trends.  I have very informative conversations when we’re discussing the reasons behind the market dips and need for heavy lead generation approach, but the solutions are being presented far too late.

During the execution of a lead generation strategy, opportunities will be uncovered in ALL stages of the buying process.  You can’t start & stop lead generation to meet your soft period needs, or statistically you will find soft period needs when it is too late.

Here is bar graph of one hotel we worked with this year.

This shows the timing of the business opportunities.  Keep in mind we were uncovering these needs during 3rd Quarter 2015.  You can see a pattern that in their market the majority of the business was going to be making decisions/engaging with hotels during Q1  2016.  This hotel needed business in Q3 2015.  Consistency will provide these results…not calling in the quarter the business is soft.

Lack of planning creates a reactionary start/stop approach to building the sales pipeline.  It’s not uncommon, and there are several reasons for this flawed start/stop approach… Turnover causes lack of consistency, lack of training & sales competency on how to generate new business, distractions upon the sales team that can be any number of things, fear on the part of the sales team to reach out to prospects and ask questions, and poor infrastructure to support & lend resources to a sales team that they need to generate new business leads.   This may seem overwhelming for a Director of Sales or corporate sales leadership to combat, but it doesn’t have to be.  Take one step at a time to determine the root cause(s) for your property & then simply move your feet and create a plan!

So, let’s get back to that earlier conversation:

“Sure, I can help you!  However, I can’t help you in ways that you think you need today.  You see…your biggest problem isn’t this quarter and next.  The root cause runs much deeper and your hotel’s lack of planning and consistency is the problem.  At Plan B Consultants, we are pretty good at what we do with lead generation strategy and our experience with the B2B buyer process.  However, we need collaboration in planning and consistency to make what we do work.  I have this really great subscription plan that provides consistency for lead generation all year-round, a done for you model so it remains in place no matter what is happening on property, and proven processes that provide 10-20x on your investment.  How does that sound?” 

Want to get on Amy’s calendar?  Click Here to schedule a FREE “virtual brainstorm session” to see how we can create a plan together for your hotel’s biggest sales challenges!