Outsourcing is more common in the hospitality industry than you might think! We run into leaders on all spectrums of the belief system. Some prefer to build their empire internally and others choose what they believe to be less head-ache by outsourcing all or some.
But outsourcing shouldn’t be a matter of personal preference. It needs to make business sense.
At GitGo, we get consistent outreach from customers asking for help with new business development. Shockingly, we advise against a fully outsourced solution in several cases after diving a little deeper in our strategy briefs.
In fact, we just recently steered a hotel in a different direction they hadn’t thought of because we could see that would just be a temporary band-aide, and our purpose is to drive sustainable revenue generation and growth.
We also recently designed a hybrid program for a national brand that made more sense financially and process-wise than a complete outsourced program.
And lastly, we’re in the trenches always testing new tools and technology to drive programs and services that will meet today and tomorrow’s needs with or without outsourced talent in the mix. We are fully invested in outcomes, not team size and structure paradigms.
After nearly 20 years in the space, here’s four considerations when outsourcing should be reviewed as a viable option to deliver positive outcomes!
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When the market is strong, but your hotel is under-performing and status-quo just isn’t working, outsourcing can breathe new life with a fresh perspective on prospecting new business and activating existing accounts that have gone dormant.
* Be sure under-performing hotels are rating high with guest satisfaction and customer service. Sales can’t help when there are systemic operational or product issues.
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When you’re experiencing turnover on the sales team or just haven’t been able to find the skills in the market at the rate you can afford. This has been a long-standing issue for many hotels in markets across the country. We see it more often in select and economy service level hotels who have a challenging time competing for top sales talent.
*Short or long-term opportunities to outsource exist with the right terms and a well-thought partnership. It has the potential to liberate your internal team and finances to accelerate growth.
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When you have a sales team, but they have become bogged down with reactive sales chasing a high volume of inbound leads and need some marketing ‘oomph’ to help with top-of-funnel. We often hear that sales teams on property don’t have time to focus on generating new business revenue, as they are too busy responding to inbound inquiries and transacting business that’s coming to them. A great ‘problem’ to have, but sends up a lot of red flags when we hear this.
*What happens when the inbound funnel starts to slow or even dry up? This will inevitably happen as it always does with business ebb and flow. By not having a true new business development pipeline constantly flowing, it’s putting the hotel at risk for future months. There’s a greater issue at the root, which GitGo can help with, but a short-term business development outsource program can help while the root is being tackled.
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When the hotel is financially stable & stakeholders are bought-in to the process. This will sustain through the toughest part of the business development cycle and it is an imperative to ensure success.
* We’re not going to sugar-coat this. If you haven’t been consistently working on a new business pipeline that will convert revenue, then don’t expect overnight success. We live in the results of the decisions that were made 90 days ago.
Hotel leadership must be eyes-wide-open with the new business development process and engage fully with the team leading the charge to better understand client timetables and realistic forecasting of new business.
At GitGo, we’re always happy to connect and discover if outsourcing is the best fit, or if there is a better direction from our vast experience in this area. We help hotels with outsource solutions and in-house design and implementation to run sustainable new business development and revenue generating programs. Reach out for a free/no obligation strategy call with our CEO & Founder to chat about what might be best for you!