We are in the age of instant gratification. Just think about it. There is an app for EVERYTHING under the sun. My brother shared with me over the holidays that there is an app to turn your phone or ipad into a level (like for hanging pictures). Who would’ve thought! Anyway…I digress. My point is that we have life pretty easy these days with instant access.
I don’t mean to get on my “high horse”, but I’m kind of going to jump right on it here. This makes us LAZY. Bam…I said it. You’re lazy, I’m lazy, we’re all just a bunch of app happy bums that expect everything immediately. And don’t get me started on sales people. We sales professionals are the worst at being impatient and wanting everything RIGHT NOW. It’s kind of ironic, don’t you think? Our industry forces patience on us as we wait for clients to review our proposals and sign our contracts, but yet we torcher ourselves by being so darn antsy.
So where am I going with this? I’m not here to criticize our culture, and ask that we change. I really just want us to ponder for a moment how our mentality over immediate gratification could be hurting our opportunity to win more business.
Let’s look at our sales pipeline as an example. A lot of sales organizations have a phrase for the “status” of a lead. In our case at Plan B Consultants, we term them as HOT, WARM or COLD leads. HOT means that the client has a need they are planning within the next 6 months, and they know the details for this need (budget, dates, space, guestroom numbers, etc). Basically, a HOT lead is an RFP (request for proposal).
A WARM lead is similar to the hot listed above, but the client does not know exact dates for when their next need in that particular location might be. We know they have business that would fit the scope for our hotel partner, and the client is very interested in our hotel partner, but at this point there is nothing immediate. We consider this an RFI (request for information).
HOT leads are somewhat easy to have a conversation with, because the client is ready to talk about their needs. At this point, they need help, so they are willing to share their needs in order to get what they want (great rates at a nice hotel).
WARM leads are a bit more challenging. The client doesn’t have anything specific coming up, so they don’t see as much value in having a conversation. Usually the conversation leads to “send me some information that I can keep on hand for when I do have a need.” It takes a lot more effort to gather the information about their business needs, but it is even more challenging to stay in contact, stay top-of-mind and be in the mix when their needs surface.
So we circle back to the age of instant gratification. Getting in touch on a cold call with a client that is looking to book a meeting and has their specifics laid out is not common. Although WARM leads aren’t NOW, they are certainly the key to growing and sustaining business in a hotel. There is a lot to be said for getting in front of prospects EARLY in their process. Unfortunately, because we all want those immediate wins it’s not as sexy to get a lead that is WARM. It takes persistent follow-up, consistency on the part of the sales manager, and HARD WORK. I’m realistic, and know that little ole me won’t change the fact that everyone wants NOW. It’s our nature. We are lucky to be spoiled with great technology and systems that give us information and services instantly. However, I do hope that our sales culture remains focused on the ever-present fact that we must get in front of prospective customers early, and one way to do that is by prospecting and uncovering opportunity before they are too far down their decision path.
An email came across my desk this week that said “The first vendor in the door wins the business 63% of the time.” Hmmm…think about that. I would venture to guess that being 1st was key, but actively and intentionally following up with those clients was as important to the vendors’ successes. It was certainly NOT immediate gratification for those sales people.
I challenge our hotel sales industry to look at WARM (or whatever term you use to identify pipeline business) leads differently this year. Low hanging fruit/HOT leads are absolutely important and deserving of your time and energy. Building your pipeline with business that may book further out and needs a little more TLC is critical to stay competitive. Be consistent, persistent and focused on the follow-up to business that is not immediate. Let’s not “poo-poo” things that take a bit more time, but embrace them as opportunities to learn more about our future clients! I promise you will be rewarded for this mindset with a robust sales pipeline that will turn into revenue!