Do you have an on-site sales manager, but they lack the time or resources necessary to effectively nurture new business opportunities? You may be saying to yourself, “Well, if they lack the time or resources, then maybe they should have better time management and be more resourceful!” I invite you to think a little differently, however. Hotel sales has changed, and often-times when we break down the various situations a property level hotel sales manager runs across on a daily basis, the need to try something different is so much more clear! Now I’m not saying there aren’t sales managers out there who could use some better time management skills and coaching on how to be more resourceful, but let’s just set those particulars aside, and look at it from this perspective, which is one I come across consistently.
Perhaps you have a sales manager that is a one-man/woman show. They are responding to all inbound leads, conducting site tours, negotiating rates, finalizing contracts, working with global or national sales to write business cases and gain entry into key accounts. Perhaps they are even pulled into other areas outside of sales if you’re a select service hotel with limited staffing and resources. If this sales manager was handed a prospect that confirmed having business opportunity in your market, that fits your hotel, and has a high level of interest, they would be incredibly excited! However, the reality is that because this lead doesn’t have specific dates for their next meeting, and they aren’t ready for total engagement to talk about rates, dates and space… They will be forgotten in a few weeks time. Yea yea yea… They have that nice tool called a Sales CRM that they can plug the contact into, and schedule to call them back in a few weeks/months’ time… But, what do they do when there is more immediate business to book? Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. It’s not because your sales manager is a terrible person who has no time management, it’s because they have more pressing matters to attend to. They are tending to things that are top-priority, and booking business now, which is what everyone wants.
We all hear about marketing automation almost on a daily basis now. Unfortunately, individual properties, especially select service or boutique properties, do not have the resources to deploy an effective marketing automation program that costs several hundreds of dollars and countless man hours to set up and operate each month. The catch 22 is that a prospect with no specific timing of their next need is prime for the hotel to appropriately nurture and build a relationship with, before the prospect is ready to engage in a specific agreement. THIS is where a “done for you” follow-up and nurturing program, such as Plan B Activation™ steps in. It’s an effective hybrid of human interaction and sales automation that is affordable for individual hotels to deploy.
Plan B Activation™ was designed for hotels like the above example, who need a consistent sales pipeline and insurance that those leads do not fall out of the sales funnel. After all, the cost to reacquire a new prospect in the B2B environment is incredibly high these days. Our answer to a human approach is to ensure the leads stay warm and move through the lead ladder, by providing the technology, systems, processes, and people that ensure a seamless approach.
A while ago, I was struck with the realization that the key to the success of Plan B Activation™ is not just the effectiveness of our process, but also the passion of our Activation Partners. Our process is seamless, but it works because of our hotel experts that spend day in & day out striving to find and close top-level business for our clients! Spend one day in our operations office, and it is obvious that our team gets just as excited about finding & closing business as one of your own team members would!
CLICK HERE to learn about one of our Activation Partners, and see what really makes our team special.
If you are interested in learning more about Plan B Activation™, or if you would like to start the conversation and see how together we can maximize your hotel sales results, fill out our no obligation Contact Form, or schedule a FREE Call with our Founder, Amy Infante.
