Face-to-Face Sales Appointments – Are they really effective in building a sales pipeline and driving revenue growth?
I have the pleasure of working with hotel leadership around the world by helping them set out the best plan for adding new business opportunities to their pipeline and generating more revenue. A question I get asked a lot is about how effective our sales blitz processes are for their hotel sales teams.
I get a lot of skepticism from leaders regarding sales blitzes that run the spectrum:
- Our sales managers don’t have time, and seems like the clients don’t have time to meet, either. It’s a challenge to get commitment!
- Sales blitzes or sales missions seem like a waste of time. We never see results!
- It seems impossible to track the outcome of our sales appointments. I can’t get my sales team to affectively report on the appointments, or follow-up.
I share with them that they aren’t dealing with the issue of sales blitz effectiveness in general, but of past experiences with blitzes that can be overcome with proper processes and realistic expectations.
In complete contrast, our sales blitzes at Plan B were designed with processes and systems specifically to overcome the challenges listed above. So this is what we do at Plan B:
We handle everything. Literally everything except actually executing the appointment! You name it: appointment-setting, confirmations with clients, last-minute changes, mapping & logistics for teams, prospect profiles, workbook delivery for individual teams, etc. We come up with the lists of clients to call based on planning calls with leadership and sales teams. We also handle all follow-up post sales blitz with clients. That’s right…WE handle the follow-through. We call them to thank them for the time on the visit, verify information gathered on the appointment & through our appointment-setting calls to marry the insights together for a comprehensive picture of the prospects’ total business opportunity. Then, we source the business direct to the hotels when the client has a meeting or transient business they want to bid. The follow-up/lead nurturing process NEVER stops. In fact, we are still making calls to appointments executed in 2013!
One of our clients recently shared with us that they spent triple the amount of time to set up a sales blitz the previous year (that’s just set-up…no follow-up included). They hired us in the same city the following year and had nearly double the amount of appointments and spent 1/10th the amount of time.
When proper planning and processes are put into play, sales blitzes are incredibly effective at uncovering true potential and then moving more clients to the next stage of the sales cycle. My business mentor tells me “the fastest way to cash is to be in front of your clients more!” I want to give that to our hotel partners, which is why we designed this Hotel Sales Blitz program!
I’m sure many have seen these statistics. I share them with almost every hotel sales manager I get the chance to work with, because it speaks volumes!
48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect (hence why Plan B handles the follow-up ourselves)
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people make more than three contacts
2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
If 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact, then I say a face-to-face meeting with a prospect is worth at least 3 contacts!
- It’s easier to establish credibility and trust.
- It allows the sales manager to focus on objections on-the-spot.
- It sets the sales manager & property apart from the competitors as they rely more on electronic and phone communication (electronic being primary).
In 2014, we took a snapshot of some of our sales blitzes to give a perspective of how effective sales appointments can deliver if there are processes and systems in place that make sense:
807 Sales Appointments were scheduled for client set we dove into.
29.27% of those appointments were sourced as a business opportunity to 1 or multiple hotels as of December, 2014. Only 3 appointments fell off the follow-up/nurturing cycle permanently, so there is a 99% retention rate to the sales pipeline so far! Did you know that 79% marketing leads do not convert to sales? So, we’re already beating the odds with these face-to-face appointments and we haven’t even gotten started. We’re not even half way through the sales cycle!
The typical sales cycle for our hotel partners for brand new business is 12-18 months. (meaning from the time prospect is uncovered via phone call or sales appointment to a move to sales contract)
The average sales cycle for the blitz appointments sourced was 6 months.
Because we have processes and systems to ensure lead follow-up never ends, the number of leads sourced is constantly increasing over time. We are on pace in 2015 to source 4 leads per week that were uncovered in 2014 for just one customer. Because the timeline of the blitzes in 2014 were from March – November, there is a large portion of the appointments from 2014 that are just 3 months post blitz execution today. My point is…there is a lot more opportunity to be sourced, and in comparison to the stories we hear from our customers who have executed other sales blitzes…our results are driving revenue vs. burning through leads that will never see the light of day again. The real kicker is that the sourced revenue opportunity from these 29% is over $3M in incremental new business!
Pretty appealing, right? I say the answer is DO sales blitzes. Plan them effectively with follow-up and lead nurturing being the clincher that will drive results. If you need some help with the planning and implementation…that’s what we’re here for!
I will warn that our service is not the right fit for everyone in every market with every goal, but we could be just what you need! Give us a call at 312-636-7384 or reach out to me directly at amy.infante@planbconsultants.com. Our goal is to serve more hotels & hotel owners in 2015 with effective sales tactics that generate results! You may also want to check out a previous post on Smart Sales Appointments with some great tips!