Have you ever wondered how much money is wasted on hotel programs to acquire new business? I have and I do…every day. Reason being it is the main challenge our hotel partners face, and typically the reason they engage with our team. New strategies to acquire new business are being tried and tested every day. The challenge is that most of those trials fail.
Chances are, your hotel has several campaigns running and strategies in the works to acquire new business leads. Direct website traffic, special online sales promotions, prospecting campaigns, social media campaigns, third party partnerships, GDS advertising, etc. Whatever it is…it is costing you money to employ sales staff, create marketing pieces, run campaigns with third parties, etc. Hotels are placing nickel bets on many different programs to drive leads to the sales team, and nearly 80% of those bets fail. You got it. I see only about 20% of the money being spent bringing a return, and that is a very generous estimate.
So, it must be the program to acquire the leads that is the failure? Not so fast!
The biggest reasons your lead generation programs might be failing:
- Panic and Hustle: Reacting to the market vs. looking ahead is problematic when it comes to lead generation, because lead generation needs time to build. Implement strategies consistently so that the hotel is building a consistent lead pipeline.
- Too Many Small Bets – Fragmented Strategy: We like to call them nickel bets. Testing so many different things on a small scale and never committing to anything.
- Quick-Start With No Clear Goal: I understand this very well, because I am considered a “quick-start” according to the Kolbe model, which means that I am great at coming up with new ideas and activating against those quickly. This comes with a downside, which I see with many of our hotel partners. It’s great to set a strategy and move, but we must have a clear goal in mind. We must have a true understanding of realistic outcomes of every lead generation program. Far too often, I get calls from hotel partners saying “Amy, we just need leads and booked business!” When I ask what their goal is for the program, they say “let’s just see what we get.” I can say that almost 100% of the projects I allowed my own quick-start to take over and didn’t set a clear goal were doomed for failure.
- Lack of Follow-Through: Of course, no lead generation post can get by without mentioning the need for a specific and clear process for follow-through. Every lead generation program has a specific deliverable map to get a lead to a sales team member. If there is not a very clear plan with accountability measures for the hotel sales manager to nurture that lead and follow-through (keeping in mind that each newly acquired lead can take between 5-12 touch points before they will convert) then the lead generation program is going to be a waste of money.
- Lack of Trackable Metrics: If you can’t measure the program, don’t do it. Or I should say, if you’re not committed to tracking the program…don’t do it. There are ways to track any lead generation program. Tracking through one attempt at follow-up with the client after the lead has been acquired is not enough. Your sales team could be following one lead for over 12 months. It’s easy to give up and quit after 1-3 attempts and say it was a bad lead. The most committed hotel sales teams will stick with the program and their process. This is the only way you can truly measure the value of the lead generation program.
Far too often, I see hotels give up on lead generation programs that could be incredibly successful because they were not committed to one or more of the above 5 areas. The cost to the hotel? Reacquiring those leads that were lost from that program over time. The loss could be thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. You get the picture.
