The traditional sales approach in the hotel industry involves a sales manager who is responsible for prospecting new business and taking that business all the way through the “sales funnel”. Essentially, the sales manager uncovers needs, determines fit, places an offer and moves the business to a signed contract.
As a hotel industry leader, how many “rainmakers” have you had on your sales team over the past few years? In my experience, I hear of and run across very few. It’s not because we lack talent in our industry. I believe it is because we set our sales teams up for failure with this “old-school” approach of how the sales team strategy should be deployed. Other industries have discontinued this practice. Insurance, advertising, pharma and medical device companies are all largely moving to a system of lead generation specialists and closers as two separate teams. This is a difficult paradigm shift for many hoteliers as there is an immediate thought of added costs. We’ll dive deeper into that in another post, but here we want to tackle the reason why it will be a struggle for hotels until the industry embraces a new system.
Why the Compressed Sales Cycle Makes it Impossible for Hotel Sales Managers to Be Effective at Prospecting:
We are dealing with a more compressed sales cycle today because of the B2B buying process. The B2B Buyer can collect an incredible amount of information about a hotel long before they engage with a sales person thanks to property websites, social media, tripadvisor, etc. Statistics show that 60% of the buying process happens before a buyer engages with a hotel sales person. Once a buyer is ready to engage with a hotel, things move fairly fast. We find that inbound leads direct from customers take ¼ as long to convert to contract. The sales manager sends proposals, discusses property features, overcomes objections, builds repor, provides proof of service standards, manages customer expectations & negotiates the contract. All of this can happen within weeks. This is where the sales team should focus their efforts!
So what about prospecting?
- It’s not dead.
- It’s one important tactic of many for lead generation
- It’s only a waste of time if there is not a clear execution strategy
It’s a necessary “evil” in the minds of most every hotel sales manager I’ve spoken with. It’s a tactic that is discussed with every sales team, but largely it gets overshadowed because the sales team is focused on more immediate business. I’m saying LET THEM! They aren’t skilled at prospecting, because it is not and can’t be done consistently at property level with the same team that is tasked with closing business. To be effective at prospecting, one needs to practice, be consistent and remain focused on that effort.
The process of uncovering new business opportunities & nurturing them to the point of engagement is painfully long. It is long because it’s about finding potential customers that aren’t currently finding you and raising their hand. As industry leaders, we know that it is not OK to wait for customers to find us. That tactic leads to the hotel sales “EKG” where business has those peaks and valleys and starts and stops.
It takes patience and persistence, which is difficult for sales managers to switch their focus when they are working on engaged/short-term needs. When push comes to shove, if I have a client needing a proposal, or 20 prospecting calls to make for business that I might uncover for next year…I will focus on the proposal, of course!
All of this circles us back to the reason hotel sales teams employ a start & stop approach to prospecting. Prospecting starts because there is an urgent need due to shortfalls in business and it stops because the prospecting yielded zero results for that need period. In actuality, prospecting must be consistent to be effective, and must be viewed as a long-term solution…not a quick fix. To ensure this happens, prospecting must be executed separate from the team tasked with closing business.
At Plan B Consultants, Inc. we deploy a quick-start program to help our hotel partners with their prospecting efforts called Right Fit Lead® Prospecting. We also have a more full-service program for our partners that need hands-on prospecting and lead nurturing called Activation Partner™ Services. Whether you need to outsource or not, we are here to serve you to review your challenges and ensure you have the proper team deployment and resources in place to win!