Although there are surely plenty of amazing hotel operations leaders and sales superstars to whom this article does not apply, based on my personal experiences when providing hotel sales process assessments, my sense is that too many of today’s hotel general managers and corporate-level operational executives fall for the mystification of hotel sales.
This becomes obvious when you ask GMs what they do to manage their sales leader and team. Some eagerly say they have a weekly sales meeting to review “business on the books” and “YTD revenue vs. goal.” Others talk about how they occasionally do ride-alongs on sales calls. Still others talk about how they mandate X number of prospecting calls a month.
Yet too few do what is actually the more important thing, which is to dive into the sales activities and action steps that ensure their hotel is fully actualizing the revenue potential based on whatever local economic market conditions prevail.
As a result, hotel salespeople may be overly rewarded during periods of unanticipated growth in demand, and just as unfairly, overly blamed during periods of unexpected economic decline.
This is not to imply that operations leaders do not care or do not try. It is simply that they have fallen victim to the mystification of hotel sales.
A decade or two ago, hotel sales was easier to manage back when leads arrived by phone or direct email. Technology was also simpler and reporting was much more basic. With the expansion of meeting and event booking platforms, the emergence of an ever-growing number of third-party meeting and event planners — and increasingly sophisticated sales CRMs — managing hotel sales feels more complex and confusing than ever before.
In addition, an ever-growing number of hotel sales tech companies offer the latest “must-have” platform to automate RFP responses and follow-ups, falsely pushing the urban legend that all that matters is a quick response time. Corporate leaders and asset managers find themselves spending more each fiscal year yet getting the same market share.
So, what should operations leaders be doing? Keeping your sales teams focused on the sales essentials that still matter, and perhaps matter even more so, in today’s world of generic, AI-generated auto-responses.
It’s easy for any GM, asset manager or corporate-level leader to take some of the same action steps that we do during our sales process assessments.
First, start tracking sales lead conversion rates. Have the sales team record any “right size” lead — that is, one that fits your inventory and is for dates that are available — and then compare this to the number of closed deals each month.
Second, on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, sit with each salesperson and randomly pull three to five leads from 30 days back. Then ask them to show you documentation of their follow-up action steps.
- How quickly did they respond to the initial inquiry?
- What methods did they use to respond? Email only? In-platform message only? Did they call?
- How thorough was their initial response?
- Was their response personalized, or did they send a generic proposal template?
- What follow-up action steps did they take overall? Calls? Emails?
- Was the lead entered into the CRM for future retargeting, even if the business was lost or denied due to availability?
At the same time, ask salespeople to show you how and when they are blocking time for outbound prospecting, what research they are doing prior to reaching out, and what outbound leads they are currently working on. Look at the same (above) concepts used for responding to inbound leads, such as timely and persistent follow-up and personalization.
On a related note, the best time to ensure the above is accomplished on both a professional, consistent and timely basis is during the interview process prior to hiring any director of sales and/or sales manager. If a hotel general manager or appropriate corporate team member would review and dive deep into the above bullet points during the interview process, they would get a much better understanding of that candidate’s history, ability and skill set. This in turn, should result in better hires, longer-term sales associate tenures, consistent revenue growth and ultimately RevPAR results better than your hotel's competitive set.
Indeed, much has changed in the sales office these days, yet the fundamental essentials of sales success are not that much different than they were years ago. Your salespeople are your hotel’s superpower and are the key to gaining market share. You cannot out-tech the competition. By keeping your salespeople focused on the essential sales action steps that they can fully control, operational leaders will ensure maximum revenues in both up and down markets.
Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
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