As demand is rebounding in the hotel group and event space, some salespeople are falling back into their old ways of sales order-taking. However, the smartest hotel leaders are asking their teams to rededicate themselves to proactive prospecting.

Here are some “best habits” for effective sales prospecting on LinkedIn and other social media networks:

Before you start using LinkedIn for prospecting, step back and consider your overall strategy. An old-school analogy might be a hotel salesperson who attends a Chamber of Commerce event and expects to walk out with hot leads, but leaves disappointed and never returns. Those with the intention of making personalized connections will do much better in the end.

Before you jump into prospecting on LinkedIn, start by looking at your profile. Make sure it is up to date with your past roles, certifications, community involvement and professional awards.

Next, make a few posts that bring value to your connections and to the community at large. If you enjoy writing, add your own articles that might benefit those on the buyer’s side of the equation. If you are not inclined to write, share relevant content you find elsewhere. The more quality content you have shared, the more likely it is that others will accept your connection requests.

Similarly, be sure to like, comment and share posts of those in your network that bring value to your connections. These action steps will help boost your presence in the LinkedIn feeds of others.

The worst thing you can do is make a connection request and then, when accepted, immediately send a generic prospecting message. This is especially poor if you don't even bother to do research on the new contact and their company before reaching out. I can tell you that as a business owner, this happens to me several times a week.

I generally accept all connection requests, but when I immediately get a message that reads like spam and if it is obvious that the sender did no research, I immediately remove the connection and block them.

However, if the person makes any effort at all to personalize their messaging, I will always reply and accept their request for a call. Before such conversations, I always visit their website, but it's rare that a person researches mine.

Do a quick scan of profiles, looking for something of interest you can mention when you reach out. For example, many meeting and event planners have had previous hotel sales experience and you can relate to where they used to work.

Finally, when you do reach out, use a humble approach by asking for their assistance in finding out:

a) If their company is a prospect and if so,

b) If they can help you reach the right person so that your hotel can be considered for future travel, meetings or events.

Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.