Here’s what hotels can do to improve their group sales
When you talk with group sales managers, phrases like ‘lead fatigue’ and ‘lead triage’ suddenly start making their way into the conversation… and you quickly notice the exhaustion in their eyes…
Why is that?
It’s because the job of group sales, which has been defined as inbound marketing, has gone digital, exploding the number of RFP a hotel receives on any given day… and making the job of chasing opportunities exponentially harder
Faced with this onslaught, as many as 80% of requests simply go unanswered. And of those few opportunities with a good fit, sales managers know they still face long odds – vying against dozens… or even hundreds competing properties – in a market where demand has nearly flattened out (yet rates are still at an all-time high).
It’s no wonder this is such a ‘burn out’ job.
How to help your sales staff
This article shows you how you can quickly and easily ease your sales staffs’ suffering… while giving your hotel a decided advantage in the RFP game – starting right away!
This is how you go back to the ‘good ol’ days’ when:
- You only had to compete against 2 or 3 other hotels for a piece of business…
- Opportunities that came your way had already pre-qualified themselves for your property…
- Your sales people could spend their time on the relationships that yielded the biggest returns…
I had a chance to speak with Bruce Rosenberg, COO of HotelPlanner, yesterday. This is the story of how his company is working with thousands of hotels around the world to turn this vision of greater convenience, efficiency and ease into reality.
He began our conversation with one simple fact. “Meeting planners are just as tired of sending out thousands of RFPs and wading through the copy-and-paste responses as sales people are in sending them!”
“So we set out to come up with a better way,” he told me. “First of all, we focused on taking a lot of the RFP response work out of the equation by driving traffic through our personalized filtering system.”
“To do this,” he explained, “we work with each of our hotel partners to figure out what business is ‘the right fit’ for their properties, and then we only show that hotel to a meeting planner if it fits the hotel’s criteria.”
This saves everyone time. And, ultimately, it helps meeting planners move forward with confidence… because they only have to choose between 2 or 3 pre-qualified hotels. So it’s a win-win!
Then Bruce surprised me with how they handle logistics
During our call, Bruce told me about an auto show his company recently organized in Germany. This event entailed logistics for the event space, lodging, airfare and, ‘gulp!’, all the paperwork and potential ‘pitfalls’ involved with importing a fleet of high-end cars!
Obviously, this goes well beyond the scope of any hotel’s sales team. But, because HotelPlanner has dedicated teams for projects like this, he was able to help his clients get this business.
That’s the power of teamwork! And that’s something I made sure to compliment him on as our call time was winding down.
“I feel like you provide a lot of training,” I told him. “I mean, if a hotel’s group sales aren’t doing very well, and they want to ramp things up… working with you gives them a lot of guidance… without the investment it would take to build these online funnels for themselves.”
“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “Look, the business is going to go somewhere. That’s just the simple truth. But it takes so much time and effort to make sure it goes to the right place. And, unfortunately, that’s the busy work that zaps the energy out of most sales teams. So we work with our hotel partners to learn what’s right for them, and help them find the right business. Because when we can create a good fit – the event goes well and guests are happy – everybody wins. And that’s the experience that helps their sales team get better at qualifying business… at making sure they’re always working with the right type of client – instead of chasing bad leads all day… That’s how we make their sales efforts more successful going forward.”
Making everyone’s lives easier
Personally, I’m a big advocate for hotels creating their own direct marketing channels for each of their best-guest segments… but when it comes to group sales – that’s a bit of a ‘different animal’.
Your group sales team needs to have a deep understanding of which groups are ‘the right fit’ for your property. They need to filter through a mountain of RFPs every day to find that. And then they need to shoot off a quick email and hope it gets seen under a stack of competitors (often from every state in the union!). So I know their job isn’t easy.
That’s why I think having someone who can represent you – someone who can bring millions of dollars of technology and manpower to the problem and make your life a whole lot easier – is essential.
I’m convinced this is the direction group sales is heading…
And since HotelPlanner has a pure, pay-for-performance business model of 10% after the group checks out (and no upfront fees), it seems like a more than fair trade for all the time a sales team can waste chasing leads… and running down contracts, every day.
Thanks a lot for the call, Bruce! It was a real eye opener!
All the best,
Jeremiah