Hotel sales can be complicated. Depending on the size of your property, sales teams may vary significantly, and with lingering labor shortage issues, hotel sales managers are often left with the challenge of hitting their sales goals and ensuring consistent occupancy with limited resources.
Finding the right people to be part of your sales team is critical so you can achieve more with fewer resources. Sales jobs require diverse skills, from engaging with in-house guests to cold-calling corporate clients. Sales teams need to be able to collaborate with other hotel team members, such as general managers and revenue managers, to develop and reach realistic revenue and sales goals.
The number one goal for hotel sales teams is to sell more rooms and secure business throughout the month, quarter, and year. Most sales teams can be split into three market segments:
This market often has the highest success rate of all three sources and includes relationship-building with corporations to host its business travelers. For this market, sales teams will benefit from having a strong business relationship with their local OTA market managers to get information about local market trends and other hotels’ promotions in order to be more competitive.
Hotel sales members are responsible for finding prospects through cold-calling, email, and social media, attending conferences, tradeshows, and other events to promote their hotel’s brand and network with those in the hospitality industry.
The work doesn’t end for the hotel sales team once the sale is made. Relationship nurturing is another crucial aspect of the job to ensure account retention. Following up regularly with clients can help your property stay top-of-mind when booking again.
The director of sales should prioritize the reviewing of results from the most recent period (monthly or quarterly) with their team to determine areas of success and opportunities for growth.
While sales teams will differ based on property size and type, when building a sales team, no matter the size, you must take time to hire the right people for your business. Here are some best practices for building your hotel sales team.
- Ensure you have a well-defined target market. This will help you when interviewing candidates to ensure they have the right experience and proven results.
- Hire salespeople who can fulfill multiple functions in the sales process.
- Your team should be hospitable, friendly, and, most importantly, consist of great listeners.
- Make sure your team members work well with others. Your team will work cross-functionally across the hotel with catering managers, general managers, front desk staff, and more to ensure that a customer’s experience meets expectations once they arrive.
- Invest in training. During initial training, your sales staff should be educated on your specific room types, room rates, services, upsell opportunities, local offerings, and more.
Hotel sales and marketing teams work in tandem with one another to deliver on hotel revenue goals. Marketing teams create brand awareness and share relevant content through social media, paid ads press releases, etc. Sales teams foster relationships, negotiate contracts, search for new business through outbound prospecting, and nurture inbound leads to close deals.
Together, these groups play a pivotal role in the hospitality sales process.
Courtesy: hospitalitynet.org
