Hotel Industry Magazine on Sales and Marketing by Hotel Industry Magazine

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1. Ten Actions To Improve Your Sales Grace Gallagher

2. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m In Sales ... Or Is It Marketing? Conor Kenny

3. Selling in Hard Times Conor Kenny

4. Why Your Cold Calling Is Not Working Andy Preston

5. Common Sense Marketing David Collins

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Hotel Industry Magazine On Sales and Marketing First published internationally in 2014 by Jamieson Media Written by David Collins, Grace Gallagher, Conor Kenny and Andy Preston. This publication is based on original articles, content originally published in Hotel Industry Magazine and “Sales Tales: True Stories of How Great Sales Happen” by Conor Kenny (2014, Oak Tree Press). Digital Web: www.hotel-industry.co.uk Twitter: @hotel_industry Facebook: www.facebook.com/hotel.industry Jamieson Media Hotel Industry Magazine and hotel-industry.co.uk are published by Jamieson Media, a UK Registered Partnership Website: www.jamiesonmedia.co.uk Email: contact@jamiesonmedia.co.uk VAT Registration No: 127 7969 65

The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions in this publication, however caused. All information in this publication is provided for general use. The publishers advise all readers to seek specialist advice before acting on any information contained in this publication. Readers are also advised to directly contact advertisers and companies mentioned in this publication in order to qualify the claims made, adherence to regulation and financial security. No material in this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. © Copyright 2014, Jamieson Media

I know that many of our regular readers still bemoan our move away from the printed magazine ... but it’s all part of a bigger plan to deliver a stronger intelligence service to UK hoteliers! The special issue you are currently reading is part of this plan: The ultimate FREE resource of actionable intelligence for UK hoteliers on sales and marketing.

New digital services are also part of the plan: We have been working hard developing new digital workflow services for hoteliers that will become part of your everyday working lives, saving you money and helping you stay on the right side of the law!

The learning event that accompanies this special issue is also part of the plan: If you like what you read then join us in either Manchester or Birmingham for a two-day learning event on How to Convert More Sales. All of this is made possible by retiring the print magazine and revisiting our There are a host of speakers and advertiser-reliant business model to workshop leaders, including two of the improve our editorial quality, contributing authors from this special independence and objectivity. issue! But if, even after all this, you still The improved hotel data centre is also bemoan the retirement of our print part of the plan: Our FREE hotel data magazine, then don’t forget you can service enables you to benchmark still read the flip-page digital version your occupancy, RevPar and rate by every quarter! location and sector with interactive graphs and visualisations. Intelligence Lee Jamieson par excellence! Editor, Hotel Industry

Grace Gallagher previews our forthcoming Hotel Sales Masterclass (in either Manchester or Birmingham) with advice on how to improve your hotel sales. Want to know more? Come to one of our two-day workshops. Great sales and great selling is not some mythical potion that you can instantly dispense to reveal hidden caves full of gold. No, great selling is underpinned by sheer hard work. However, hard work needs to be smart work not simply grinding out ineffective “on the road” days. Hotel sales standards are generally quite weak. There are many reasons for this but, right now, you should see that as your opportunity to shine. In this short article, I share 10 tips that will change your effectiveness ... and change it quickly! 1. Do You Know Or Do You Think You Know? When did you last see your sales person in action? Not inside the hotel, but outside with potential customers? As an industry, we are very good at mystery guests inside but how about having one outside? 2. Your Promise Versus Your Delivery Many marketers dream up seductive enticing messages that make lots of promises. Is your promise being matched at the front line? If you promise me warm and friendly or, better still, ‘the little details’, how well are your troops matching the promise? Always move from “I think” to “I know”

3. Inside or Outside? Here’s a very simple but highly effective thought. If you’re sales people are in the office, they’re not out selling. 4. Have You a Compelling Reason? One of the greatest mistakes sales people make when trying to get that elusive appointment is that your pitch simply benefits you not the customer. Do you need to fix that? If I told you I wanted to drop by to give you the results of the euro millions ticket I bought for you, I suspect you might want to see me. 5. Ask Your Sales Person this Question... Are you in Sales or Marketing? If the answer is both, you’re already on thin ice. They are entirely different skills but 50% of the whole. Generally, you are one or the other. Marketing owns the message and sales the relationship. Funny then how you interviewed a sales person but ended up with “Claire in marketing”! 6. Ask Your Sales Person Also... What initiatives worked well over the last three years and why? Then, ask them what their plans are to do it again – but better. 7. Let’s See the Presentation What’s it like? Is it professional? Logical? Including all your unique points of difference and more. Above all else, does it create the desire to buy? 8. Let’s See the Follow Up The rock on which most sales perish. How good is yours? More importantly, does it take control or say “Look forward to hearing from you”? How well is it written? How well does it summarise? How well does it interpret the problem, not the solution?

9. Let’s See If “I’m Waiting For Them To Get Back To Me” There’s no such thing as a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ sales appointment. There is only ‘objective reached’ or ‘objective not reached’. The closing rarely comes with the customer ‘getting back to you’; it comes because you’ve earned the right to close the sale. It’s a process, not a stroke of luck. Good sales people know the difference. 10. Let’s See a Sales Plan That Is Original, Disruptive and Challenging. Are you really a different proposition with unique attributes? If you’re selling the same way as everyone else, you’ll be the same. That’s a good reason not to change provider. To finish, there is a ‘determination’ framed quotation that has sat on my desk for the last number of years. I try to remind myself to follow its simple wisdom every single day; “The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running” Want to know more? Come to one of our two-day workshops: How to Convert More Sales. ■■■

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What’s the difference between Sales and Marketing? Lots of people confuse sales with marketing. It’s understandable because the route to sales is often a detour in what was really meant to be a marketing career. I know, I was there. My very first job with a slow-moving State company quickly labelled me as a ‘Marketing Management Trainee’. Translated, it meant they had no idea what to do with me. An easy solution was to bury me under this wonderfully ambiguous title that meant I could be deployed to do anything. Marketing and Sales are entirely different skills: two halves of a whole – but independent. There are so many academic definitions that even the most passionate learner can be forgiven for confusing the two. Why is it that some books take the simple and make it complex? The purpose of marketing is simply to create the desire to buy – nothing else. The purpose of selling is to ensure the desire to buy converts into a commercial transaction. They are separate journeys, requiring different skills. Of course, the lines between marketing and sales can overlap and blur a little. Is what I am doing ‘Marketing’ or ‘Sales’? The answer comes when you ask yourself whether you are still creating the desire to buy. Marketing, put simply, is everything you do to gain attention – and, from there, the desire to buy. PR, social media, press coverage, websites, advertising, awards and more are all tools used in marketing to create the desire to buy. They

are fundamentally messages and signals. Their purpose is to attract you, to make you take notice and to make you want what it is they are offering. This ‘want’ must come first. The sale follows. Imagine a bleak winter day. The sky is dull grey and the landscape is a little barren. Your mood, which is always an emotional decisionmaker, matches the weather. On a long frosty, dreary drive, you round a bend to see a sundrenched poster of perfect people on a perfect beach. Their smiles, tans and sense of fun stir your senses. You want to be there. Of course, you can’t stop at the massive billboard and reach out to feel the sun or the sand. You can’t buy and you can’t even make an enquiry. But, it has planted the seed and created the desire to buy. It’s not a coincidence that you went online that night to pick out your next holiday. You probably didn’t even analyse why. The meeting, the phone call, or the online sales form completes the process. They’ve made a sale and you just bought. You have given money for what you are about to receive. Why did you buy? Because the marketing process created the desire. Without it, it is unlikely that you’d have thought about a holiday at that moment on that drive. Which One Am I? According to John Jantsch, the difference between marketing and sales is that Marketing owns the message and Sales owns the relationship. This is a perfect summary of the difference. Marketing is all about the message and how to create it; sales is all about the relationship and how to evolve it. One involves excellence with communication; the other excellence with people. Only you can decide which fits you. Rarely is one person the master of both.

Titles Every day, I meet Sales & Marketing Directors. The title always intrigues me – because it’s the wrong way around. It should be Marketing & Sales Director. Marketing always comes first; sales follow. In some ways, the art of selling is a much more complex challenge. After all, you are dealing with people, emotions, agendas and different motivations. Great sales people are really good at reading people and have an enormous desire to problem-solve and to help their customers. Are you the master of messages or the master of relationships? Your instinctive answer will guide you to the correct fit. Want to know more? Come to one of our two-day workshops: How to Convert More Sales. ■■■

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Sharpen your sales skills and achieve results in business. This Sales Master Class is original, practical, effective and memorable.

  

Learn techniques and methods to win more sales Gain confidence and the ability to control a sale Be equipped to attract, engage and win a customer

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The sales challenge is upon us! Conor Kenny shares some advice for selling in hard times. Conor will also be presenting at our two-day Hotel Sales Workshops in Manchester and Birmingham. Selling has not become harder; most sales people today are simply ill equipped, out of shape and in the wrong job. Harsh words, but true: I meet them every working day. The starting point for successful selling is being in the right job! Ask a sales person what they do for a living and I bet they answer “marketing”. Why? Because, for many, sales is not something they really want to do. The first step is to recruit people who want to sell by testing their track record and ability. To succeed in selling you have to be highly agile, mobile and articulate. Passion is fundamental to success because it drives persistence. In other words, passion ensures that failure is not an option. Next, you have to know who you want to talk to and why. The fatal conversation opener, “how are you today Mr. Kenny?” may quickly elicit a sarcastic, “thank you my friend, I’m in a very dark place but I’m so glad you care.” … Just get to the point because I know you’re selling and that’s ok. Wasting my time is not. The cardinal sin tends to occur at this point: there is no immediate engagement or benefit for the customer – you must benefit me first, yourself second. Crack that and you are half way to making sales. Recently, I was asked by the GM of a very fine hotel to develop a

detailed strategy for them. I refused. He was shocked and asked why. Earlier that week I was in the bunker sales office where four attractive 30-somethings were sitting amidst pink balloons celebrating a birthday. It was 3pm on a Tuesday. I was back again the following week and the same four were pouring over a newspaper cutting with their photo in it. I turned to the GM and said, “here’s your one month, high performance, turbo charged strategy. Are you ready? Those four people out, every day for the next week. Three calls in the morning to lapsed customers, one in the afternoon to an existing customer and two to potential customers. That’s 30 calls per person, per week, times four people is 120 meetings, or 6,000 per annum.” He got it. They did it. They had a record year. Want to know more? Come to one of our two-day workshops: How to Convert More Sales. ■■■

Sales expert Andy Preston reveals the common reasons behind ineffective cold calling. Whenever I’m talking to business owners or their sales teams, the topic of new business development and cold calling in particular always evokes interesting reactions. Cold calling is one of those topics that everyone has an opinion on – even those that don’t do it! And the salespeople and business owners that do it normally fall into one of the camps – love it, loathe it, or tolerate it! However, no matter which of those camps you or your team fall into, most people don’t get the results that they want from cold calling, so below are some reasons why that is the case, and also some ideas on what to do about it! So why isn’t your cold calling working as well as it could be? Reason 1: Lack Of Preparation If this is you, you’re not alone! Most people fail to prepare for their cold calling sessions properly. You’d be astounded how many times I see people ‘start’ a cold calling session by looking for their list of people to call, trying to find their diary, finishing off an email, taking a call from an existing client, tidying their desk, going to get a drink or have a quick cigarette…pretty much anything but start making the calls! Often, this means that the calling session that was due to start at

10.00 now really starts at about 10.40. Then, by the time the salesperson has made a few calls, the session is over! The salesperson might have achieved their objective of ‘avoiding’ the session, but has the session really contributed to the success of the business? Hardly! Cold calling is best done in focussed ‘sessions’, with no interruptions. That means no emails, no incoming phone calls, no interruptions from colleagues, no going to get a drink etc – do all of that before the session starts. And if the session is meant to start at 10.00, then the first phone call should be at 10.00 – not 10.05, 10.10, or 10.20! Reason 2: Lack Of Belief A number of business owners and salespeople I meet still aren’t convinced that cold calling actually works, or could work for them and their company. And those people are usually the ones who have tried it (or are currently doing it) and aren’t getting the results that they could, or they haven’t tried it but have already decided that it won’t work! I always find it interesting when I talk to people who have this belief as they often that that ‘cold calling just won’t work in my industry’. Then, when I ask them what they do, they are in the same industry as someone that I have trained that is getting great results from cold calling! Perhaps what the people with the negative beliefs really mean is – I’m not sure of the right approach that would make it work for me? Whatever the reason, if you or your team is making cold calls with the belief that cold calling doesn’t work, do you think that might stand in the way of the potential success of your calls a little? Of course it will! In my experience of making and listening to tens of thousands of cold calls in all sorts of industries, if you start with that sort of belief, your activity levels will be lower, your voice tone will be monotone and boring (instead of bright and enthusiastic), you’ll accept the first objection too easily and you’ll do anything to avoid doing the calls – so is it any wonder that cold calling isn’t working for you at the moment?!!

Reason 3 Inability To Deal With Rejection This is always an interesting subject. This can affect anyone, particularly if you’re new to sales, new to cold calling, or only do it as part of your role. For example, if your role consists of mainly account management, if your boss has just told you that you need to start making cold calls, or you’ve started up your own business and need to start cold calling, then this could be affecting you right now! Let’s face it – if you’re cold calling you’re going to face some rejection. Some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will give you objections. Some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will say ‘no’ directly to you. And some of you will have to deal with the fact that people will put the phone down on you fairly regularly. When you’re cold calling, the majority of people you speak to are going to be hesitant, resistant and say no to you at some level. The point is, you’re not expecting to get a ‘yes’ on every call. You’re expecting that 90%, 95% sometimes even 97.5% of people are going to say no. The reason you’re calling is to get the smaller percentage of people that are going to say yes to you – yes I’ll consider you, yes I’ll meet with you, yes I’ll look at buying from you. However if you can’t deal with (or learn to deal with) the rejection that you’re going to face, do you think that might stop you making the calls, or do your best to avoid it? Of course it will! Reason 4: Failure To Stay Motivated Cold calling can be difficult. And because of the amount of objections and rejection you face it can sometimes be difficult to stay motivated. However your failure to stay motivated could actually be causing you problems on your cold calls. Many people I talk to find selling over the phone difficult. Particularly if

your role involves selling face-to-face, or has done in the past. This is because when you sell face-to-face, you can read the other person’s body language, build rapport faster and watch their reaction when you deliver your price. However when you’re selling over the phone, all you have is your voice tone and your delivery. And if your role involves a lot of cold calling, it’s very easy for your motivation levels to drop later in the day if you’re not careful! For many people cold calling is about sounding bright, enthusiastic, confident and certain. And all these traits can be heard in your voice tone, can’t they? However, I’ve lost count of the amount of calls that have been made when the salesperson or business owner isn’t motivated. Their voice tone has gone from being bright and enthusiastic to bored, tired and disinterested. They might as well be saying ‘Hi it’s Andy from XYZ company…..you probably won’t be interested in what we have to offer…..you’ve probably happy with your existing supplier, so please put me out of my misery and tell me to go away, so I can ring someone else and hit my call target to get my boss off my back.” Now, you don’t have to be a genius to work out that making that sort of call is going to produce pretty much zero results, do you? Reason 5: Wrong Attitude I always find it interesting how many people start a cold calling session that are defeated before they even start! These people can always find an excuse for not doing the calls ‘oh I haven’t got the time’, ‘I’ve just got to ring a few existing customers first’ and ‘I just need to tidy my desk for the 17th time this week’ And when they actually have to make some calls, they are convinced that decision makers don’t want to speak to them, that no one will buy because of ‘the recession’, that cold calling is a pointless activity and won’t work, etc etc.

What kind of impact does this sort of thinking have on the potential results of their cold calling sessions do you think? Might it be affected in a negative way? Of course! Then, when it comes to handling objections, the same negative attitude and mindset affects them here as well. Let’s take the example above, where the salesperson has ‘decided’ that no-one is buying because of the recession. What do you think will happen to that salesperson’s attitude the minute that the person they’re talking to says something like ‘we don’t have a budget’ ‘or we’re cutting back at the moment’? That’s right, they’ll say to themselves ‘see I knew it, no-one’s got any money at the moment because of the recession, maybe I should get out of sales and get another job?’ Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But it’s happening a lot more than you’d think. What happening to trying to handle that objection, position back the value and re-close for the business? Didn’t even show up! All because the salesperson had the wrong attitude and had already ‘decided’ that the person wasn’t going to buy – and the first piece of ‘evidence’ that seemingly confirmed their suspicions, they gave up. Reason 6: Lack Of Pride I’m often astounded when I meet salespeople (and business owners who have to ‘sell’ as part of their role) that don’t appear to be proud of what they’re doing. Instead of being proud of themselves, their role, their company and their products and services, far too many salespeople sound like they’re almost ashamed instead! Think about when you’ve ever received a call from someone trying to sell to you. If the person has sounded weak, uncertain and has started to apologise for the fact that they’re even calling you, what kind of impact has that had on your perception of this person, their company, and their products and services? My guess would be that it wouldn’t be particularly favourable. I’ve even heard some salespeople say things like ‘oh I’m sorry to bother you’, or ‘sorry if this sounds like a sales call but…’ It IS a sales call! Be proud of the fact! Be proud of the fact you’re in sales, your

company and your products and services, instead of apologising for them! Reason 7: Lack Of Activity Now I know some of you are going to complain about this one, but seriously – lack of new business activity is one of the biggest reasons salespeople don’t hit their turnover or profit targets. And before any of you start banging on about ‘oh but Andy I want to make quality calls, not quantity’, let me explain further. I don’t mean that I want you to make lots of random calls with no direction, no quality and no value. What I mean is that I want you to make quality calls, I just want you to make more of them! Let’s face it – no matter how poor (or how good) your sales skills are, based on your existing conversion rates if you make 10% more calls, you’re going to get to speak to 10% more decision makers, make 10% more meetings, 10% more proposals, and therefore 10% more business! Just from a 10% increase in activity alone! Now if you were to read the rest of this article (and the first part) and work on your sales skills, you can increase your sales figures even higher. And this also comes back to ‘reason one’ that I mentioned in the first part of this article – that mentioned ‘preparation’. If you haven’t planned to do a cold calling session uninterrupted, how on earth can you expect to get in the ‘zone’ – ready, focused, motivated and call after call continuing with the same energy and enthusiasm that’s needed to help persuade people over the phone? Reason 8: Lack Of (Or ‘Rusty’) Sales Skills This is a topic that people are becoming more and more aware of in the current market. There is a general lack of sales skills, but especially so in the ‘new business’ and ‘cold calling’ arenas. For far too long, cold calling has been viewed by some people as a ‘necessary evil’, something that ‘junior’ salespeople do, and generally looked on as something that people with a year or more of sales

experience don’t have to do any more. They’re wrong. Cold calling and new business generation is something that every salesperson should do, regardless of age, seniority or experience. It helps to keep you ‘sharp’, being able to deal with the tougher objections (so when they come up from existing clients, you can deal with them easily) and helps you to fill your sales pipeline. For some salespeople however, they’ve never developed those skills, possibly because they’ve been in more of an account management or ‘incoming’ sales role. It might also be that they haven’t had to cold call for a while and their skills are ‘rusty’ at best. To be successful at cold calling and new business generation, you need to have a good level of skill at call openings, getting past gatekeepers, questioning, objection handling and closing at the very least! How do you currently rate yourself or your team in those areas? And when would be a good time to do something about it? ■■■

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David Collins, co-founder and group marketing director at Great National Hotels and Resorts, discusses how applying common sense can transform your hotel marketing effectiveness. When was the last time you ran an ad or sent out a piece of direct mail or produced in-house point of sale which really made a difference to your business? Or which even barely, out-performed any promotional idea that you had previously launched on your customers? The likelihood is most people if honest would admit to ‘not in recent memory’ and the reason is probably because hotel marketing is in such a state of churn at the moment that we’re all trying to get to grips with the new world order emerging thanks to digital which has thrown up multiples of new channels and new ways of interacting with consumers. Consumers too are having to figure out for themselves what they like and as importantly what they don’t like. So what you have is almost a sense of confusion on both sides of the fence which in turn clouds how best to approach your communications mix and how to get the most out of your marketing spend, whether its advertising, direct mail, PPC, etc. The best and only way to deal with this is to remember that marketing is mostly common sense. It’s understanding that you are as much a consumer as your guests are and therefore in anything and everything you do for your business, it’s best to first put yourself in the shoes of your audience and

empathize with their likely reaction to what you put in front of them. Do this and you may surprise yourself the next time you run an ad in the local free-sheet or launch a re-marketing campaign on-line. So here’s a few ‘do’s and don’ts’ that might help you along the way, it’s not a comprehensive list nor is it exclusive to on-line or off-line nor traditional media or social media, but it might just weed out some bad habits and help you achieve more bang for your marketing buck. Copywriting         

Focus on client benefits, not product features Sentences should be no more than 20 words, maximum Remember to answer where, when, how much, what’s included, etc., never leave the client in doubt Be specific and honest, say what’s included Avoid meaningless phrases and using the same word twice Is there plenty of ‘you’ appeal? Be enthusiastic but don’t make yourself or the business look foolish Is the grammar correct and spelling checked, for best results read your content backwards Avoid hotel jargon and leave out impersonal words such as ‘persons’ and ‘people’

Advertising      

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Never buy advertising over the phone If you didn’t plan it, why are you doing it? Beware special features, year planners and first publications, nobody reads them other than the advertisers Advertise when the customer wants to buy, not when you want to sell Nobody ever bought a conference or wedding from reading an advert Always ask for audited circulation and readership figures and calculate the cost per thousand to weigh up competing publications Ask yourself, is there a better way?

Direct Mail, Ezines                   

A bad letter to a good list will always work better than a good letter to a bad list A good letter to a good list will always work best Your own list is better than anyone else’s Personalize your communication to the client Always have a head-line featuring a customer benefit APS is typically the first thing people read so include one and make it engaging Break up copy and content and make it easy to read, and include rich content such as video if an option Make it easy for clients to respond to you, give them a clear call to action And allow recipients an opportunity to update their details or opt out In-house Point of Sale Location, location, location Replace immediately dog-eared, finger-printed and foodsmeared tent cards Keep content to the minimum required with a clear call to action A large photo is better than three small ones Posters are read from top to bottom Will your clients identify with what you’re promoting? Rotate your POS, is it seasonal or specific even to the time of day? Put effort into design so as to engage your audience Above all, don’t forget to track results from what you do.

Why? Well aside from knowing how effective your spend is which in turn allows you to plan better, you won’t find yourself quoting ‘I know half my advertising works, the problem is I don’t know which half.’ …. That just gives all of us hotel marketers a bad name. ■■■

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Sharpen your sales skills and achieve results in business. This Sales Master Class is original, practical, effective and memorable.

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Learn techniques and methods to win more sales Gain confidence and the ability to control a sale Be equipped to attract, engage and win a customer

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