An advantageous location, good service and pleasant surroundings once might have been enough to ensure the success of a hotel - But times have changed and competition in the hotel industry has never been more fierce. As a result, no matter how superior your location or facilities may be, your sales effort is now a critical factor in the success or failure of your operation.

Thus the question arises of how do I monitor my sales effort? How do I know that the direction and intensity that my sales managers are taking is the right one? What tools are in place to create a valid reporting system that will keep me abreast of my hotels' current and future sales bookings? Where do I need business and where do I want it?

We are all too familiar with the eternally optimistic sales manager who profess that next month is in good shape, or, the reasons we are down is that business everywhere is down and when the business climate improves, so will the occupancy. The fact of the matter is that these cliche answers are simply not valid and if your sales team does not have their direction clearly defined in the form of accountable, monitorable action steps, you could be in big trouble.

We are all too familiar with the eternally optimistic sales manager who profess that next month is in good shape, or, the reasons we are down is that business everywhere is down and when the business climate improves, so will the occupancy. The fact of the matter is that these cliche answers are simply not valid and if your sales team does not have their direction clearly defined in the form of accountable, monitorable action steps, you could be in big trouble.

Experience has taught us that there are three specific pitfalls that interfere with even the most dedicated sales managers: failure to deploy into target markets that yield the highest return on time invested, the inability to streamline the administrative chores that rob them of valuable selling time and the failure to ever receive any accelerated training. Let's take a closer look at these pitfalls and examine some suggestions that could overcome them.

All too often, we see the bright-eyed young sales manager come to us at the end of the day declaring that they have contacted fifty new potential accounts. When asked what they booked they look down to the floor and declare honestly that they were unable to put any new room nights on the books.

When asked who were amongst the fifty new accounts that they contacted, we are shocked to find that not one of the fifty could ever bring their business to the hotel. Too big, too small, too expensive, not expensive enough, too far away, too close to home. The reality is that they spent their time unwisely calling into target markets that will never yield a return on time invested.

It is critical that the owner or operator be keenly aware of which markets will yield a return. Analyze your current customer base and your top producing travel agencies. Try to identify a pattern amongst the groups that you are having success with, and above all, make sure you know who is using your competition.

The second pitfall is a real killer. Our definition of administrative chores is time between 9a and 5p that is spent doing anything other than being on the phone with, meeting with, talking with or breaking bread with a client, preferably one who hasn't ever booked with your hotel.

While we must realize the importance of the administrative chores, we must also agree that you can only sell when you are speaking with a well qualified account and that these administrative chores can usually be done before 9a or after 5p. How many phone calls, breakfasts, luncheons, property tours and outside sales calls are your sales managers making. It is usually in direct proportion to the number of room nights they are putting on the books for you. It is imperative that the administrative chores be streamlined if your sales managers are to climb out of this pitfall.

Turn two reports into one, make sure that sales meetings are quality and not the same old patronization of tradition and insist on seeing daily "to do" lists that list specific action steps that each of your sales managers must accomplish that day in order to achieve their goals.

The third pitfall is perhaps the toughest: failure to ever receive any accelerated training. Now, before you jump up and shriek that your Directors of Sales are constantly providing "on the job" training, consider this. On the job training is a poor excuse for specific, on-going training that relates directly to the hotel industry.

The overwhelming majority of today's new sales managers are young with little or no hotel sales related experience. Due to the poor depth in the availability of new sales managers, it is critical that they receive training in the two areas of successful selling: sales skills and people skills.

This does not mean that you should rush out and enroll your people in a sales training class. What it does mean is that you need to find an individual or a training firm that can educate your people about these skills as they relate to the hotel industry, and will be available for an extended period of time to field any questions a young sales manager may have as the questions arise, even with the client on hold on the other line.

Sales skills include the dimensions of prospecting, making professional presentations, overcoming objections a client may have for selecting your hotel, negotiating, (after all, we are in an industry where the price is not always the price), closing and the ability to prioritize the day to get the most out of it.

People skills include work ethic, creativity and the image that is projected either over the phone or in person.

Finally, you need to examine what your sales managers are booking. Is it the best business for your hotel? We all agree that we could dramatically increase occupancy if we were to lower rates and open up the door to any comers, but this would be financially impractical.

More importantly, do we have a feel for our future months? Do we know where we need business according to forecast? Do we know time frames where group sales has already reached its' goals resulting in the opportunity to maximize transient rate. Do we know the predictable lead time for our group and transient bookings?

It is critical that a reporting and monitoring device be in place so that these factors can be examined at a glance.

Your sales effort is of urgent importance to the success of your operation. Make it your business to be of urgent importance to your sales team

Steinhart & Associates:
Operating since 1987, Steinhart & Associates is recognized as one of the premiere hospitality sales and marketing consulting firms in the United States satisfying a highly specialized niche by concentrating on three specific areas of demand. Tel (650) 854-4568  •  Fax (650) 854-7629  •  Email: SteinAssoc@aol.com