In an effort to outsell their competition, most hotel companies have invested heavily in sales training for their catering and group sales managers.

While most hotel brands and management companies conduct the majority of their operational and service training on an in-house basis, when it comes to sales, executives are even willing to invest in outside support. Numerous hotel industry sales training companies have stepped in to fill this need, including several prominent worldwide sales training companies.

But with all the investment of time and human capital, not to mention training seminar fees, many meeting and function planners still complain about how hard it is to simply get a hotel salesperson on the telephone line, or worse yet, get them to send what they are supposed to send, (such as proposals and contracts) when they are supposed to send it.

The problem is that most contemporary hotel sales training still focuses on steps or processes for the verbal communications exchange component of the sales cycle; in other words, the initial conversation between the salesperson and the prospect. These programs no doubt help salespeople understand abstract concepts such as active listening, discovering the needs and wants, and asking for the sale, which definitely are important. But there are many more steps in the overall sales cycle that are equally, if not more, vital to success.

Hotel sales audits are a great tool for closing the gap between what today's meeting/function planners truly want versus what they actually experience. Sales audits go beyond looking at the verbal exchange between the prospect and salesperson, allowing hotels to measure their team's overall sales effectiveness.

Rather than just looking at sales performance reports such as gross sales or actual revenue versus budget, a properly conducted sales audit will evaluate numerous factors such as how available the salesperson was, how personalized his or her correspondence and collateral was, and how arduously he or she followed up on qualified prospects.

It's easy to conduct a hotel sales audit internally. The first step is to explain to the sales team that the objective of the audit is to evaluate the team's performance during the overall sales cycle; the purpose is not to play "gotcha" nor judge individual performance at this point, but rather to take an honest look at how the team is doing so future goals can be established.

Next, randomly pull 10 recent sales inquiries per salesperson. Stratify the random sample by using leads from various days of the week, weeks of the month, etc. Depending on the hotel sales office automation system you are using, this should be relatively easy to do because salespeople typically log every qualified prospect in a single contact record that consolidates all e-mail exchanges, documents and notes from phone calls.

A simple review of 10 contact records created in the system should provide all of the information needed for the audit. If the hotel is using a hybrid or manual sales-tracking process, this data should still be available, although it will take longer to compile.

Once you have access to randomly selected inquiries, you can tally individual and team performance in areas such as:

• How available were sales managers to take inbound calls and thus minimize telephone tag? What percentage of times do the records show that the salesperson was reached on the caller's first try?
• Were inbound phone messages and inbound e-mails returned promptly? What was the overall average number of half-day increments it took for salespeople to return phone messages and e-mails?
• On average, how long did it take for the salesperson to send a proposal after he or she had secured the necessary details from the prospect?
• Was the sales proposal and other collateral personalized and customized according to the unique needs of the sales prospect? Or was a template letter sent virtually "as is"?
• Did the salesperson call to make sure the proposal was received by the prospect? (This is especially important if the proposal was sent via e-mail.)
• Did the salesperson place follow-up reinforcement calls on a timely basis during the prospect's stated decision-making process?
• If it was necessary to follow up multiple times, did the salesperson use a variety of methods such as e-mail, voice-mail, letters and notes?
• If a sale was not secured but the prospect could potentially generate future business, was the sales lead retraced for an appropriate future follow-up action step?

By asking questions such as these and compiling your sales team's real-world performance, you'll help them focus on the other components of the hotel sales cycle that are as if not more important than utilizing fundamental sales techniques.

You'll also be ensuring that your hotel's sales prospects receive the information they really need, exactly when they need it, while your hotel's competitor's have yet to return their originally inquiry call!

Doug Kennedy, president of the Kennedy Training Network, has been a fixture on the hospitality and tourism industry conference circuit since 1989, having presented over 1,000 conference keynote sessions, educational seminars, and on-premise training workshops for diverse audiences representing every segment of the lodging industry. 

Doug@KennedyTrainingNetwork.com 

www.KennedyTrainingNetwork.com