‘Stand Up And Stand Out’ From The Rest Of The Pack In 2013

I have an idea that I think will make a difference in your sales career next year.

It’s called ‘Stand Up and Stand Out’ where you and I will come up with ideas throughout the year that you can use to separate yourself from the rest of the pack.

Let me use the Christmas e-card that you recently sent as an example.

I’m not suggesting that there is anything wrong with sending your holiday wishes through and email but consider the following campaign as an alternative for next Christmas.

Grab a camera.  Almost all of you have access to a camera.  I would venture to say that most of you have a smartphone and a majority of them come equipped with a 6.0 or 8.0 megapixel camera.  If you don’t have a smart phone camera consider purchasing an inexpensive digital camera through e-Bay, Amazon.com or through another online retail site.

Best budget digital cameras

Take pictures.  Take a picture of as many of your clients as possible throughout 2013.  If you are a hotel sales manager, for example, take a picture of your client in your hotel’s lobby, restaurant or in your meeting space when he/she visits your hotel for their site inspection or when they arrive to begin their meeting, conference or event.

Heck, why not ask an associate to take the picture to include you?

Tips to ensure great smartphone photography with an iPhone or Android

Catalogue.  Now that you are going to be taking pictures of your clients throughout the year, figure out an easy way to catalogue each picture so that when you print them off you will be reminded of who you are sending the photo to.

Send or post?  Schedule time in November or by the first week of December to print off all of the pictures that you took and include your client’s picture in next year’s Christmas card thanking them again for their business.

If the budget is tight, consider creating an album on your Facebook page, post the pictures to it, and invite your clients to visit the photo album to view their picture along with other happy and satisfied clients that also held meetings or events at your hotel.

Photo procedures for Facebook

Once again, if you have ideas or campaigns that you would like to share with others then send an email to info@igroupadvisors.com and in the subject line include “Stand Up and Stand Out” along with your idea and we will get it and publish.

Let’s get going!  2013 is just a few days away.

Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement consulting firm that specializes in the hospitality vertical.

Five Steps That Will Take The Chill Out Of Cold Calling

I use to cold call a lot.

There were times when I’d make 30 cold calls in one hour.

Dialing away until I got someone on the other end to listen to my pitch. Searching for that proverbial needle in a haystack.

Back in those days if I didn’t sell I didn’t eat so the best way to put food on the table was ‘dialing for dollars’, talking to a warm bodies, and closing sales.

I was pretty good at knowing what to say when I had a prospect on the line because I designed scripts for all of the different types of prospects that I could possibly encounter and developed a response for any objection they could throw at me.

Then, something made me rethink my cold calling strategy.  I’m not sure when or where but I made the commitment to spend more time getting my prospects to come to me as opposed to cold calling them.

I guess I was convinced that ‘pull marketing’ could yield more business than ‘push marketing’, today’s version of  ’Permission Marketing‘ versus ‘Interruption Marketing’ as introduced by Seth Godin.

I guess ‘Interruption Marketing’ is like cold calling.  You find a number, call Mr. Decision Maker, and invade his corporate man cave.  You’re like that bothersome neighbor who invites himself over to watch the game and finishes off your last six pack before the end of the first half.

Who is this guy and how did he end up in my basement?

See the connection?

I wonder how many sales people today are interrupting prospects like I use to?

So how do you take the chill out of cold calling?

Don’t cold call.  It’s that simple.

I’m suggesting that you commit to never making a cold call again.

“So how do I do that?”

Try these five steps on for size.

Step #1 - If you haven’t identified your prospect’s pain and challenges then you’re apt to land back at square one which is ‘Interruption marketing’.  Start with Google to find clues that will lead you to the answers.  If your prospect is in the insurance game, for example, what challenges are the insurance industry facing?  Type in “challenges the XYZ industry is facing” into Google’s search field and you’ll literally have millions of results at your fingertips.

Step#2 - You have prospects who visit your Facebook page and are following you on Twitter don’t you?  Consider becoming a subject matter expert instead of selling.  If you represent yourself as a trustworthy source of knowledge and information, you can win their trust and respect over time.  One of the best social channels to establish yourself as an ‘influencer’ is on LinkedIn.  You can do that by joining and participating in groups and/or sharing your expertise on LinkedIn Answers.

Step #3 - You network to meet people, both online and offline, so that you can build relationships, provide assistance, receive referrals, and generate new business.  Networking, when done properly, will eventually lead to more referrals which will then reduce your need to cold call.

Step #4 - Take testimonials to a new level.  You can go to Best Buy or visit Amazon.com and purchase an inexpensive HD video camera for less than $300 that will allow you to film short videos of some of your satisfied customers or you can create a campaign to invite your customers to video themselves and send you their clip to be posted on your website and your corporate channel on YouTube?

Step #5 - I have sent RFPs to hundreds of hotels over the past few years and can only place my business typically in one hotel at a time.  But what about those of you who have received my RFP but did not win the business?  I’ve reached out to you and now should be considered a ‘warm call’.  So why haven’t you picked up the phone to ask me “What would it take to win your business this or next year?”  You tell me!

Prospecting is just one of the subjects I cover in my new educational workshop Mapping the Course that is specifically designed to help hotel sales managers grow their business and generate more sales.

Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement consulting firm that specializes in the hospitality vertical.

Fish Where The Fish Are Biting

Let’s go on a fishing trip shall we? (Many of my readers are female and I couldn’t find a photo of one of them hauling in a fish so please excuse me…I have no clue who this guy is but that’s one heck of an order of sashimi!)

I have contacted one of the top-rated captains from the gulf of mexico, chartered his boat, and I am inviting all of you to join me on a fishing excursion.

As we move into open waters, the captain has a pretty good idea where schools of fish may be located but to make sure he is successful in identifying exactly where they are he uses an onboard fish finder to pinpoint their exact location.

Now that the captain has found the fish, he circles the school and his deckhand throws bait into the water that will attract the fish in order to keep them within close proximity to the boat.

At the captain’s signal, we cast our baited hooks into the water and voila, we catch fish.

Using this simple analogy, your job as a hotel sales manager is to put yourself in places where you can identify and connect with prospective customers but often you spend a great deal of time and effort prospecting in places where you are destined to come home with an empty stringer.

Here are some fishing holes where you will have the best chance of landing a lunker!

Your hotel’s Customer Relationship Management system - Now hold on a minute.  Your CRM contains customers, leads, and prospects galore BUT do you spend the necessary time that it takes to keep in constant contact with your customers, nurturing leads, and calling on prospects to identify what it will take to win their business?

Do you work your customer database both vertically and horizontally?  What other meeting planners are with the XYZ Corporation’s Sales & Marketing department that you need to meet?  Are there other admins that you should invite to your hotel for lunch followed by a site inspection? What events does the President’s executive secretary plan in addition to the company’s Christmas party?

Keep in mind that when you contact customers, leads, and prospects, you need to have a strategy in place that will allow you to penetrate that account from a variety of angles that include telephone, direct marketing, email, social media, etc.  If you rely heavily on email and social media to communicate your value proposition with customers and prospects without identifying their needs, pain, and challenges, that campaign will end up in the round file and you have wasted both your time and your prospect’s time.

Customer internal and external referrals – Let’s say you work for an independent hotel and it is safe to assume that some of your happy and satisfied customers will never return again due to the nature of their business or their geographical requirements.

What other meeting planners do those customers know who might be holding a future meeting or event in your area? Would he/she be amenable to posting a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile or better yet, share a testimonial with other planners that you could attach to your email signature line?

Referrals from other sales people who call on the same market – How many sales people and vendors call on your hotel every day, week, month, and year?  Do they serve other customers that may be a candidate to put heads in your hotel’s beds?  Networking and referrals are a great way to generate new business but keep in mind it is a two-way street so let it be known that you will reciprocate if and when the time comes.

Speaking engagements – You don’t have to be a member of a speakers bureau, belong to Toastmasters International, or published a book in order to speak at a luncheon or other gathering that could include your next customer.  The hotel business is one of the most interesting industries in the world and I am confident that there are plenty of funny and compelling stories to share about ‘a life in the day of a hotel sales manager’.

Family & friends, your church, business & networking clubs, associations, trade shows, the Internet, and don’t forget social media channels.

If you are not yet established as a member of the LinkedIn community you need to get onboard and figure out how to immerse yourself in various groups and become an influencer within those groups.  If you are new to LinkedIn or simply want to invest more time growing within the community, here is a list of 100+ Ways to Use LinkedIn that can get you moving in the right direction.

Happy hunting!

Fish Where the Fish are Biting is just one of the subjects I cover in my new educational workshop Mapping the Course that is specifically designed to help hotel sales managers grow their business and generate more sales.

Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement consulting firm that specializes in the hospitality vertical.

A 2013 Prospecting Assessment Guide For Hotel Sales Managers

I recently returned from delivering my “Mapping the Course” educational workshop at the Inn Development and Management Conference and one of the segments that I covered with the group was prospecting.

Prospecting for new customers is a necessary function of the sales cycle but did you know that new customers generated as a result of prospecting can account for as much as 50 to 90 percent of your hotel’s occupancy?

That’s a big spread in percentage points and those of you who are doing a great job at plugging new business into your hotel on a consistent basis are probably hitting the latter number, exceeding your quota, and keeping your GM out of your hair.

On the other hand, if your hotel’s occupancy is at the lower end of the spectrum it may be because you don’t prospectconsistently, efficiently, and effectively in order to keep your sales pipeline full.

Since the year’s end is just around the corner, are you ready to make a commitment to becoming a more productive hotel sales manager in 2013?

If you answered yes, read on.

Assessments

No matter what channels you use for prospecting, you will need to make some general assessments that are associated with your territory, hotel, comp set, capabilities, etc. and then formulate a game plan associated with your assessments to make sure that your future calls or contacts will be quality ones and not ‘dialing for dollars’.

Here are 8 assessments that need to be addressed.

1. What is my territory or market segment?

Tip - If you are unfamiliar with your territory you can find businesses using Google Earth.  Simply type in a zip code in the search field and hit the search button.  Next, type in the word ‘businesses’ in the search field and hit the search button again.  The return will display most of the larger businesses located within that zip code along with an address, telephone number, and a link to that company’s website.

2. Is my brand easily recognized by customers and prospects?

Tip - Get together with your marketing team or PR firm and learn about your hotel’s current and future marketing plans.  If your hotel is planning a new campaign and it’s a go, pick up the phone and let your top customers in on the news before it’s released to the general public and then follow up with an email that contains all of the information related to the campaign.

3. Who are my competitors and how are they selling against my hotel?

Tip - If your hotel subscribes to an Online Reputation Management solution like ReviewPro, Revinate or ReviewAnalyst you can monitor your comp set and gather intelligence that will help you to better understand how your hotel compares against other selected hotels in your immediate market.

4. How will I continually generate new prospects?

Tip - You need to fish where the fish are biting.  Mine your hotel’s CRM system, ask for internal and external customer referrals and referrals from other sales people who call on your target market.  Speak at functions that your prospects attend.  Talk to your family and friends.  Attend networking functions, conferences, and trade shows where your prospects meet.  Don’t overlook social channels like LinkedIn as a source for prospects and referrals.

5. How much time will I be able to devote to prospecting on a regular basis?

Tip – If you are organized, you should be able to spend between 20 to 30 hours a week prospecting.  If you are a seasoned sales manager and want to challenge yourself, create a list of between 10 to 20 companies that you would like to convert into new customers over the next 12 to 18 months.  Keep in mind that these prospects will take time to cultivate and you should view them as ‘career’ or ‘home run’ customers that will dramatically change your year when you land them.

6. What are my prospecting strengths and weaknesses?

Tip - All of us have varying degrees of strengths and weaknesses and no one is perfect.  If you are interested in delving into what makes you tick, here is some information that will help you to make the most of your talents and opportunities.

7. What is the strength of my target list?

Tip - Instead of purchasing a ‘list’, create your own by using business directories and search engines that are specifically designed to provide information about companies, organizations, and other opportunities that you can add to your target list.

8. Do I conduct thorough research about prospects before I contact them?

Tip - The people that you will be contacting are more ‘sales savvy‘ than ever before so make sure that you conduct some research about your prospect and his/her company before you pick up the phone or send an email.  When you have a better understanding of your prospect’s pain, challenges, and their corporate culture and are able to talk knowledgeably about them, you will have a much better chance of getting your foot in the door.

I’ll have a follow up to this post next week and as always, feel free to add your comments.

Prospecting is just one of the segments from my “Mapping the Course” educational workshop specifically designed for new and seasoned hotel sales managers.

Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement firm, that helps hotels grow their business and generate more revenue.

8 Steps To Score New Business Through College Forums, Message Boards And Alumni Associations

I have two sons who are involved in college athletics and I spend a great deal of time traveling on the weekends to catch their home or road games.

I am also a subscriber to each of their university’s forums or message boards that allows me to get the latest news about their teams in between games.

It is amazing how much traffic and conversation is generated in these social communities and if you are a hotel sales manager, you should consider how these forums and boards can be a great source of new business for your hotel.

At the Division I level there are typically twelve games on the schedule….six home games and six road games.  Depending on the size of the institution, the popularity of the program, their opponents, and where the games will be played, the traveling audience can be sizable.

If you want to learn how to gain a portion of this market, continue reading.

Step 1 – In your local area, go to your institution’s sport’s or athletic’s homepage to locate each sport and their respective schedules.  In addition to this year’s schedule, you can also Google their schedules for 2013 and beyond.  This is an example of a site that provides information for Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).  There are also sites that list schedules for Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II, Division III, and NAIA.

Let’s stick with football to continue this exercise.

Step 2 – Click on ‘Football’ in the menu and find the team’s 2012 schedule.  Click on the link and look for the teams that will be traveling to play in your city.

Step 3 – Make a list of those teams and then conduct a Google search for each one of those teams that looks something like this…’XYZ University sports message board’.

Step 4 – Check the search return to identify the forum or message board associated with that team, click on the site link and sign up so that you can become a member and be eligible to post messages on that board.  Sign up usually requires an email address, username, and password.

Step 5 – Sign in to the forum or message board to create a new post.  Start with a post title something like this – ‘Great hotel for fans traveling to (your city) to see the (insert the visiting school’s nickname – ‘Texas Longhorns’ for example) play the (insert your school’s nickname – ‘Ramblin’ Wreck’ for example)’.  Tweak your title to fit your style but make sure that you include your city, the visiting team’s nickname and your team’s nickname.

Step 6 – In your message body include something like this.  ”We are excited that your Texas Longhorns will be coming to Atlanta to play the Georgia Tech Ramblin’ Wreck and I am inviting all of you who will be traveling to the game to be our guest at the ABC hotel.  We are located (include the approximate distance from your hotel to the team’s stadium) and have (include your total guest room count, on site amenities, renovation info, ratings, area attractions, etc.).  We also would like to extend a (insert your ‘carrot’ or a promo code here) and would consider it an honor if you would be our guest.  Here is my contact information and a link to our hotel’s website and on behalf of all of us at the ABC hotel, we look forward to serving you during your trip to Atlanta!

In some cases forums or message boards will not allow you to ‘advertise’ so use Steps 7 and 8 as your Plan B.

Step 7 - Now go back to Google and conduct a search for the visiting team’s alumni association, go to their site and look for the ‘Contact Us’ page that is provided on the site.  The contact us page will most likely include an email address for ‘General Inquiries’ so your best bet is to pick up the phone and ask for the contact name and email address of the individual who is responsible for that particular event or heads up communications for the association.

Step 8 - Take the same message that you created for the forum or message board, tweak it if needed, and email it to your new point-of-contact with the institution’s alumni association to include links to your hotel, 800 number, promo code, online booking link, etc.  Follow up within three to five business days to answer questions and secure the business.

The whole point of this exercise is simple and productive.  Fans will travel to see their teams play on the road and they will need a guest room for a night or two during their visit.  Be proactive and give them a reason to book your hotel and not your comp set.

Happy hunting!

Tom Costello is the CEO and Managing Director of iGroupAdvisors, a performance improvement consulting firm that specializes in the hospitality and travel verticals.