Internet Sales - 21 To-Do List Items

1. Look up competitor’s rates on-line for past & current year.

2. Sign up for major corporations newsletters (media section).

3. Sign up for your competitors monthly newsletters, using personal email address.

4. Develop monthly electronic newsletter to send to potential clients.

5. Send newsletters to only 10-20 clients and follow up with phone calls to show them how to use the tools & discuss promotions.

6. Look at Trip Advisor each month & make sure to respond to all negative comments in a positive light.

7. Look up meta tags on your competitor's websites and make sure your hotel has the same key words.

8. Sign up for Google Alerts – get daily leads sent to you.

9. Market your hotel to all state & national sports groups. Become a “Provider of Tournament Team Services”. Packaging ideas.

10. Sign up for www.active.com – receive weekly emails from sports groups coming to your area before they get there.

11. RSS Feeds – sign up for all competitor’s or location corporations RSS Feeds on their website. These feeds will keep you up to date

12. Shop your own hotel on-line and have it shopped by 3rd parties.

13. Need a policy for rapid response to Internet Sales – within 2 hours.

14. Sign up for a www.linkedin.com account. 89% are decision makers. It’s a must to find new clients!

15. Set up a FREE email account to use for prospecting anonymously.

16. Create your own unique Yahoo or Google homepage. Build your own homepage so when you sign onto Yahoo everyday, you’ll see all the new activity on your current or potential corporations, news, companies your monitoring, weather, etc.

17. Solicit all emails received for your hotel. They should go in your monthly newsletter database.

18. Get a business www.Facebook account. Hire someone for a nominal amount to constantly add information on your Facebook account to stay in front of potential clients. As well as find contacts.

19. Sign up for every Government website available that will send you RFP’s.

20. Hire a company that provides SEO (search enging optimization) to make sure your hotel is getting the most possible exposure on hotel private webistes.

21. Hire Hospitality Helpers, then lean back and watch your revenues grow! (Complete this item first and then you don't have to worry about the other 20 items, because Hospitality Helpers will do it for you)

Responding to Online Reviews

Imagine a guest walks up to the front desk of your property and says, “I absolutely love your hotel! It has the most comfortable beds ever, your staff could not be any nicer and the meal I had last night in your restaurant was the best I’ve had in ages. Outstanding!” The person behind the front desk just looks at them and says nothing. Not a word. Complete silence. A blank stare. You would be appalled. That’s the opposite of hospitality, and, in fact, it’s just downright rude.

So why is it okay when a guest writes a glowing online hotel review that it can go unanswered? No reply, no thank you, not a management response in sight. I must have missed the memo that it’s okay to opt out of being nice to guests online.

Quite frankly, you are making a mistake if you are letting positive feedback fall on deaf ears. It’s not okay to practice selective hospitality. Thanking people for their praise and feedback is not optional, whether it happens online or in person. In fact, it has been proven that hotels that respond to guest reviews average review scores 6% higher than those that don’t, based on a recent study.

Facts and stats aside, we should be responding to our guests because it’s the right thing to do; it’s common courtesy. We’re in the hospitality business, and that means we have to be hospitable in person and online. Ignoring a glowing review is really no different than a staffer giving a guest the silent treatment in person.

We want our guests to go and tell their friends, tell TripAdvisor — tell the world if humanly possible — how much they love us. Yet when a guest goes home, posts an awesome review and hears crickets, you are sending a message: Out of sight, out of mind. We don’t care what you have to say when you leave here. So what if you love our hotel?

Imagine how different it would be if this were the management response seen underneath the review:

I can’t begin to tell you how happy it made me to read about your experience at our hotel. The team here strives to make each guest experience as close to perfect as humanly possible. When we accomplish that goal we’ve done our job. I am so honored that you choose NAME OF HOTEL while you were in NAME OF CITY. And we’re extremely grateful that you took the time out of your busy schedule to share this wonderful feedback. I really appreciate it and know the team will as well when I share it with them. We look forward to welcoming you back again the next time you are in town. If I can do anything for you during your next visit to our hotel, please do not hesitate to call me. The front desk would be happy to connect you to my office.

The guest who wrote that review just fell in love all over again. They are thinking: “Just when I thought this hotel couldn’t get any better, I get this thoughtful reply.” Not only do they want to come and stay with you again, they want to shake your hand. Class act.

Now let’s say someone is looking to come to your city. They head to this review site where you have posted the above management response (and this will happen, because the majority of consumers consult online reviews before making a booking decision). They check out your competitor, and there are some good reviews, but — you guessed it — no response from management. Then they see your reply. Their decision somehow becomes much easier to make. They get it because you get the full hospitality picture.

The next time you think of letting a glowing review go unanswered, you might as well tell your staff to put the phone on mute when they answer.

Takeaway lessons

• Common courtesy needs to be carried over online.
• Don’t take guests’ feedback for granted.
• Selective hospitality is the anti-hospitality.
• Online reputation management done right leads to more revenue in repeat guests and new guests who read and appreciate your thoughtful responses

~ Published by Hotel Magazine

Google AdWords Codes - $100 for $25

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Notes:
Expires May 1, 2013
Must Spend $25 initial to get $100
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If you need any help with this, please let us know!  This is just one of the many marketing tactics we are knowledgable at.  Can't wait to see your revenues increase!

Sales Calls for SUCCESS !

Develop a professional greeting. Don't just say hello and jump into your telephone presentation without taking a breath or allowing the other party to participate. Your greeting should err on the side of formality. Begin with Mr., Mrs. or Ms, as in "Good morning, Mr. Smith." Or "Good evening, Mrs. Jones." Everyone else says, "Hello." Be different. Be professional.

2. Introduce yourself and your company."My name is Sally Smith with ABC Company. We're a local firm that specializes in helping businesses like yours save money." Don't get too specific yet. Don't mention your product. If you do, that allows the other party to say, "Oh, we're happy with what we've got. Thanks anyway," and hang up. By keeping your introduction general, yet mentioning a benefit, you'll peak your prospect's curiosity and keep them on the line longer.

3. Express gratitude. Always thank the potential client for allowing you a few moments in his busy day. Tell him that you won't waste a second of his time. "I want to thank you for taking my call. This will only involve a moment of your time so you can get back to your busy schedule." Don't say that you'll "just take a moment." The feeling evoked by them hearing that you'll take anything from them will put them off.

4. State the purpose of your call. It's best if you can provide the purpose within a question. "If we can show you a way to improve the quality of your product at a lower cost, would you be interested to know more?" This is very likely to get a yes response. At this point, you're ready to start selling an opportunity to meet this person or to get their permission to provide them with more information. You're not selling your product yet--you're selling what your product will do for him.

5. Schedule a meeting. Get a confirmation to meet, either in person or to teleconference to get the information you need in order to give a solid presentation. If he's so interested that he wants to do it right then and there, that's OK.

6. If a face-to-face meeting is the most appropriate next step, use the alternate-of-choice questioning strategy. Offer him two times, "Mr. Johnson, I can pop by your office at 2:15 p.m. today to discuss this further. Or would 9:45 a.m. tomorrow better suit your schedule?" You didn't say, "When can we meet?" When you use the alternate of choice, you take control of getting the appointment. And note: Asking for an off-hour gets you noticed. There's something about setting a meeting at an off-hour that says you're a salesperson who'll be punctual and respect your prospect's time. Try it.

7. Thank them for their time today and for the upcoming appointment. Reconfirm the date, time and location of the appointment. Ask for directions if you need them. Tell him how much preparation you'll do in order to make the best use of the time you'll share. Give him your contact information this way: "If anything else comes to mind that I should be aware of prior to our meeting, please contact me at (212) 555-1212."

8. Follow up. If your meeting is more than a few days in the future, send a letter of confirmation immediately. If the meeting is tomorrow, send an e-mail confirmation. Keep it short and upbeat.

 

     By Barry Farber - www.entrepreneur.com

Where's your "Flat List"?

Hotel sales managers who excel use a flat list

Several years ago undertook a real in-depth study of what made the truly great hotel sales managers successful. This study included hotel sales managers from an incredible variety of markets. We looked at the great ones from big city hotels and suburban hotels. We examined the characteristics of hotel sales managers that worked in beach properties and in ski areas. Those that had casinos and those that didn’t. And we came up with a list of traits that great hotel sales managers used to consistently break quota year in and year out.

The entire concept of the flat list is one that applies equally well to other industries, not just to hotel sales managers. I’ve asked lots of sales experts in other fields, and the flat list concept for great sales people is one that crosses all markets.

The flat list that hotels sales managers use? Nothing fancy at all. It’s typically on a yellow pad of paper, but if you want to make it exotic, you can even write the list on white paper — amazing!

Now if you are a hotel sales manager with Marriott you’ll have the Marsha system on your computer, and others of you may have Delphi. They each have a flat list available in there. It may be called a prospect list or a hit list or a new client list; call it whatever you want. I just call it a flat list, and I don’t know where the name came from, but who cares really?

It’s funny though, when we did the analysis out in the field and every single hotel sales manager who shattered quota month in and month out, one common denominator was that they had a flat list. These hotel sales managers also kept it on the upper-left hand corner of their desk for some reason. Don’t ask me why; I couldn’t begin to explain it and you don’t have to do that. I don’t care where you put it, but your sales manager should be able to come up to your desk at any moment, any time and say, “Let me see your flat list.” Now, he or she is not really checking on you to make sure you have a flat list — that should be a given. But the manager wants to see if she knows anybody on your flat list so that when you call on them, she can come into the office and call on them with you. Or if you’re going to make an outside call on this prospect, she is going to get in the car and go with you. If she knows this person, she can probably open that door for you. So that’s what the director of sales, the GM, director of catering (or whoever you report to) should be looking at.

Now for sure, the manager would be looking at list volume to a certain degree, but here’s the key: putting the flat list together is easy for the hotel sales manager to do. Finding the time to call those people is what’s tough. But that’s a topic for another time…



Article coutesy of Steve Steinhart - Hotel Sales Coach

Great Sales Tool

Please find a wonderful website for corporations…

I have been using this website a while now, it is extremely helpful and useful in finding market segment leads, search can be done by location, radius, industry, business size, etc. This site usually lists contact names as well.

http://companies.findthecompany.com/

Give it a try and please let me know how it goes for you!

Time Change - from Daylight Savings Time

Hoteliers - As a reminder, Daylight Savings Time ends this 11/4/2012 at 2 AM.    This means at 1:59, you will set your clock back to 1:00am.

Be sure to set ALL your clocks back one hour…including

· Guestroom TVs

· Guestroom Microwaves

· Guestroom Alarm Clock-Radios

· Fitness Center Clocks

· Lobby Clocks

· Time Card Clocks

· Computer Clocks

· Fax Machines

· Exterior Illuminated Signage Timers

· Water Sprinkler Timers

· Your Car

· Your watch

Enjoy the extra hour of sleep!