No one likes a salesman. It’s not personal, it’s biological. A person can’t help but to scrunch their face, develop a sour taste in their mouth or drop their phone as if it were burning when a salesman comes calling.
So how does a hotelier go about selling their property without being a salesman? How do you connect with an event or meeting planner without a cheesy hotel sale pitch? It’s not as hard as you might think…
Sell Yourself
They say that everything begins with a sale. For example, your life. What do I mean? The following logic bomb will blow your mind:
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The first day of kindergarten, you knew no one, pretended to be the cool kid to swing next to (pitch), which led to you making new friends. As school progressed, you were a good student (teacher’s pet/pitch). As a result, your teachers held you in high regard, and when graduation rolled around, they helped you pitch yourself in college applications, leading to your acceptance.
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When you got to campus, you pitched yourself to a new group of friends and teachers who helped you find internships. When you landed that internship after an impressive interview (pitch), you became friends with your boss (brown nosing/pitch) who recommended you for a job at a hotel.
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You landed that job after you pitched yourself to the hiring manager. You impressed your bosses so much with your work ethic (pitch), they promoted you to the sales department, which requires you to pitch your hotel to prospective clients.
The only way you get to make your pitch is if the prospective event or meeting planner feels compelled to speak with you in the first place. Which means you need to use creativity to develop a relationship with them. The good news is that you’ve been doing this your entire life. You have more experience developing relationships in your little finger than any hotel sales book can teach you. Tap into that.
Be Curious
Let’s get something straight: curiosity did not kill the cat. That’s just dumb. The cat probably died because it got stuck in a tree and there was no fireman to save it.
Curiosity is the lifeline of innovation, the foundation of learning, and the propellant behind our relationships. When you ask questions, you do so because you are curious about the answer. The higher your curiosity, the more answers you’ll ask – and as a result, you will establish deeper relationships.
Curiosity is the lifeline of innovation and the propellant behind relationships
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So how convert your curiosity into increased hotel sales to event and meeting planners?
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Remember That Your Client is a Person
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“Genuine customer service goes a long way, so speak to your client like you would a friend, instead of as a target.” – Seth Godin
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Establish a Genuine Relationship by Putting the Sale on the Back Burner
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Follow the 70/30 rule: 70% of the time, ask questions about the person (what professional associations are they a part of? What are they having for lunch? Who do they most dislike in their office?), 30% of the time, ask questions that are directly linked to the sale.
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Try, Try Again
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Ask questions. If you don’t get an answer, ask another one. If you don’t understand an answer, ask your client to rephrase.
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You need to become the expert on both your hotel and your clients, and the only way to do so is by genuinely understanding them by establishing a relationship seeded by curiosity.
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Gain Power
According to STR Global, there are 13.4 million hotel rooms available worldwide. That means you have a staggering amount of competition, and the only way to stay ahead of the hotel sales pack is to be knowledgeable about the industry so that you can add value to your clients.
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Step One: Recognize that Knowledge is Power
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Do whatever it takes to stay relevant. That means reading industry research, attendance at industry functions, networking lunches, workshops – anything that is related to continued education should be a required aspect of your day. You can have a $15million sales budget, but if you spend that money without knowing the direction in which the industry is heading, you may as well burn it with your leaves.
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Step Two: Apply Your Power
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Don’t keep all the good stuff to yourself – offer it to your customer. Did you see an article that you think a client would be interested in? Forward it to them with a quick, personal note. Did your client mention they were struggling with their room diagramming software? Connect them with your friend who has a great diagramming product.
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By understanding the industry, you can add value to the the professional lives of meeting and event planners. Business to business doesn’t have to be impersonal, as Seth Godin pointed out when he said, “Turn strangers into customers. Customers into friends, and customers into salespeople.”
By remembering that relationships are what sustain the B2B model and offering unsolicited assistance sans agenda, you will quickly find yourself appreciated by your clients, and your hotel sales will be reflective of that appreciation.
The post 3 Steps to Attract Event and Meeting Planners to Your Hotel appeared first on The Social Tables Blog.
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