Hotel sales strategies are focused on increasing revenue by improving the customer experience. This is achieved by having a strong marketing strategy and implementing effective marketing tactics.
The success of a hotel’s sales strategy largely depends on the type of hotel it is, its location, and its target audience.
Hotel sales strategies can be broadly divided into three categories: Direct Sales, Indirect Sales, and Revenue Generation Strategies. The first two categories are often used in combination with one another to maximise hotel revenue. In this article, we will focus on Revenue Generation Strategies that are used in hotels to increase revenue.
What are the Benefits of Hotel Sales Strategies?
Hotel groups have been around for centuries. Their main goal is to provide the best service to their guests. However, it has been challenging for hotel groups to maintain a competitive edge with the changing market and competition.
The benefits of hotel group sales strategies are that they can help hotels increase their revenue by up to 10% in a year.
One of the most important factors in achieving success is understanding your target audience. In order to achieve this, hotel groups should know what they want in terms of customer experience and what they are willing to pay for it.
How to Establish a Sales Strategy for Hotel Groups
Establishing a sales strategy for hotel groups is not easy. It requires a lot of research and planning that can take months or even years.
As a result, most hotel groups struggle to establish their sales strategy, and they often resort to trial and error. The best way to avoid such a problem is to have an effective sales strategy from the beginning.
This article discusses how hotel groups can establish their sales strategy for them by following these steps:
– Identify your target market
– Define your target segment
– Create an effective marketing plan
– Develop a compelling story about your brand
Hotel Sales Strategies For Your Business
Identify and analyse trends in the hotel industry that influence group business.
Global Meetings forecasts indicate that meetings are getting bigger – by 22.7%. Meeting attendance, however, has not increased as fast (only 5.4%).
Incredibly, nearly 40% of hotel group revenues are derived from a tiny percentage of meetings requiring 500+ rooms.
Why are we here? It is hard to catch the big fish when opportunities are scarce. As a result, group sales are more competitive.
To attract meetings today, hotel sales and marketing need to be more innovative. Building a mutually beneficial relationship with planners is the key to converting them into repeat business. Good sales strategies combine the two.
Chains are suffering from high group acquisition costs.
To acquire new group business, large hotels pay 15-25% of their guest-paid revenue. This percentage could increase to 20% or 30% by 2022. Large chains face this dilemma since they usually offer plenty of meeting space and rely heavily on group business for revenue.
Marketing and sales of hotels can be optimised with a better distribution system.
The more cost-effective your methods of acquiring group bookings, the more successful your business will be. Leading accommodations offer event planners the option of directly booking event spaces.
Property and chain owners of all sizes will benefit from this move because:
- Direct connections between hotels and planners are possible.
- Developing a network of planners helps hotels increase repeat business.
- Planners now research venues online to a greater extent than ever before.
You can increase your visibility by listing your property on venue marketplaces.
Over half of event planners say they source venues primarily on the Internet. In other words, hotels need to meet planners where they are.
An online venue search engine can help hotels become more visible to planners without paying the fees associated with OTAs.
Venues and hotels can create profiles like the one below using platforms like Cvent Supplier Network. Venues can be searched, and requests for proposals can be sent.
Your venue listing should contain the following information
- A floor plan that is accurate. Make sure you add a floor plan if the platform allows it. They are very helpful to planners.
- Great images. Pictures that show what your space is capable of. Use photos of past events from your hotel to help planners envision their events at your venue.
- Create videos. 40% of planners surveyed said that videos helped them visualise a space the most.
- Detailing. Do you have any unique features? What are your meeting space’s unique capabilities when it comes to meeting the requirements of various types of meetings?
- Cite examples. Feature past successful events to demonstrate how your hotel can handle future events smoothly.
Management of hotel leads should be improved.
The process of submitting RFPs has become a lot easier today. RFP leads from planners have increased by 300% in just five years.
A sea of never-ending RFPs could result from growing demand and an increase in RFPs. You need to manage those leads well since 75% of proposals are won by the first five properties which respond.
The result is that hotels that want to succeed in their group sales have to optimise three main areas of their RFP management.
Response time for RFPs should be accelerated.
The problem has been created by technology, but it has been solved as well. The time it takes to respond to RFPs has decreased from over two weeks to less than 24 hours. Some leading hotel chains and hotel groups have adopted a 24-hour turnaround policy.
Automated lead scoring and RFP response templates are at the root of much of this. Using them significantly reduces the amount of time spent responding.
It not only lets your hotel get in front of planners before competitors, but it also shows that you prioritise their business and are responsive. First impressions last forever.
A perfect lead score comes from fine-tuning.
You must pinpoint the most promising inquiries and the more leads you have. If a smart lead scoring system is not in place, opportunities will be lost despite an influx of RFPs.
Examine your internal processes again to make them a reality. New technologies score leads automatically as they come in, again playing an important role.
If you set smart parameters, these tools can be useful. A hotel CRM today requires a detailed framework for managing incoming leads. In other words, you need a strategy to weed out unwanted leads and emphasise the most promising prospects.
Group your business according to segments
There is no hotel that can satisfy the needs of every guest. Chains and hotels should be realistic about their capabilities. To reach the right customers, they must also identify which ones to target.
Develop a more targeted hotel sales strategy. Determine what broad segments your hotel wants to attract (like weddings). Separate the groups on the basis of their characteristics (for example, traditional weddings or weddings of a particular size).
There are various needs, acquisition costs, timelines, and profitability factors for different groups. Hotel sales must be tailored according to the specific needs of different groups.
Better proposals will help you respond to RFPs better.
It is one thing to respond to RFPs on time and to the point. You still need to come up with an effective event proposal, no matter how fast and personal your response may be.
The group proposal process is more than just a bidding war these days. To show your hotel’s value, you should include specific examples. 37% of planners attribute their decision to another venue to bad communication.
Demonstrate, don’t tell
The planner will be able to visualise their event within the hotel — and will have a clear picture long before they send out an RFP.
Use event diagramming technology to show your space. Hotels can use these tools to lay out all aspects of an event to scale – down to where the microphones will be located. Event spaces can be created as templates, and they can be easily updated based on the event’s specifics. Through this approach, sales representatives can demonstrate how different layouts can work and communicate upsells visually.
Demonstrate the success of past events
In the process of group sales, prospects are often provided with peace of mind. Among other concerns, they wonder if they’ll be able to move hundreds of people from room to room, if the space will be cramped, and if their vendors will be able to set up easily.
One of the last steps is a customised site visit. With the right technology, you can demonstrate a similar event to prospects earlier in the sales process. It is easy to create a proof of concept by pulling a past model from a cloud-based event management platform.
Conclusion: The Importance of Managing Outbound Activities
Outbound activities are those that are done outside of the company or organisation. It is important for managers to manage these activities in order to achieve their goals.
Managing outbound activities is not as easy as it sounds. It requires a lot of effort and hard work, but it is worth the effort. Outbound activities include things such as sales, marketing, public relations, customer service, and social media.
There are three key areas in which outbound activities need to be managed: planning, execution and measurement.
Planning includes setting up long-term strategies for each outbound activity. Execution includes ensuring that the strategy is followed properly through a well-planned timeline with clear milestones and deadlines. Measurement involves tracking data on the performance of each individual outbound activity so that it can be improved.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sales strategy plan?
Sales strategies are the plans that describe how a company will approach the sales process. It is a document that is important for every company to have before they start their sales process.
There are many different types of sales strategies out there, but most of them fall into one of two categories – an inbound strategy or an outbound strategy. An inbound strategy focuses on attracting customers through digital channels such as email marketing and social media, whereas an outbound strategy is focused on finding and reaching customers offline.
The goal of a sales strategy plan is to create a framework for the entire sales process from beginning to end. It should lay out what needs to happen in order for the company to sell its product or service successfully and outline how it will be done.
How do you promote hotel sales?
In order to promote hotel sales, you need to be creative and use different marketing tactics. Here are some ideas that you can use:
* Promote your hotel on social media.
* Use targeted ads on social media.
* Offer discounts and promotions to your customers.
* Create a blog that talks about the benefits of staying at your hotel.
How can managers improve hotel sales?
Managers have a lot of responsibilities, but they are often the first person to be blamed when the hotel sale is not going well.
In order to improve hotel sales, managers should focus on providing better customer service and catering to their needs. They should also be able to provide a variety of services at a reasonable price for their customers.
Managers can also focus on improving their marketing strategy. They can use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to increase brand awareness.
