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DO I NEED A SALES EFFORT ?

Competition in the hotel industry has never been more fierce. New construction, recent renovations and a barrage of new, non-hotelier investors have cut deeply into previous occupancy and more importantly, profits. The larger hotels have combated these problems by enhancing their sales efforts, either through additions to staff or expensive advertising campaigns. But what about the smaller hotels and motels? How can they address today's sales and marketing issues? In most cases, these smaller hotels and motels have neither the personnel nor the budgets to remain competitive.

In many cases, smaller properties do not have existing sales departments and are relying on their General Managers and Reservations Departments to solicit business. More often than not the Reservations Department sells "passively", meaning that they only handle calls as they come in. That leaves any "active" selling up to the General Manager. Unfortunately, even the best General Managers are distracted by the day to day operation of the facility and sales is pushed down the priority list. Normally, the smaller the facility the less time is dedicated to selling and the more time is spent putting out fires.

So how can a smaller hotel or motel dedicate time to actively solicit new accounts which are critical to increasing occupancy? The most obvious, (and effective) answer is to hire a full time sales manager. This person would actively solicit new accounts, maintain relationships with current accounts, act as the public relations director in the community and report directly to the General Manager. Before you balk at this increase in payroll ask yourself this question. Will the increase in revenues generated by the new sales person pay for their salary and benefits? If the answer is yes, then it is a sound business decision and merits your consideration.

However, if the answer is no, then you will have to rely on your current staff. Below are listed programs we have found that are common denominators amongst hotels and motels that do not have a sales department and yet, consistently run high occupancies. You will note that these programs revolve largely around the General Manager, however, any key staff person can perform these functions.

1. Have your G.M. involved in at least one industry related organization. The Chamber of Commerce, your local H.S.M.A. chapter, C.L.I.A., your local Economic Development Foundation and City Council are just a few of the organizations that have a direct impact on local economy. Simply by being a contributor to one of these organizations your G.M. will have a direct line into the local decision making process and that is important to your business.

2. Have your G.M. involved in at least one non-industry related organization.

Police Activities Leagues, Big Brother/ Big Sister, Rotary, Soroptomists, Elks, Moose, Eagles, Boys & Girls Clubs are but a few of the excellent organizations to belong to. More often than not, the key members of each of these clubs are citizens of high standing in the community and have input on local business. These clubs welcome G.M.s and see them as excellent additions to their Boards. By being a contributing member of one of these organizations, your G.M. will in effect become one of those citizens of high standing. These clubs become excellent sources of business for banquets, weddings, out of town visitors, etc. The point is that people do business with people they know and your G.M. must be in a position to know the local decision makers.

3. Insure that your G.M. personally knows your top accounts.

Unless your G.M personally knows your top accounts it is unlikely that they know where their business is originating. By knowing these top accounts, the G.M. puts themselves in a position to understand where business is coming from, why they select your facility and common patterns amongst your cliental. Above all, it will allow your G.M. to know where to ask for more business.

4. Implement a thank you program.

In addition to knowing your top accounts, a sales oriented G.M. takes the time to thank them. If your G.M. would take fifteen minutes every day to pick up the phone to thank your accounts for selecting your hotel it will go a long way towards building up that special rapport that keeps clients coming back.

5. Insure that the G.M. is highly visible in the front of the house.

Make sure that your G.M. stations themselves at the front desk during the morning check-out and at the restaurant during lunch. This will allow them to become familiar with your customers and demonstrate that they are genuinely concerned with their satisfaction. Further, it sends a signal to the rest of your employees that the G.M. is taking the time to get to know their customers.

While there are many other programs that the sales oriented General Manager involves themselves with, these five are very effective and require little time. Time is critical to General Managers and rarely are there enough hours in the day to perform all of the tasks required, let alone to concentrate on selling. However, unless the General Manager, or some designated staff member, is disciplined enough to dedicate time to the sales effort, it is unlikely that your facility will ever increase occupancy and ultimately profits.

Not reprintable without written permission from Steinhart & Associates.