Every hotel sales and catering team should review and improve the way they up-sell. For most sales and catering teams, a little professional training can result in earning an additional $50,000 to $500,000 or more in revenues per year depending on the size of the hotel and the services they provide.
Test calls to hotel sales and catering departments across the country have shown that little effort is placed on generating additional revenues from up-selling. In addition, sales and catering teams do not qualify their customers like they should, which is key to up-selling.
Not only are hotels losing out on revenue, but customers are missing out on the opportunity to enhance their events to make them even more successful. Remember, up-selling provides customer with more successful events. Successful events make customers happy. And grateful customers lead to repeat business and referrals.
Let’s look at a typical scenario. Here, an inexperienced customer is planning a dinner party for a retiring senior executive. In this scenario, the catering manager does not qualify the customer, but simply gives a tour and chats with the customer during the walk through of the banquet facilities.
Customer: I think we will order the Chicken with Chittake Mushroom Crème Sauce. That really sounds good!
Catering Manager: That’s a great choice, it’s one of our Chef’s specialties, I can have the paperwork drawn up and sent to you by tomorrow morning.
Customer: Thanks, we are looking forward to our event.
Because the salesperson never qualified the customer, it was never learned that the customer had a very large budget for this event and still had $5,000 dollars left to spend. In the above scenario, the catering manager should have qualified the customer and learned about the customer’s needs and budget. This would have resulted in countless up-sell opportunities.
Just a few up-sell opportunities combined with the proper techniques could have potentially generated over $5,000 in additional revenue. Some of the up-sell opportunities in the above scenario are:
- Passed appetizers
- Starter appetizers
- Wine with dinner
- Centerpieces
- Audio-Visual
- Microphones for speakers
- Upgraded dessert
- Additional servers
- Champagne toast
- Set up fees
- Room rental fees
- Coat room check
If you have already made the sale, why not up-sell and really add some dollars to your bottom line?
Visit www.aprinda.com to learn up-selling techniques that will improve your hotel’s bottom line and enhance your customer’s events. Remember, happy customers bring repeat business and refer more customers.
Happy up-selling!
Negotiating effectively in the hotel business can mean the difference between a sales manager making or loosing hundreds of thousand of dollars every year. Multiply that number by 7 or more sales and catering professionals and it could mean earning an extra half a million dollars per year, or unfortunately, leaving that revenue on the table.
How do we know if our sales and catering teams are negotiating effectively? Unfortunately, most hotel executives don’t know if their teams are negotiating the most profitable deal for their hotel. Most sales teams are given minimum average rates and meeting room rentals to sell, and then asked to go sell them. The sales representatives then work with customers and report back what they sold at weekly sales meetings. Nobody really knows how the negotiating process developed, and if the sales person negotiated successfully. Perhaps the sales person could have negotiated $20.00 or more dollars per room night and an extra $500.00 per day room rental. Effective negotiating techniques can net your sales managers a tremendous amount of incremental revenue.
Let’s take a typical scenario: How much revenue could this hotel be leaving on the table? Or better yet, how much money could this hotel be earning by using sound negotiating principals.
Scenario:
The client requires 100 rooms for three nights and meeting space for 100 people classroom style. The client has a budget to pay up to $189.00 for guest rooms and $2,000 per day for meeting space. The Sales Manager’s goal is to sell guest room rates of $129.00. The sales manager does not have a meeting room rental goal.
Sales Manager: Mr. Gibbons, I can offer you our group rate of $169.00 for your conference and your room rental is $1,000 per day.
Client: I only have a budget for $139.00 and I can’t pay any room rental.
Sales Manager: OK, I can make that work. How about if we draw up the paperwork for $139.00 and I’ll go ahead and waive your room rental?
Client: Sounds good.
The sales manager in the above scenario left over $24,000 on the table. The customer could have paid a lot more, but the sales representative did not know how to negotiate. By implementing sound negotiating principles, the sales manager could have captured a tremendous amount of additional revenue. See Aprinda’s online training solutions to learn, among other things, how to negotiate better deals in the hospitality business.
The quest for business in the hotel industry often focuses on finding “new” and “revolutionary” methods that will open the spigot of fortune and let the business flow. But don’t forget, the answer often lies with the basics. A simple statement sums it up:
“There are only two kinds of real business for sure, the business you have and the business your designated competitors have.”
All the rest is potential or “maybe” business. And, yes, trends, history and other data show us that potential business is there, but it’s not as real as the customers who paid you and your competitors last night. With this in mind, primary effort in hotel sales should always focus on; 1) who your customers are, 2) where they come from, and 3) how you get more of them. Today, there are numerous methods for building a sourcing network with your current customers. These include social networking, newsletters, mailing lists, and more. Train your team to understand completely the value of your current customers, and to emphasize the importance of your present business as one of your two biggest sources of business.
The second source is your competitors’ real business. Take practical steps to identify who they are, where they come from, their choice criteria, and what you can do to convince these customers to switch to your hotel. Training in the best tactics for converting your competitors’ customers will bring fruitful rewards.
Of course, don’t forget potential business. And, by all means, employ “new” and “revolutionary” methods that make sense. However, you will find that a systematic focus on current customers – both your own and those of your competitors – will be time and effort well spent.
In 33 years of being on the firing line and in the tempest we call the hospitality or meetings industry, I’ve come across all kinds of buyers, sellers, and intermediaries. I’ve observed some real professionals, “winners” whom I admired, from both sides of the buyer and seller equation. I’ve also seen some real “losers”, who either flared out quickly from the business, or continue to flounder and wonder why. Then, there are the many, many legions of mediocre, well-intentioned folks who do OK, but could do a whole lot more if they just applied themselves better, worked smarter, listened more, put their ego in check, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d themselves to learn new skills and get to the next higher level of sales sophistication.
I’ve compiled a short list of 10 sales mistakes I’ve addressed as fairly common, based on my own experience as a salesperson (sure, I’ve done some of these myself, who hasn’t?), a sales team leader, a sales coach/trainer, and a liason between meeting planners and salespeople. This “top 10″ is confirmed with every workshop, seminar, training program, and industry educational session I present, from the stories I hear people tell over and over again. So, take a look at it — be honest and self-critical — and see if you couldn’t use a bit of sharpening & re-tooling yourself, or for your team. Your customers and prospects will thank you, and book you more, too. Your competition will wonder why they lose more business to you.
And isn’t that what it’s all about?
- Salespeople not listening. Hearing, maybe, but not really listening
- Not paying attention to details (especially with respect to RFP’s)
- Not pushing themselves to learn more, know more, ask more, invest more in relationships
- Choosing to take the “path of least resistance” rather than the right (or better) path with customers, alliance partners (such as CVBs, etc.) and teammates. Some call it being lazy. Get it off the desk, whether it is accurate/quality, or not
- Taking customers for granted—”entitlement” that they’ll always be their customer, so why worry?
- Trying to be too slick or smooth, which most customers see coming from miles away
- Not evolving their skill set beyond what the basics are—being “good enough to get by”
- Not keeping their word
- Sloppy work
- Mortgaging the future for the quick sale now
Aprinda is excited to announce the launch of its new web site design! We feel this design reflects our ongoing commitment to quality programming and gives our visitors a better viewing experience. Check out our online programs, take a free trial run, or explore our custom design services. We hope you enjoy it!
Hotels can increase sales by considering everyone in their hotel a sales person, or at the minimum, a sales lead generator. It’s not just the sales and catering team that needs to generate revenue, everyone that works at the hotel has the potential to generate new business.
Let’s start with the front desk team. They meet with hundreds of customers on a daily basis. Many of the customers checking in have associates who are staying with the competition. These associates of your current customers possibly book larger conferences and events at your competition. There is a huge opportunity to connect with these guests and uncover new revenue opportunities for your hotel.
Next, your bartenders and servers interact with guests on a daily basis. Many of these guests have the potential to refer your hotel to additional travelers who require meetings and events. Your food and beverage team is already building rapport and relationships with guests who represent tremendous revenue opportunity. Hotels should be taking advantage of these relationships to generate additional revenue.
Finally, reservation departments, PBX operators, and even engineering and housekeeping have the opportunity to generate new leads for your hotel. The key to making all of your employees revenue generators is training. If you train your entire staff on sales and catering you will see increased leads for your hotel; especially if you combine training with incentives.
Aprinda can help you generate more revenue by training your staff with online sales and catering programs available 24/7 – 365 days a year. It’s effective and affordable, and your employees’ progress can be monitored from the comfort of your office and with a click on a button.
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