It is easy to agree that all roles in the commercial team should work toward the same goal. If they do not, it is a problem that needs to be solved.
NB: This is an article from Demand Calendar
It is also easy to agree that hotels need marketing, sales, and revenue management knowledge. Hotels without skills in these areas are likely less successful, so they must acquire them. It is easy to agree that hotels want their commercial roles, such as marketing, sales, and revenue management, to be highly productive in growing revenue and profits. If productivity is low, hotels need to fix this to become successful.
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The general manager’s job is to align all team members toward the same goal, find relevant knowledge and skills, and make the team highly productive. A young and ambitious general manager would like to fix these things himself. In contrast, a more experienced general manager would recruit a commercial manager to head the marketing, sales, and revenue management team. Let’s outline the tasks for the commercial manager to align the team toward the same goals, build knowledge and skills, and finally make the team highly productive.
Align all roles toward the same goal
Aligning a hotel’s marketing, sales, and revenue management toward the same goal is crucial for maximizing profit and delivering a consistent customer experience. Here are ten action points to help achieve this alignment:
- Set clear, shared objectives: Establish common goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that all three departments work towards, such as revenue targets, occupancy rates, or customer satisfaction scores.
- Regular communication: Schedule regular physical or virtual meetings for team members to discuss progress, share updates, and address any challenges or concerns.
- Cross-functional training: Offer training opportunities for staff to learn about the roles and responsibilities of other team members, fostering a better understanding of the bigger picture and encouraging collaboration.
- Develop a shared target guest/customer profile: Collaborate on creating a few detailed guest/customer profiles, including the reason for travel, demographics, preferences, and booking patterns, to help inform marketing campaigns, sales strategies, and revenue management decisions.
- Coordinate promotions and campaigns: Work together to create and launch marketing campaigns, special offers, and discounts that align with the hotel’s overall goals and target audience and optimize revenue generation.
- Collaborative pricing strategy: Develop a joint pricing strategy that considers market demand, competitor rates, and guest/customer expectations to maximize total revenue.
- Share data and insights: Regularly share insights from each role’s analytics based on the same data, such as demand patterns, booking behavior, conversion rates, or customer feedback, to make informed decisions and adjust strategies and tactics.
- Implement a centralized B2B Sales CRM: Use a B2B Sales CRM to centralize and share customer information, streamlining communication and ensuring a consistent experience throughout the customer journey. Use the PMS as a B2C CRM to keep track of individual guests and their behavior.
- Incentivize collaboration: Create performance-based incentives or rewards for team members that encourage teamwork and collaboration across departments in achieving shared objectives.
- Monitor and adjust: Continuously monitor the results of your alignment efforts and make necessary adjustments to strategies, communication, and collaboration based on the data and feedback collected. This will help maintain alignment and drive ongoing improvement
Build knowledge and skills
Building knowledge and skills within a hotel’s marketing, sales, and revenue management team is essential for achieving business objectives and staying ahead in the competitive hospitality industry. Here are ten action points to help foster a culture of learning and development:
