As anyone who has worked in the profession of hotel sales and catering sales for 10 or more years knows, the skill-set required to be a top performer is quite different these days. Today’s sales superstars still have to have exceptional “people skills,” which today is more formally referred to as emotional intelligence.
Equally as vital, however, is the need for sales colleagues to develop an excellent organizational skillset. These days, one has to be good at both “people” and “process” skills in order to succeed. This is because today’s sales teams are dealing with an overwhelming flow of electronic correspondence throughout the sales cycle and it is therefore essential to be highly organized.
First, there is an overwhelming number of leads coming in via electronic channels, as meeting and event planners reach out to a long list of hotels via a few key strokes at CVENT, Starcite, CVB sites, Meeting Broker, or Wedding Wire and The Knot. Thereafter, once a prospect becomes a client, communications regarding key details start flowing in piecemeal in via texts and emails at all hours of the day.
Therefore, it’s essential that sales professionals evolve their skill-set tool box to adapt to all of these changes. Following are a few of my recommended best practices from KTN’s training for today’s era of electronic inquiries and messaging.
- Give up the paper and embrace your electronic tool. Whether you are using Delpi, Opera Sales & Catering, Salesforce, or one of the many other lead tracking systems, fully commit to using all if its features. There are just too many leads floating around to track any other way. Searching through a stack of print-outs of leads is way too time consuming when a prospect calls in; as is going through the stack when it’s time for follow-up.
- Similarly, stop trying to make Outlook into a lead tracking system. While Outlook can be an excellent email platform, and the calendar features are useful, if you take time to fully embrace your lead tracking platform you will probably find it has far more features and functionalities that will make you a better organized sales person.
