Highlights from the Bring It On Webcast: June 23, 2021
Tammy Gillis, author, founder and CEO of Gillis, a consulting, training and sales performance organization for hoteliers, joined the Bring It On with Kristi White webcast to discuss tips and strategies for hoteliers as the hospitality industry recovers, from a sales perspective.
Today, it’s more critical than ever to have a proactive sales approach to recapture business. Even with limited resources, you can’t leave sales to chance. Tammy tells us why it’s so important to make time to sell and how to prepare your team for the way forward.
As an industry influencer, Tammy appears regularly at industry trade shows and has written a book titled “Room to Grow – Not Leaving Sales to Chance” to be released mid-July, 2021. Visit https://gillissales.com/room-to-grow/ to learn more.
Three unexpected insights from this conversation:
- Don’t leave sales to chance
Today’s sales realities mean that the salesperson you hired ten years ago is not the same as the salesperson you need today. Whether you are rebuilding your team because of turnover and layoffs, or an increase in business, the goal is the same. Building a sales team and not leaving sales to chance means making sure you have the right people in the right seat and have an effective hiring and onboarding program to set them up for success. - Rank your customers
If you are short on time, or staff, look at your top accounts and rank them. Consider the following: Are they loyal, do they value you and your hotel? Are they skeptical? If so, you will need to determine how to move them from skeptical to advocate. Determine where they are on the customer journey to better understand if they are susceptible to leaving. Finally do your research and call planning ahead of every call. 90% of any sales call should be about preparation. - Stop “Pitch Slapping” your prospects
Is your sales team smiling and dialing without adequate planning, research, and preparation ahead of time—frustrated because no one calls them back, and when they do, all the customer wants is a cheaper rate? This is a common symptom, and it consumes hundreds of hours of time, with current statistics telling us it takes 18 calls to connect to a single buyer, and in the end, all you’re doing is giving the customer information they can likely find out on their own. No prospect wants a call from a salesperson who isn’t prepared and is just going to pitch-slap them. Cold calling isn’t an effective sales strategy given the information and tools salespeople have at their disposal.
At the end of the day, you can’t leave sales to chance. You have to develop a culture of selling and always be moving your team forward.
Listen to Kristi and Tammy talk about these and other interesting topics when you watch the webcast on demand.
If you’re a hotelier who’s ready to find and book more meetings while cultivating a culture of selling, schedule a demo with one of our prospecting pros. We’ll ensure you have the right information to capture the best opportunities for your property.
