602-628-7026 lynne@lynnewellish.com

7 Mistakes Hospitality Sales Executives Make

...with a reduced sales team

MISTAKE #6 Not Being Consistent and Persistent

Remember—you’re making a match!

Once, twice, three times I love you, but really it is 7 before I know your name —

Diligently you have loaded in your data Suspect list. Looking for that gold, you start dialing and smiling, leaving messages and following up with an e-mail. Got over your fear of cold calling? Perhaps you took the sales lead nurturing class and wrote the best e-mail, loaded it in your CRM and sent out an e-blast. So excited you took the risk and took action. Hopefully you put a trace to follow-up with the suspect. You are confident the phone will ring off the hook and your e-mail box will be filled with messages.

Then you wait, and wait ,and wait, and nothing. Don’t worry, no one else is hearing a bell ringing either.

Don’t think of it as cold calling, think of it as matchmaking. Just say, “Hi I am just calling to introduce myself and my venue; we have 200 guest rooms and 5,000 square feet of meeting space. Is that a fit for something you are working on for the future? Can I send you some information? When should I follow-up?” I rarely leave a message the first or second round.

I like to wait 2 weeks and reach out again, maybe this time my message will be heard or seen. Repetition in communication is a tool.

“Effective frequency” is a term used to define the number of times a person needs to hear an advertising message before responding to it. The most famous is probably the “Rule of 7,” which suggests consumers need to hear a message seven times before they will consider taking action. Studies on the mere-exposure effect have found that the effect reaches a maximum at between 10 and 20 exposures.

Do you have that much focus and staying power? Many people struggle because they don’t have a long-term focus. This is not a buyers’ market, this is not a sellers’ market, this is a co-create and design way of doing business market. Reach out and see who is working on what.

Start building the bridge to tomorrow revenue. Be persistent and consistent, and determined. If you started with a list of 100 and made 10 calls a day you could have the whole list contacted in 2 weeks. Which would be exactly time to start at the beginning again. It will take you 4 months to work the list reaching out to each prospect 7 times. Imagine what you will learn on the way, new contacts, new meetings and events and a new feeling of success. If you start in Q1, imagine what your Q3 will look like.

The best salespeople know when a sale is not to be made. Don’t be afraid to say in a voicemail or e-mail, “I have tried reaching out to you because I know our venue would be great for your meeting. If I do not hear back from you in two weeks, then I will close you out as not-a-fit.”

Then start filling the pipeline with suspects again!

Are you in need of Sales & Marketing support?

Take a deep breath and schedule a free 20 minutes sales strategy consultation. Imagine if you could talk to the right person at the right time about your current challenges. Put my hospitality industry experience to work for you. Leave with two actionable items you can use today!

BOOK NOW!

[ssa_booking type=sales-strategy-phone-call]