Could you afford to have your commercial team working unproductive instead of focusing all energy to bring more revenue. Many sales reps within hotels spend valuable time with repetitive work and administration. How can you make room for more revenue generating activities and get more value from your commercial team in order to increase your market share?
The competition of the customer has never been higher which means that the need for sales within the hotel industry has never been higher. Even though the demand is slowly increasing, it’s from low volumes compared to what hotels are used to. With a lower demand it’s even more important to work with your commercial activities in order to win the customers.
Automate time-wasting work within hotel sales
If you hire a Sales Manager with a significant salary you don’t want this person to spend time on non-revenue generating activities. It will be a waste of money and you basically pay the employee for tasks that should be automated. Another important aspect is to have an attractive environment for your sales managers to work within. They don’t want to spend time on repetitive work. Since many talents have left the hotel industry due to Covid, the competition of hiring a A-level sales rep will be more challenging than ever. Make sure the Sales Manager has the best possible conditions to sell in order to attract the best talents.
Example of time wasting activities you should automate :
- Logging data in your CRM
- Keep track of production and other data from your customers
- Keep-track of pick-up from contracted customers
- Searching in your email for latest progress
- Maintaining email templates
- Send follow up emails if prospects have not responded
- Find a time for meeting with a potential customer
- Preparing for a meeting (both internal and external)
- Most important (potential) customers to target
- Sales reports and updates
- Create proposals
What can hotels do?
“Old School” methods are still in operation but every hotel should aim for a more modern approach in their sales activities to reduce administration. So what can you do?
First of all you need a modern system(s) to minimize administrative tasks. The pandemic has accelerated the digitalization and you can’t afford to be left behind. With the right tool(s) you will be able to improve sales reps everyday efficiency and increase motivation. To find the right tool, think of what processes the sales manager needs to do in their daily work and what tasks that’s included. When this is done, you can start searching for the optimal sales system adapted for hotels that help your sales manager perform better. If you already have systems like a B2B CRM, do you use this system to its full potential (or do you need to find another solution in your “system park”)?
Benefits of automation within sales
Below you find some of the benefits and key outcomes of automation within your sales process. However, keep in mind that not all sales activities should be automated and sales automation systems do not replace sales reps, they help the sales managers to close more deals.
- Speed up decision-making to capture opportunities
- More time spending on revenue generating sales activities
- More meetings with customers and potential customers
- No missed follow-up on deals
- Increased motivation
- More closed deals with increased revenue
- Keep and attract employees
- Organize sales (and commercial) teams
- Accelerate response time
- Create faster proposals
- Shorter sales cycle
- Reduce cost of sales
Read more about Demand Calendars B2B CRM developed for hotels.
