Sales trends to implement in the hotel industry

With an increased competition of the customers, sales is one of the most important roles to outperform your competitors. To stay ahead in your market it’s vital to embrace new methods, strategies and technology. But which sales techniques and trends are actually effective. And which can have an impact on the result at the end of the year.

Reservation/In House sales more important role in a top-performing sales organization

Many hotels have been forced to get rid of their Sales Managers during the pandemic. With an increased demand in the last months the reservation/in house sales will have a higher responsibility in the sales process. Some hotels are already doing a great job to educate the reservation to be more than just receiving and responding to “orders”. Value-selling is an important aspect and the in-house sales must do more than just respond quickly. Educate and implement a sales process for your team in the hotel to close more deals.

Data-driven sales strategies

Data-driven sales strategies probably sound boring, but in 2021 it will be hotter than ever. For a fast recovery from the pandemic and a high growing revenue you need to use data in order to make better decisions. The data can help you with insights and a shift you need to embrace is not only to analyze historical data, you need to use data to be more predictive and work more proactively. Use data to see the best opportunities.

To analyze and capture value with data should not be hard or time consuming so make sure you have a database / BI tool that automatically collects data from internal and external sources.

Video for sales

Video as a tool in your emails is getting more common to increase the open rate and get a more personal touch which will stand out.. It’s easier to personalize your message and convert potential customers into customers.  There are several parts in the sales process you can benefit from videos such as:

• Prospecting
• Offer and contract negotiation
• Follow Up
• Send monthly reports to you top customers

Video-tracking also gives you insight into how much, when and which parts of your content the prospect or customer viewed. If you do not already have e-signing such as GetAccept or Oneflow where video is integrated you can use tools like Vidyard or Loom which you can easily connect to your email and try out for free.

Collaborating more closely with Revenue and Marketing

Are you tired of the discussion that Sales, Marketing and Revenue are working separately in their own silos? Well, at least I am. But in recent years the collaboration in the commercial team has been more and more aligned to work more effectively against a common goal for the hotel. The primary responsibility of the commercial team is to execute the hotel’s strategy and guidelines and meetings are 2 of the most productive tools to speed up the execution. Increase the collaboration within the team and you will capture more of the market. Read more about how to align the team and how to build structure for teamwork in our whitepaper “Create a high-performance commercial team”.

To increase your teamwork and collaboration an advantage is if the team has one system with all information easily accessible and with basic functionality for each role. 

Automation for hotel sales

A third of all sales tasks can be automated according to a survey from McKinsey. It’s a trend that not only will help sales to increase sales, but also to reduce costs. Another benefit is to get rid of repetitive tasks that most of the sales people think are boring (and time consuming). 

Some tasks you should automate is: 

• Post-sales activities such as reporting and analytic of data
• Lead identification  - Pipeline management, and reach out to potential customers with workflows and sequences
• Analyze of buying pattern
• Follow up of leads and offers
• Integration with PMS for automatic data transfer

Make sure to have a CRM where you can automate administration and repetitive tasks. Read more about sales automation.

Social Selling

Social Selling has never been more popular and is definitely a trend you can't ignore. Use online platforms such as LinkedIn to interact with your potential and actual customers. Share relevant content to make sure you always are in their mind. Increase the number of connections with your target audience and when it’s time to book the next conference or find the right hotel for their stay they will think of your hotel. To be active on LinkedIn will not only build your personal brand it will also build the hotels.

If you don't have implemented these 6 sales trends. We recommend you to try them.