Anna Ransom
You’ve set your sights high on sales growth goals for 2017. What’s your plan to achieve them? Start taking massive action now to ensure early success rather than waiting until later in the year to have to recover from unanticipated challenges.
Consider five key areas to help in this process:
Timeliness Matters
You have a high volume of RFPs coming into your property daily. Establish a strategy to effectively manage these requests. Promptly follow up with those that are ideally suited for your business. Based on a review of RFP submissions and responses generated through the Amadeus Group Distribution platform, 72% of first responders win the business. Your response time matters.
Integrate your online RFP solution with your sales & catering system to save time creating auto-generated and customized proposals that include group specific details for the business you are trying to win. Saving time on each proposal incrementally adds up, giving you the opportunity to focus on additional opportunities to win more deals.
Differentiation is Critical
Long gone are the days when a static Word proposal or PDF document will meet the goal of differentiating your offering. Today’s tech-savvy consumers crave a detailed response that enables them to immerse themselves in your venue. Provide them with the tools they need to understand why your venue is the perfect location for their event.
Engaging photography and interactive videos will allow your prospective customer to truly understand the offer that you are presenting and how your venue is ideally suited to meet their needs. Which leads to our next point….
Customers First, Always
Focus on your prospective customer’s needs, both stated and unstated. Deliver on these expectations. Differentiate from your competition with superior accessibility and follow up. When you drive a high level of customer satisfaction through the sales cycle, you will win the business today, ensure that they will return in the future, and share the experience with their friends (bringing you future opportunities).
Make it Easy
Put yourself in their shoes. How easy is it to find the information that they are seeking? Make sure that your online presence includes they key pieces of information that prospective customers are looking for. Research shows that consumers are 57% into their buying journey before they reach out to you for more information. When you follow up on their inquiry, provide a deeper level of information beyond what is available on your publicly facing website. Provide the type of event they are looking to host so they have a clear understanding of how you will ensure successful event delivery. Identify next steps and be clear about action items associated with your offer. Most of all, make sure it is easy for them to say YES and accept your proposal.
Good things come to those who…
There are a lot of ways to complete the above sentence. I believe the most accurate completion is: Good things come to those who WORK HARD. Don’t leave anything to chance. How many times should you follow up? When you use an online dynamic proposal that alerts you to when a prospective customer has reviewed your offer, you know exactly when to reach out to them.
These are just a few ideas to help you achieve your sales goals this year. We all have the same number of hours in a day. Create efficiencies in your process to lower the overall cost of acquiring new business opportunities as well as finding more time to focus on revenue growth. At the bottom of it all, working to create customers that are raving fans will ensure your continued success.
What are some other areas that are top of mind for you?
