Selling Steps to Success Refresh Tips: Preparing for the Call and Greeting

Selling Steps to Success Refresh Tips

…… Preparing for the Call & Greeting

10151 Deerwood Park Blvd. Building 200, Suite 250 Jacksonville, Florida 32256

1 Refresh Tips_Preparing for the Call and Greeting

Copyright, Hospitality Softnet, Inc.

This document provides refresher tips from the Selling Steps to Success sales training. This refresh is on Preparing for the Call and Greeting. To gain the most benefit of your investment in this training it will involve actively using the skills on a day-to-day basis.

Starting with a Positive Mindset

• Negativity can paralyze you and divert your focus.

• Determine what motivates you and take time to create a positive selling environment and mindset.

Use of Schedules to Help Manage Your Time

Some salespeople “wing it” for their schedule. Meaning, each day when they come in, they determine as they go what they will do and when they will do it. Taking this approach means your day will control you, versus you controlling your day. It is highly recommended that you carefully schedule your time in advance . The schedule for your upcoming week should be finalized before leaving for the day on Friday. Then each day during the week, before you leave for the day fine-tun e the next day’s schedule so when you come in the next morning, it is an effective plan. Taking the 5 minutes it requires to do this will pay off in the end. Your schedule should indicate for each day of the upcoming week what your plan is. Indicate your scheduled appointments and meetings both with customers and internal meetings. Indicate what days and time frames you will be conducting your direct solicitation calls (both outside and telephone). Always allow time for the une xpected! You don’t want to schedule every minute of the day, as this doesn’t allow you to deal with the inevitable issues that will arise. If you don’t have outside appointments planned, then allocate tha t time for other direct sales efforts. You can always substitute the activity with a planned appointment if you obtain one during the course of the week. But if you don’t obtain one, then you have a plan for good use of that time slot. By having a schedule and maintaining it, you will have a clear plan of action in place, minimizing time spent on speculating “What should I do next?” As a result, you accomplish more. In addition, the schedule gives you a sense of direction and this helps keep you motivated. Not having a schedule in place tends to allow a salesperson to feel a li ttle “lost” at times, or they feel disorganized and stressed because they have a lot to accomplish, but don’t know what to start on first. With a schedule, you have a written plan to follow, which will help keep you focused and on target with your action plans. The goal is to plan your work and work your plan!

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To Do Lists and Plan of Action

• Typically, everyone has a lot of things they want to get accomplished on a daily basis. In order to avoid becoming overwhelmed, before leaving for the day sit down and update the next day’s To Do List. Prioritize this list. Refer to you r To Do List throughout the day. Time can get away from you so don’t wait until the end of the day to review what needs to get accomplished. At that point there is often no way to fit in an activity that was supposed to have been completed earlier in the day. At the end of each day, review the list and make any necessary changes, additions, or deletions for the next day. • If you are in charge of a special project, no matter how small, create a separate “To Do” list of what you have to do in order to complete the project. This is your Plan of Action . Put realistic target dates next to each item and adhere to them. By having a plan in place to complete the project, you can incorporate it into your overall To Do List and ensure that deadlines are met. • Don’t plan to do more than you can accomplish and don’t schedule your time so tight, there is no room for deviation. The hotel business cannot be planned by the minute. You have to allow time for the day-to-day interruptions that you know will occur. So, allow time for those interruptions. This way it won’t inhibit your ability to accomplish your To Do List. The “Selling W i ndow” is the best time perio ds during the day to do direct sales such as outside sales calls and telemarketing calls. The selling window will vary depending upon the market you are soliciting and the time zone your customers are in. As an example, for a local corporate market it is approximately between 9 AM and noon, and 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. However, if you are selling to customers who are in a west coast time zone, your selling window would need to be adjusted if you are in the east coast time zone. The goal is, plan your direct sales when you have the HIGHEST opportunity to reach your prospect. To be great at what you do and to achieve the highest degree of success, administrative paperwork or other “non -dire ct sales” activities should not be done d uring the Selling Window on the days you have allocated for your solicitation efforts. The Selling Window

Prepare Your Questions

Before you go into a sales call, or telephone your client, or deal with an inquiry you should write down what questions you want to be sure to ask. While you may feel you know in your head what information you want, if you write them down you will ensure you get all the information you need. When you are planning to do several calls in one day, you frequently want to get different information from each contact. Writing down the questions ensures you do not forget to ask any of the questions you wanted to. Once the appointment is over, you may not have another opportunity to learn the information needed. Often the clients can get you off track. So being well prepared helps you maximize your time with them.

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Copyright, Hospitality Softnet, Inc.

Prepare for Your Customer’s Que stions

✓ Not only should you prepare your questions in advance but think about what questions your client will ask you and be prepared with responses.

✓ Anticipate any objections for concerns your client might have and prepare responses for them as well.

✓ Try to find out in advance who you are competing with for the business. Learn what you can about the competition, so you are prepared to effectively sell against them.

✓ Be ready for any questions regarding how your hotel handles issues pertinent to the pandemic.

Know Your Market Conditions as They Are Today

Knowing as factually as possible your market conditions will help you sell your hotel, sell against the competition, and maximize revenues where possible. This is always an ever-changing situation, but even more so since the pandemic. So, maintaining this knowledge is an ongoing process. But true knowledge, can make a huge difference in winning the sale at the best pricing possible.

The Greeting

First impressions are important. Whether you are doing a solicitation call, or are dealing with an inquiry, it is important to get off to a positive start, as it sets the tone for the remainder of the call . The introduction is a brief, yet very important step to the selling process. The following are some points to keep in mind:

1. Introduce yourself. On our mystery shopping calls, it is not uncommon for the customer to not know whom they are dealing with until the end of the call.

2.

Take control of the call , don’t make the customer lead the call.

3. Develop Rapport. This makes it easier to upsell, to deal with objections successfully and ultimately to close. Take every single opportunity possible to build rapport and a relationship. 4. If someone else took some basic information, be sure to become familiar with it . Don’t inconvenience your customer by making them repeat all the details. This can make you appear disorganized.

Preparing for the sale and the first step of the sales process, the Greeting, can be underestimated in terms of how much this can impact your success in closing the sale. With strong preparation and planning, you will increase your level of confidence and your level of control when interacting with your customer. The confidence you have and more control you have, the more effectively you can conduct the sales interactions in a way that results in a closed sale.

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Copyright, Hospitality Softnet, Inc.

Quality and Quantity Count in Your Outbound Sales Preparation

To maximize results in your outbound sales efforts, your first step is to be highly prepared.

• Use the selling window to increase your Reach Factor. No matter how many calls you make, if you don ’t reach people then you won’t get results.

• Be prepared with an enticing script guideline that makes prospects want to talk to you.

• Make good use of an eye-catching Hook or Promotion that will capture your prospects attention.

• Have a good plan that enables you to get enough quantity of calls done, to obtain results.

Knowledge

Know your Product WELL!

•

• Be ready to sell anything that has changed due to the pandemic.

Know your Competition WELL!

•

• The same applies, know what is different at the competition as a result of the pandemic (if anything)

• Don ’ t just know the competition …… ..be prepared on how you will sell against them and what your scripting will be.

This knowledge is very important in order to sell your hotel effectively, outsell the competition and maximize closure rates. Be ready with what has changed as a result of the pandemic and how it will impact your presentation. Having a strong foundation of the features and benefits will be utilized throughout the sales process. It is used when presenting the hotel. It is used when selling against the competition. It is also utilized when responding to objections. To assist in having this foundation firmly in place. It is suggested to outline as many features and benefits of your hotel as you can think of. We recommend if more than one person from the hotel is doing this activity, that you work together as a team in a meeting room to create this list.

Important to keep the following in mind:

• There should be more than a couple of features listed per area of the hotel. • Both “big and small” features can be imp ortant. So, list as many as you can think of, not just the major ones. • Features are not always just tangible ones. Keep in mind intangible features as well such as: Outstanding customer service, Incredible food quality, long-term staff, etc.

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Reminder on the difference between a feature and a benefit (which will be covered in more detail in a later course)

Features : Facts about the hotel.

Benefits : Benefits are what the features mean to your customer and guests. What the features do for them. A benefit will answer the question, "So What?".

"We have (feature), so what this means to you is (benefit)."

"Our hotel offers (features), so your guests will (benefit)"

Important: Be careful that your benefit is not just another feature. For example, "We offer a pool that is heated year-round."

The fact that it is heated is not the benefit. That is just an additional feature about the pool.

LET’S RECAP

✓ Lay the foundation for a successful sales effort by developing strong organizational and time management skills.

✓ Utilize Schedules and To Do Lists to help plan your work.

✓ Keep in mind the Selling Window to maximize your direct sales efforts.

✓ Be Prepared! Plan your day. This way you control your time versus your day controlling you.

✓ Don’t schedule your time too tightly. All ow time for the unexpected!

✓ Utilize good communication skills. It will ensure things run smoothly and it will also build respect and rapport with co-workers.

✓ Be an expert in your area of selling the hotel.

✓

Be familiar with your total product.

✓ Know your competition as well as you know your own hotel.

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✓

Stay aware of market conditions.

✓ Shop the competition regularly to be familiar with their pricing structures.

✓

Take control of the call.

✓ Start out your conversation explaining who you are in a professional manner.

✓ Attempt to build rapport with your customer.

✓ If you are contacting the customer, state the purpose of your call.

✓ If you are returning a call from an inquiry and the customer provided information, be sure to familiarize yourself with that information before calling the customer back.

✓ When dealing with electronic inquiries, SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM THE COMPETITION. Work towards overcoming the limitations of electronic selling.

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Copyright, Hospitality Softnet, Inc.