Although the jobs of catering & event (wedding) sales manager and hotel group sales manager are often thought of as similar, the real-world skills needed are quite different.
Why? Increasingly hotel sales jobs are being automated, centralized and outsourced. Online booking platforms have made it easy for planners to source proposals from a large pool of properties with a few clicks. Cloud-based hotel sales platforms allow a sales manager to drop the details into an online proposal or copy/paste them into a PDF document. With advances in automated revenue management, salespeople can quickly access and drop in the rates, then race to respond first!
Now, as I’ve written about many times, there are still lots of opportunities to outsell your comp set by keeping the “people parts” in the sales process and using a “tech for touch” approach.
But when it comes to selling to those who are planning events and celebrations, these “people parts” are even more important. Now of course I’m speaking in generalizations here, but typically the needs of those who are booking most group room blocks and/or routine meetings are more commodity-based, such as a coach or parent-volunteer who is booking a sports team, an entry-level manager or assistant who is booking a small group meeting, or the increasingly automated process of corporate travel managers who are arranging negotiated corporate rates.
On the other hand, the leads arriving daily in a catering sales manager’s inbox are more likely coming from those who are planning emotionally important events like weddings, retirement parties, milestone celebrations and the like. These events are also more likely to be planned directly by a key stakeholder or someone close to them.
Yet too often these days, catering sales managers are responding with the same automated response systems and processes used by hotel sales managers, such as using pre-made proposal templates to simply respond with a price quote, to reply in an online platform, or to email over the pricing and menu details.
From the planner’s side of the equation, this creates a sense of “choice overload” and planners often have difficulty deciding because the proposals are similar in content and presentation.
Now in all fairness to catering salespeople, most are dealing with an overwhelming volume of inquiries. Just as platforms like Cvent make it easy for a group planner to engage salespeople at a dozen or more hotels, event planning sites like The Knot, plus brand.com event booking platforms, require a large number of venues to reply as well. As a result, catering sales managers often feel lead fatigue.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s easy to see how your catering staff is actually doing. Just follow the same process I use when I conduct our sales and catering sales process assessments for KTN’s clients.
First, start at the lead intake source, which these days is most often simply the folders your salesperson uses to store platform notifications and direct inquiries. Randomly select about six qualified leads from two or three months back. By "qualified," I mean leads that match your availability and venue. Next, ask your salesperson to show documentation of their responses and follow-up actions. Ideally, these would be documented in your sales CRM, but in reality, it will likely require looking at handwritten notes and/or reviewing sent emails.
Check to see if the salesperson reached out by phone, or for platform inquiries, at least replied by email, or if they simply replied “in-platform” or by sending a generic proposal without attempting to make a connection. Look at the email cover notes and proposal wording. Was it personalized or generic? Check sent messages and notes and determine if they followed up tenaciously.
When I conduct these assessments, about 20% of the catering and event salespeople are amazing and manage to do all of these things well. However, about 80% are simply responding one time with generic messaging, and if there is any additional follow-up, it is a generic “let me know if you have questions” email or in-app message.
If you are looking for maximum results from your catering sales efforts, here are some training tips:
- Be obsessive about salesperson availability: Unlike group inquiries, many event leads still arrive by phone. Prepare front desk staff and others who cover phones to complete lead inquiry forms and always have backup “lead catcher” coverage when catering salespeople are out.
- Sort and prioritize incoming leads: Senders who include a lot of details, and especially those who refer to specifics of your property or venue, are self-disclosing being the hottest leads.
- Respond promptly to electronic inquiries: If more time is needed for a full response, at least send back a short note to acknowledge the inquiry.
- Respond to all inquiries: Even if space is sold out and the sender says their date is not flexible, they might become more flexible if other area venues are also unavailable. If the inquiry is generic, showing no specific interest in your offerings, an auto-response or generic proposal is acceptable if necessary, but still not ideal.
- Respond to the hottest leads with a phone call: This is a wonderful opportunity to humanize the exchange and to stand out from your competition, as very few others do this. Even if you only leave a voicemail, it will differentiate you and your venue.
- Research before responding to inquiries from companies: Reference what you learned in the response in your correspondence.
- Personalize the written response: Start out by paraphrasing and restating what the sender includes in their original inquiry or conversation. This demonstrates that you are attentive to their special needs.
- Offer online meetings and virtual tools: Many events are planned remotely, and even local prospects do not always have time for a site visit. Use scheduling apps to make it easy for planners to book a time to talk, and always offer the choice of an online meeting that allows you to show photos and floor plans.
- Take and send smartphone pictures: While it is nice to share stylized professional photographs, organic camera phone pictures of spaces and set-ups will stand out.
- Send personal handwritten notes: These are a great way to make a personal connection throughout the sales process from the initial follow-up to the call or meeting or after the event.
- Use your sales tracking system to ensure ongoing follow-up throughout the sales cycle: Trace out each step, starting with a follow-up note to make sure the prospect received the original proposal. (Emails can so easily be deleted on smartphones these days.)
Managers, routinely spot-check compliance by repeating the “sales process assessment” for a few leads every month or two.
Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
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