Director of Sales in Hospitality – Good VS Great
Whether you are a Director of Sales or a General managers or Operations Manager the following information should be of great help.
A good director of sales will focus on meeting budgets and achieving goals. Which can be very satisfying. On the other hand, great Directors of Sales have endless curiosity and remains very enthusiastic and are continually on the go and looking beyond meeting sales goals through endless prospecting for new contacts and new opportunities. The main focus is total success of the hotel they work for.
A good director of sales knows how to tell a good story about their hotel. What amenities and features the hotel offers. A great Director of Sales will be more likely to ask a lot of questions and listen 80% of the time and speak only 20% of the time. Great Directors of Sales are ask pointed questions. They ask questions about the prospect’s present situation and the problems they may need to solve. A great Director of Sales looks to gain as much information as possible about their prospects. What are the issues with the clients present hotel options, how much money are they spending. The calls made to clients are very prepared and specific.
A good Director of Sales can be a great reactors. Which can be valuable for a hotel. The difference with a great Director of Sales is that they tend to be pro-actors. They tend to pre-think and gather as much information about the prospect as possible. They tend to be very active in the prospect’s industry and keep up with news pertaining to that industry and their prospects. A great Director of Sales will continually review existing accounts to see what can be best for their client’s next move. They will also be well aware of the number of rooms that have been filled throughout their sales cycle. They will tend to come up with new approaches to servicing clients and prospecting. They will be in touch with General manager and their team and share progress. Great Director of sales will be well aware what their competitors are doing and who is staying at competitors’ hotels.
A great Director of Sales will constantly ask “How can I get my sales relationship to move forward?” – “How can get closer to the final contract with an account?”
Great Director of Sales tend to have an appreciation for good time management. How to get the best return on investment for time exerted. They avoid getting too involved in operation. The goals of the hotel to fill the rooms and that is top of mind.
Team work! A good director of Sales knows the team they work with. A great Director of Sales empowers their team. Trying to lift up the team they work with, They will work closely with guest service reps who have a lot of contact with customers and can gather a lot of valuable information. A great Director of Sales will even bring a General manger on sales calls or an assistant manager or even a guest service rep.
Great Director of Sales may also take team members on a site tour. Showing them how to do a grate site tour. Showing them, among other things, the importance of making sure that a designated tour room is always ready. They will show the team how to be an extension of the Director of Sales when he/she s not present at the hotel.
Although we tend to mention hotels in this article, most suggestions apply to Inns, Motels, Resorts…
