The Internet offers many cost-effective resources and tools to forward virtually unlimited sales information that will capture prospective business. Web sites are good marketing tools, but they do not provide hotel and event planning sales professionals with the resources and education needed to streamline the service sales call. The hotel sales industry must start analyzing its cost-effective virtual options, organize its virtual sales procedures, train its sales staff and begin distributing and presenting sales information to include traditional sales standards to ensure an increase in profits and a decrease in annual marketing budgets.
Studies have shown that 85% of those who respond first to an inquiry with complete sales information and provide personal attention to the guest will win the business. Complete sales and catering information should be presented within the first few seconds of an inquiry or sales call. One of the first things a Sales or Catering Sales Managers should be asking when receiving an inquiry or sales call is; are you sitting in front of a computer, if the guest is, then this gives the sales professional a visual option for the guest to review as they follow along with your virtual presentation of services. Once the call is completed there should be no need to access e-mails, send attachments, word documents, web links, powerpoints and PDF brochures or resort to faxes and snail-mail to complete the inquiry or sales call (other then a follow up).
Today's full services and limited service hotel web sites have been built to reflect the web designer's technical goals and restrictions instead of the goals and needs of the hotel sales and catering sales professional. Traditional web sites do not provide the virtual tools, knowledge and training hotel sales and catering sales staff members need to close the sale with one phone call. And, increasingly, businesses of all sizes are recognizing that being first on any major search engines costs money. Good search engines ranking is not something that just happens, and the Internet is filled with fraud. The hotel sales and catering sales industry must look at additional virtual options to make web sites a viable sales tool, such as instant virtual presentation of services offered and providing hotel sales and catering sales staff member with cost effective virtual tools needed to closes the sale quickly and effectively, saving both time and money.
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