9

Technology and
Livelihood Education
Home Economics

TOURISM
PROMOTION
SERVICES
Quarter 4

Department of Education ● Republic of the Philippines

FEATURED DESTINATION
NEGROS ORIENTAL
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The Province of Negros Oriental occupies the
southeastern half of the boot-shaped Negros Island
Region, otherwise known as Region XVII. It was
officially divided from Negros Occidental in 1890 and is
naturally demarcated with mountain ranges traversing
south to north of the island. It has a total of 19
municipalities and six component cities- one of which is
Dumaguete City, the capital and gateway of the
province. Flights from Manila to the Dumaguete-
Sibulan Airport are available daily wih a travel time of
one hour and 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bus rides
(through RORO), ferries and fastcrafts are available
from Cebu with a travel time of four to five hours.

Quarter 4
Selling Principles (Part 1)

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Objectives:
 Identify the tasks associated with being a sales professional
 Learn how to identify key accounts.
 Know the importance of managing and maintaining an active
database.
 Understand the different stages of the sales process.

Pre-Test
Answer the following questions
1. What are the tasks of a sales person?
2. What are the stages of the sales process?

WHAT IS SELLING?
Sales is an integral part of tourism promotion. Sales
professionals make tourism products and services available to
customers.
Sales representatives are the company’s link to customers.
The sales person represents the business to its customers.

Tasks of Sales Professionals

Kotler (2010) outlines the primary tasks sales professionals
perform for their companies as:
1. Prospecting – the sales professional is tasked to look into
customers or prospects.
2. Targeting – sales professionals need to determine who tap
among a list of prospects given the available resources.
3. Communicating – sales personnel need to find ways and
means to keep in touch with clients.
4. Selling – sales personnel are trained to do product
presentations, negotiations, overcoming objections and closing the
sale.
5. Servicing – sales persons should help clients solve
problems and render technical or expert assistance.
6. Information gathering – sales representatives gather
intelligence information such as what the competition is doing or
what the company’s needs are.
7. Allocating – sales people assist in deciding which clients to
prioritize based on past and future business engagements when
there is a shortage of inventory.

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Identifying Key Accounts (Customers)
One of the major challenges a sales person has is looking for
customers. In order to grow one’s business, maintaining regular
customers combined with a steady flow of new customers is
necessary.

Some sources of customers include:

 Internet
 The telephone directory
 Referrals from other customers
 Friends of friends
 Past customers
 Inquiries

Primary Accounts
 Clients who provide a big portion of the business on a regular
and sustained basis
 The kind of clients a company cannot afford to lose
 Type of accounts for whom sales professionals devote 80% of
their time and resources
Secondary Accounts
 Clients who provide substantial sales revenue occasionally
 May have potential for growth in the future because: their
business is growing, they will transfer their purchases from a
competitor to the company.
Marginal Accounts
 Clients who provide nominal business
 Clients who purchase once in a while; may not be significant
but still better than none.
Database Management
Maintaining an active list of prospects, existing clients, and
previous clients is important in the selling process. This is called a
database.
a. electronically through client database management program
or through computer programs such as Microsoft Excel, or
b. manually through a phonebook directory or index cards.

Stages of the Sales Process

1. Prospecting and qualifying prospects
 Leads/referral from current clients
 Cold calls
 Sales blitz
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  Research
2. Pre-approach
 Familiarize with business opportunities of prospects
 Determines whether there is a fit between product offer and
client’s needs
3. Approach
 Initiate contact with the prospect
 Observe proper sales etiquette, protocols and cultural
sensitivity
4. Presentation and Demonstration
 Tailor fit product presentation to customer needs
 Highlight features, benefits and advantages of the product
 Listen to what the customer is saying
5. Negotiation and Overcoming Objections
 Resolve difference between what the buyer wants and what the
seller is willing to give
 Arrive at a mutually beneficial exchange of value
6. Closing the sale
 Ask the client directly or discretely any of the following
questions”
- May I draft the contract and send it for your review?
- Shall I call your office tomorrow and get details of the
booking?
May I take your reservation now so you may avail yourself
of an extra x% from the purchase price?
7. Follow-up and Maintenance
 Maintain constant communication for feedback and new offers
 Address customer complaints
 Solicit repeat sales and referrals

SELLING PRINCIPLES (Part 2)

Objectives
 Explain how a sales proposal is prepared
 Suggest products that could meet client’s needs
 Discuss skills on how to improve on presentation, negotiation
and closing the sale.

PREPARING THE SALES PROPOSAL

A sales proposal is a formal business letter prepared by the
sales agent, which outlines the benefits and highlights of the

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 product or service being offered. It includes a brief background of
the company offering the products or services, and the needs of the
company that will be achieved because of the product.
Preparing the proposal is the most important tool to clearly
and formally state to one’s client the product offer.

August 21, 2014

THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

XYZ College, Quezon City

Dear Sir/Madam:

May I have the privilege of presenting to you our products and services which would be
beneficial to your school. We offer educational tours for students of all levels. We have been
doing this for more than 10 years and have conducted more than 100 tours since we
started.

We take out the headache of organizing every aspect of the field trip from your
administrative staff by organizing the tours for you. Attached are the details of our proposal.

We look forward to meeting with you at your convenient time. Please do not hesitate to call
us at 0917-1234567 for an appointment.

Thank you and we look forward for a mutually beneficial relationship with you and your
school.

Very truly yours,

Agent ABC
Comments for Improvement
 Take time to get complete name of the addressee, his or her
official title or position and take the complete name of the
company.
 Ensure that the names are spelled out correctly and that there
are no typographical errors. Make sure that you have put the
correct titles. Never assume that the female is a Mrs She might
be a Miss-Ms. A lawyer-Atty or a doctor of medicine or PhD
holder- Dr. Verify these facts through a phone call.
 Instead of boasting about being in business for 10 years and
having organized more than 100 tours, it would be better to
have a testimonial from a satisfied customer sating something
about your services.
 By saying, we take out the headache of organizing the tours,
you are actually stating the benefits of availing of your
services. This is good.

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  Never expect the client to call you. By saying please do not
hesitate to call us for an appointment you are actually letting
the client dictate the next move. It would be better to say that
you will be calling them within two or three days to set an
appointment so you can discuss the details of the proposal.
 Always end your letter with a “thank you”. It shows your
appreciation that the client took time to read your letter.

Activity 1 ****
Re – write the letter and include the points raised to correct the said letter.

Ways to Submit a Proposal Letter

There are different ways to submit the proposal. This
depends on how the client prefers the proposal to be submitted.
In whatever way you choose to deliver the proposal, make
sure that you confirm whether the client has received the proposal.
It is the best time to ask when it is possible for you to follow up.

Your call may be worded in this way:

“ I would like to confirm whether you received the proposal I
sent via (state how it was sent). May I also know when would be the
best time to follow-up on the proposal?”

Presentation Skills
Sales presentation skills display a sales agent’s confidence
in the product or service he is selling and confidence in himself.
Sales presentations are not about selling a product and its benefits.
It is about selling the benefits of buying the products.
1. Presentation Language
In order to create a big impact on your presentation, take
extra concern on the language you use to communicate to your
audience. Avoid using technical language or jargons that your client
might not be able to understand. Use language that is positive,
optimistic and encouraging.

2. Body Language and Gestures

Positive and persuasive body language can aid your oral
presentation in engaging your audience. The way you stand, your
gestures and your movements contribute to creating an impact on
your audience.

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3. Presentation Materials
Your presentation materials are meant to be a visual aid. It
is meant to assist you in bringing forth your message to the client.
Use visuals, charts, diagrams, pictures and animation. Avoid
making it text heavy.

Negotiation Skills
McNeil and Crotts (2006) discussed five common types of
concerns that a salesperson can expect from potential customers.
1. Need – the customer does not see the need to purchase your
product.
2. Product or Service – the customer may be unfamiliar with the
product or service you are offering.
3. Source – the customer has been getting the product or service
from someone else and is not open to the option of changing
suppliers.
4. Time – the customer delays making the decision to have time to
think it over or perhaps so as not to have to directly say no.
5. Price – the customer finds the price of the product or service
beyond his budget.

Closing the Sale Skills

This is one of the most important but most difficult stages
of the selling process.
Some helpful tips include:
1. Be sensitive to body language – observe how they react while
you are making the presentation.
2. Clarify some doubts they may have – during the negotiation
stage, they may have asked questions that help you determine
where they are at in their evaluation process.
3. Ask questions leading to closing the sale- asking both direct
and indirect questions may help the sales person determine
whether the customer is ready to buy. Direct questions may
include:
 Shall I call my office now to make a reservation on your
behalf?
 How many rooms will you be reserving for and its inclusive
dates?
 Shall I draft the contract and email it to you within the day?
4. Know when to ask for the sale – a good salesperson will ask the
right questions at the proper time. By assessing the client’s body
language and the questions and comments of the customer during

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the negotiation stage. Constant follow-up should be done by the
sales person.

Stopover: Review Activity *****

Identify the item referred to by the statement.
1. This is a formal business letter prepared by sales agent to present benefits of a
product , or service.
2. These are the gestures and movements that aide one’s oral presentation.
3. These are photos, charts, diagrams and videos that serve as visual aids.
4. It is the most important sales activity but also one of the most difficult.
5. Overcoming objections and clarifying concerns are part of this stage.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Objectives:
 Discuss the different basic models of communication
 Identify communication problems and how to resolve it.
 Compare different types of communication
Models of Communication
Tourism promotion is basically a communication process. It
involves communicating the benefits of the tourism products and
services to its target customers. It also involves listening to the
needs and wants of your target market.
Lasswell’s SMCRE Model of Communication
The communicator is the source of the message which is
transmitted through various channels and accepted by the receiver
with certain effects. Encoding involves putting thoughts, ideas and
information into a symbolic form in such a way that could be
understood by the target audience. SMCRE stands for Source,
Message, Channel, Receiver and Effect.
The communication process begins when the source selects
words, symbols, pictures and the like to represent the message that
will be delivered to the receiver(s). The message can be verbal or
non-verbal, oral or written ad symbolic form. Encoding is the
process by which thoughts are expressed in the form of words,
symbols, pictures and gestures.
A good communicator identifies who they are talking to
before crafting the message and deciding on the best way to
transmit it. The type of receiver will determine the following: “how
you say it,” “when you say it,; and which medium you will use.

How to Handle Communication Problems

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 Most of the communication models show how information
can flow effectively from sender or source to receiver or destination
through various channels. However, communication fails when a
message is received differently from how the sender intended it to
be. In other words, the sent message is different from the received
message.
The failure in communication may be due to several factors
such as:
a. Language Barriers
Since the tourism industry is a global industry,
communication may become difficult due to differences in language.
It would be good to be well versed in English since this is one of the
universal languages. Learning in foreign language is an advantage
for people who would want to work in the tourism industry.
b. Varying Connotation of Words, Signs and Symbols
Words, signs and symbols vary from country to country.
The thumbs up sign, for instance, will have a different meaning
depending on culture or race.
c. Cultural Differences
Cultural practices vary from one country to the next.
Cultural sensitivity is important to avoid misunderstandings.
d. Faulty Word Choices
A careful choice of words can help improve communication
while faulty word choices can cause miscommunication.
e. Mistranslations
Faulty translation from one language to another or one
dialect to another may cause misunderstandings.
f. Timing
The sender should be sensitive on when to deliver a
message. Especially if the message is something negative, the
timing should be perfect so as not to get a negative response.
The goal of marketing communication is to achieve common
ground between the sender and the receiver. Promoting products
and services involve a lot of good communication skills. As a sender
of the message, one should take into consideration who he is
talking to, how to say it and when to say it in order to communicate
properly.

Channels of Communication

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 In tourism promotions, there are different ways by which
one may communicate with one’s prospective customers. These are
as follows:
1. Face to Face Meetings – visiting your client in his/her office is
one of the most effective ways to present your product proposals.
2. Telephone Communication – this is the most convenient and
fastest way to keep in touch with your clients. The use of both the
landline and cellphone will help you keep in constant touch with
your clients.
3. Written Correspondence – letters, e-mails, and instant messaging
are also possible ways of communicating with your clients.
4. Computer-Mediated Communication – social media, skype,
facetime and other tools that allow for the exchange of
communication through computer-mediated means help you get in
touch with your clients more often and faster.

Stopover: Review Activity *****

Determine whether the statement is true or false. Write T for true and F for false.
1. Tourism promotions involve communicating benefits.
2. Misunderstandings occur when someone sends a message that the receiver
perceives differently.
3. Careful word choices can help improve communication.
4. Words, signs and symbols vary from country to country.
5. One of the goals of communication is the most effective way of presenting one’s
products and services.

ESTABLISHING RAPPORT WITH CLIENTS

Objectives:
 Explain how to establish rapport with clients through clothing,
hygiene, conversation and networking
 Describe how clothing can help establish rapport with clients
 Identify ways to maintain proper hygiene
 Provide ways on how to engage clients in good conversation
 Describe effective networking

How to Establish Rapport with Clients

Establishing rapport with clients is an important task for
any service provider. Successful sales person are able to establish
rapport with clients and this helps them in the different stages of
the sales process, from prospecting to closing the sale.

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Clothing
A lot of people judge others by how others dress, how they
carry themselves with what they wear, their posture and their over-
all appearance.
Dress appropriately – different social situations call for
different attires.

Male Female
Casual Shirt with or without Shirts with or
collar without collar
Jeans/Shorts Jeans/Shorts
Rubber Shoes/Slip- Sandals/Rubber
ons shoes
Smart Casual Polo Shirts/Long Blouse
sleeved Polo Pants
Slacks Flat closed shoes
Corporate Long –sleeved polo Blouse/Long sleeved
shirt preferably with polo
tie Slacks or skirt
Slacks Closed shoes with
Belt (color should heels
match shoes)
Socks (color should
match pants and its
length should be
enough to cover the
skin of the legs when
seated?
Leather shoes
Formal Coat with tie Blouse/Polo with
Slacks blazer
Belt (color should Slacks or skirt
match shoes) Closed shoes with
Socks atleast two inch
Leather shoes heels

Power dressing is a term used to show dressing smart to

command respect. This term is often used in the workplace wherein
employees have manner of dressing and presenting themselves to
show authority and power. It creates an impression of authority
when you dress up more fashionably and more formally than the
rest of the workforce.

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 Power dressing is particularly important in the tourism and
hospitality industry where image scores high among possible
customers.

Hygiene
Hygiene is synonymous to cleanliness. It refers to practices
that help maintain cleanliness to avoid illness and the spread of
germs. Maintaining good hygiene is helpful in attracting and
establishing rapport with clients.

Networking
An extensive network is a person’s most valuable asset. A
network is the group of people that a person knows and can easily
tap. The people in your phonebook are your network. They are
people you know whom you can contact easily.
Here are some tips to help you grow your network
1. Actively seek out and attend industry conferences and events
where you can meet new people.
2. Always have your business cards at hand. Give it to people you
meet and do not be shy to ask for their business card.
3. Have a one-liner introduction of yourself such as “Hi, I’m Juan
dela Cruz from ABC corporation. How are you?”
4. Always ask about the other person (where he works, etc) and use
his/her name during the conversation.
5. Initiate. Do not wait to meet others, start meeting others.
6. Maintain eye contact while in conversation.
7. Do not monopolized the conversation
8. Excuse yourself politely from the conversation to meet others.
9. You can also politely join a conversation without interrupting the
one talking by saying, “May I join you?”
10. Graciously greet the host upon arriving and thank the host
before leaving the event.
11. With technology, actively maintain your list of contacts and
constantly update them with a few notes, comments and ideas.
12. You may gently ask for referrals from your contacts on possible
leads for anything you might need. You should also be able to
return the favor to them when needed.

CONVERSATION

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 A conversation is an informal exchange of thoughts and
ideas. Being a good conversationalist is crucial in building rapport
with your customers.
Conversation starters include simple statements such as:
“Good afternoon, how do you do?”
“Hello Sir, how are you doing?”
Stopover: Review Activity ****
Identify whether the statement or group of words refers to clothing,
hygiene, networking or conversation.
1. casual attire
2. business cards
3. power dressing
4. carry mints
5. do not be scared to meet people
6. hair away from the face
7. body language
8. small bottle of cologne
9. discussion starters
10. maintaining eye contact

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Objectives:
 Explain what relationship marketing is.
 Discuss the different levels of relationship with customers
 Differentiate customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty
 Differentiate between transactional and relational marketing

What is Relationship Marketing?

Berry (1983) first coined the term relationship marketing
and defined it as attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer
relationships. Relationship marketing involves creating,
maintaining, and enhancing long-term relationships with individual
customers, as well as other stakeholders for mutual benefit (Belch
and Belch 2008).
Traditional marketing (also called transactional marketing)
centers on the acquisition of new customers and focused on
transactional exchanges with anonymous customers. However,
marketers have soon realized that securing the loyalty of its existing
customers and maximizing their lifetime value have become integral
to success (Li and Petrick 2008).

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Customer’s Lifetime Value
In relationship marketing, marketers hold on to a
customer’s lifetime value. Dissatisfaction may lead to a customer
not wanting to purchase from the company again or worse, spread
negative word of mouth about the company to discourage others
from buying.
Customer’s lifetime value refers to how much the
customer is going to spend buying your product for the entire
duration of his/her life.

Levels of Relationships with Customers

To further understand how relationships may develop
between tourism providers and their clients, let us discuss the five
levels of relationships (Kotler et al. 2010)
1. Basic – the basic level involves selling a product to a customer
without any follow –up after the sale. This is normally called the
one-shot deal. Once the purchase is done, the company
representative disappears.
2. Reactive – this level involves selling a product and encouraging
the customer to call when he has concerns or questions.
3. Accountable – this level moves on to seeking out the customers
to solicit customer feedback as the representative gets in touch
during and after the purchase.
4. Proactive – this level seeks out customers in a more relational
manner wherein the salesperson phones customer from time to
time to update on product innovations in the prospect of future
sales.
5. Partnership – this level seeks out a continuous and constant
relationship with its customers to discover ways to deliver better
value and service.

Customer Satisfaction, Retention and Loyalty

Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a term used to describe the
level by which a customer’s expectations have been met by the
service provider. Customers’ purchase decisions are paired with
promises made by the service providers. These promises create a
certain level of expectation. Customers become satisfied when
expectations are met.

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Customer Retention
Customer retention is the ability of a company to convert
its first-time customers into repeat customers. Customer
satisfaction is a prerequisite to customer retention.
1. The Value of Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction measures how much a customer’s
expectations are met. Customers purchase products and services
with a level of expectations in mind.
Customers evaluate a product based on their level of
satisfaction. This leads to either of five options: extreme
satisfaction, neutral, dissatisfaction and extreme dissatisfaction.
The higher the level of satisfaction, the higher the possibility of
future business.
2. The Cost of Lost Customers
Companies should know that when a customer becomes
dissatisfied and loses interest, the company loses the customer’s
lifetime value.
3. The Importance of Resolving Customer Complaints
A critical component of customer retention is the
company’s ability to resolve customer complaints. A company
should be able to handle and resolve complaints. Frontline
personnel in service industries should be trained on how to handle
customer complaints to ensure that their issues are heard and
resolved.

Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is the fruit of customer satisfaction and
customer retention. Customer loyalty is the likelihood that
customers are to return and their willingness to perform activities
with the organization.
Developing loyal customers take time and effort to create
but the rewards of loyal customers are three-fold – they spend
more, cost less to maintain, and are able to give valuable referral to
others.

Tips in building customer relationships

Here are some ways by which an organization can build customer
relationships:
1. Reply to inquiries within 24 hours
2. Acknowledge customer e-mails and respond within 24 hours.
3. Return calls within the same day the calls were made.

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 4. Update customers on status of their requests if not yet granted.
5. Get to know the customer in detail and keep track of their
preferences.
6. Anticipate the needs of the customers to ensure customer
satisfaction
7. Exert all efforts to deliver what was promised.
8. Listen and act on complaints.
9. Be sincere in ensuring the comfort and satisfaction of your
customers.
10. Keep in touch with customers even after the sale has been
made.

Difference between Transactional and Relationship

Marketing
Tourism marketing and promotions have already moved
from transactional marketing to relationship marketing. The basic
level of relationships involving single sale transaction has been
proven to be ineffective. Relationship marketing values repeat sale,
constant contact, high emphasis on customer service, meeting
customers’ expectations, and quality concerns.

Benefits of Relationship Marketing

The way relationship marketing maintains customers
can be referred to in the same manner as a funnel. A funnel
receives more water than what it dispenses. The same process is
adapted in relationship marketing. More customers should come to
patronize one’s products and services than those that walk away
and are lost. A mixture of both old and new, first-time and repeat
customers should patronize the company’s products and services.

Stopover: Activity ****

Recall your most recent fast food dining experience in any of the fast food chains. What
relationship marketing practices do you observe? What makes you come back to the fast
food chain?

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