Chapter 16
Professional
Sales
“Good listeners generally make
more sales than good talkers”
-B.C. Holwick
Hospitality Industry
Sales Positions
• Deliverer
• Order-taker or Customer Service
Representative
• Missionary – create goodwill and
educate users on the product or service
• Technician
• Demand Creator
Nature of Hospitality Sales
• Prospecting – locating and cultivating new
customers
• Targeting – allocating scarce time among
prospects and customers
• Communicating – providing information
about the company’s products and services
• Selling – knowing the art of salesmanship
Nature of Hospitality Sales
• Servicing – consulting on problems
and providing technical assistance
• Information gathering – conduct
market research and intelligence work
• Allocating – deciding which customers
to allocate scarce products to during
product shortages
Sales-Force Objectives
• Objectives ensure that corporate goals
are met
• Goals include revenue, market share,
and improving corporate image among
others
• Objectives assist sales force members
to plan and execute their personal sales
programs
Sales-Force Objectives
• Must be customer designed annually for
each company
• Established to support corporate goals
as well as marketing and sales
objectives
• Annual objectives may change in the
event of natural and other disasters
Achieving Sales-Force
Objectives
• Sales Volume
• Upselling and Second Chance Selling
• Market Share or Market Penetration
• Product-Specific Objectives
Sales Volume
• Common hospitality sales volume
measures include:
– Occupancy, passenger miles and total
covers
• Sales volume by selected segments
• Sales volume and price/margin mix
Upselling and Second Chance
Selling
• Selling additional services or upgrading
rooms and food and beverage
• Encourages cooperation and teamwork
between departments
Market Share
• A brand's share of the total sales of all
products within the product category in
which that brand competes
• Determined by dividing a brand's sales
volume by the total category sales
volume
Market Penetration
• The percentage of the market owned by
a company as represented by share of
revenue
• Hotels are often held accountable for a
predetermined level of market
penetration
• What is STAR?
Product-Specific Objectives
• Improving sales volume for specific
product lines
• Sales managers must be careful when
setting product-specific objectives that
they do not ignore other product line
members
Sales-Force Structure
• Territorial – size, shape
• Market-Segment
• Market-Channel
• Customer
• Combination
Sales-Force Size
• Grouped by annual sales volume
• Desired number of calls is established
for each group
• Total workload is determined
– Number of calls multiplied by the
number of accounts
Sales-Force Size
• Average number of calls per sales
representative per year is determined
• Number of sales representatives is
determined
– Total annual calls required divided by
average annual calls per person
Size of Hotel Sales Force
• Contributing Factors:
– Corporate/chain sales support
– Use of sales reps
– Team selling
– Electronic and telephone sales
– Travel intermediary dependency
Organizing the Sales Department
• Inside Sales Force
– Technical support, sales assistants,
reservations department, telemarketers
• Field Sales Force
– Commissioned reps, salaried reps
• Team Sales
– Sales Blitz, travel mission, charity
promotions
Relationship Marketing
• Relationship marketing is based on the
premise that important accounts need
focused and continuous attention
• The organization focuses equally on
managing both its customers and its
products
Strategic Alliances
• Strategic alliances are a highly
developed form of relationship
marketing that are common between
vendor and buyer or between
noncompeting vendors and a common
buyer
Strategic Alliances
• 3 types in the hotel industry
– One Night Stands – short term
opportunistic relations such as cross
advertising
– Affairs – medium-term tactical relationships
such as hotels participating in airline
frequent flyer programs
– I Do’s – long-term commitment which may
require equity investment from both parties
Importance of Careful
Selection
• The cost of finding and training a new
salesperson plus the cost of lost sales
can be substantial, and a sales force
with many new people is generally less
productive
What Makes a Good Sales Rep?
• Honest • Problem-solving
• Reliable bent
• Knowledgeable • Care for the
• Helpful customer
• Risk taking • Careful planning
• Powerful sense of • Empathy
mission • Ego drive
Recruiting
• 3 models for recruiting
– Batch process
– Only as needed
– Always recruit
Training
• 3 types of training
– Product/service training
– Policies, procedures, and planning training
– Sales techniques training
Selecting Sales Strategies
1. Prevent erosion of key accounts
2. Grow key accounts
3. Grow selected marginal accounts
4. Eliminate selected marginal accounts
5. Retain selected marginal accounts,
but provide lower-cost sales support
6. Obtain new business from selected
prospects
Principles of Personal Selling
• Prospecting and • Negotiation
Qualifying • Overcoming
• Preapproach Objections
• Approach • Closing
• Presentation and • Follow-up/
Demonstration Maintenance
Presentation and Demonstration
• 5 influence strategies
– Legitimacy
– Expertise
– Referent Power
– Ingratiation
– Impression
Motivating Professional
Sales Staff
• Compensation
– Straight Salary
– Straight Commission
– Combination Salary and Commission
• Supplementary Motivators
– Sales Meetings
– Sales Contests
Evaluation and Control of a
Profession Sales Force
• Sales Quotas
• Sales Norms
• Time Management Tools
– Call schedules
Best Practices
• Ruth Fertel of Ruth Chris Steak House
• Harrah’s Cherokee Total Rewards
program
