1. Chapter 3 Managing the Marketing and Sales Office
Two trends have greatly affected the way hotel marketing and sales departments do business.

2. The Marketing and Sales Division
Marketing and sales divisions or departments vary with the size, type, and budget of the hospitality firm.

3. At small properties
A salesperson usually handles all types of business
Call on meeting planners, travel agents, tour operators, and other sources of potential business.
Combine sales operations under another department or even have the general manager direct marketing and sales efforts.

4. Large properties
Generally have a specialized sales staff and operate out of a separate sales office.
Have full-time sales specialists for group and individual sales.
In the largest organizations, salespeople assigned to specific market segments: association business, corporate meeting business, tour business, etc.
Such specialization is practical only for chain operations.
See Exhibits 1 and 2.

5. A brief duties and responsibilities
Director of Marketing
Market Research Coordinator
Director of Advertising and Public Relations
Director of Revenue Management
Telemarketing Director
Director of Convention Service or Convention Service Manager
Director of Sales
Sales Manager
Assistant Director of Sales
Salespeople or Sales Representatives
Clerical Staff
Other Positions

6. Organizing the Marketing and Sales Office

7. Factors of Organization
The property’s goals and objectives
The budget available for marketing and sales
Available outside assistance (travel agent, chain referrals, reservation systems, and so on)
The total market potential and the number of people needed to take advantage of that potential.

8. The Sales Area
The marketing and sales office may be one of the property areas a potential client sees, and the importance of first impressions can not be overstated.
Potential clients should be properly greeted by the sales secretary or receptionist.
The sales area
Should be accessible but private, but not stuck away in basement or unused guestroom.
Furniture, design, property information sheets, brochures, sample menus, news clippings about your property,
The décor should include photographs of events, guestrooms, meeting rooms, and the property’s staff, as well as received by the property.
Every member of the sales office should be knowledgeable about the property and ready to share information about the property’s benefits.

9. Recruiting and Hireling Effective Salespeople
Effective salespeople are so important to the property’s sales efforts.
Sample interview questions for hiring salespeople (see Exhibit 5).
Hiring-and retaining-good salespeople also good business sense, since replacement costs can be extremely high, both in terms of training a replacement and in business lost over the hiring and training period.

10. Successful sales people
Characteristics
Professionalism
Ability to communicate
Intelligence
Ability to analyze
Motivation
Efficiency
Persistence
Empathy
Curiosity
Found through
Word of mouth, advertising in newspapers or trade publications, the Internet, employment agencies, and contact through association or organizations that deal with the sales profession

11. Training Salespeople Training is needed Have a firm foundation
Effective initial training can mean the difference between bookings and lost business.
Have a firm foundation
Property knowledge
Office procedures
Performance standards
Salesmanship

12. The personality types of buyers
The Director
Is interested in getting results quickly, and assertive and often blunt.
The Socializer
Is playful and talkative
The Relater
Is a people person and tend to view things in terms of how they affect people and relationships.
The Thinker
Is an idea person who is precise, efficient, and well-organized.

14. Training Techniques Simulated sales calls Double calling
Joint calls
Coaching calls
Model calls
Market segmentation drills
Case study exercises
In-basket drills

15. The success of sales training
Explain the property’s marketing plan.
Prepare a property fact book.
Conduct sales tours of the property.
Understand how accounts are established and approved, the property’s policy on advance deposits for groups, and credit policies of the hotel as they apply to functions.
Research information on current and potential accounts
Prepare sales correspondence

16. Prepare for and complete sales calls.
Prepare sales call and booking reports and interpret monthly sales progress reports.
Use the sales office’s filing system.
Analyze the financial performance of the sales office by interpreting the income and expense items on the hotel’s profit and loss statement that are directly affected by the sales office.

17. Managing Salespeople Specialized type of personnel management
In today’s highly competitive market, it is often necessary for salespeople to be away from home and family for extended periods of time.
Get depressed or feel discouraged.
To ensure that sales volume goals are met or exceeded and costly personnel turnover is kept to be minimum
Training and motivating salespeople, scheduling them and assigning accounts, and supervising them.
To see that sales people meet expectations and minor problems are corrected before they become major ones.

18. Supervising the efforts of the sales staff is an ongoing process.
Salespeople need motivation on a periodic basis.
Personal encouragement, money incentives
Supervising the efforts of the sales staff is an ongoing process.
A periodic review of a salesperson’s weekly activity report.
A salesperson’s knowledge
A salesperson’s personal quota

19. Assigning Account Responsibility
A haphazard assigning case.
Assign one salespeople to each target market segments not considering the ratio of property’s income in each market.
Assign salespeople to particular accounts rather than to market segments
Give one salesperson responsibility for all business generated by an organization.
Corporate, individual, relocation, catering, and so on.
Salesperson can learn the client’s preferences and build the rapport necessary to solicit additional business.

20. Several factors to consider assigning account responsibility
The number of accounts: Less than 500.
The geographic area (territory)
The market segments that will be covered by each salesperson
Make adjustments when necessary.
There are so many variables in assigning account resposibility.

21. Evaluating Salespeople
Evaluating the success of the property’s sales efforts.
How well salesperson met personal quotas
Reach activity quotas such as number of phone calls and personal sales calls made
Performance goals such as room nights booked
Revenue generated.
Quality of calls is more important than quantity

22. Other areas of performance appraisals
Number of new prospects developed: 2-3 of 10 calls.
Amount of time spent selling: 30 minutes to 1 hour for appointment calls, three to four calls on new prospects in one hour.
Number of proposals sent out.
Number of follow-ups on trace files.
Number of site inspections conducted and business generated.
Percentage of room nights booked during high-need for the property.
Salespeople rating
Strong, proficient, improvement needed
Quarterly basis.

23. Reader file To assist with evaluations.
A reader file is a file folder that contains copies of all internal and external memos and correspondence.
This file can be reviewed on an weekly basis by the director of sales or general manager to make certain that each salesperson’s appraisal is based not only on the volume of correspondence, but on its quality as well.

24. Compensating Salespeople
Salespeople are usually compensated on a salary plus commission basis.
Variables for determining the salary structure for salespeople
The geographic area
The level of experience
Salaries offered by competitors
Sales quotas

25. Sales Incentive Programs
Offer rewards separate from salesperson’s regular pay and commissions,
Are provided to build team spirit,
Give extra recognition to good performers,
Reduce sales staff turnover
Spark competition between departments.
Cash bonuses (on top of commissions), merchandise (cars, furs, and so on), vacation trips (in the case of chain properties, sometimes to another property in the chain), or a combination of rewards.

26. Supplemental Sales Staff
Regional and National Sales offices
Hotel Representation Companies
Independent hotel representatives (reps) serve as out-of-town or market-source business representatives for non-compensating properties.
Agents for clients who want to book individual room reservations.
Agents who book individual room business through business contacts.
Agents who provide detailed data on properties.

27. Developing the Marketing and Sales Office Communication System
Good communication ensures that all members of the property’s sales team have the same information and that potential problems are kept to minimum.

28. Sales and Marketing Meetings
Regularly scheduled meetings.
Brief daily meetings with salespeople
Weekly staff meetings
Weekly function meetings
Monthly sales meetings
Marketing committee team meetings
Annual or semiannual sales meetings for all employees
Meetings
Should always have an agenda
Held at a time that does not conflict with selling time (perhaps at 7:30 A.M. or 4:30 P.M.), last less than an hour, and, last but not least, be productive.

29. Sales Records and Forms
Are a vital part of a sales office’s communication system.
Are important in servicing accounts and generating repeat business.
Begin with a call report, a form generated during a sales call on a prospective client (see Exhibit 9).
Placed in the organization’s or individual’s account file, and a notation for follow-up is placed in the trace file.

30. Booking form
A tentative booking is offered when a sales presentation is made.
A definite booking, required to write and /or sign a contract with the client (see Exhibit 10).
A change sheet, when the original booking information changes (see Exhibit 11).
A lost business report, when the meeting or convention is cancelled.

31. The Function Book-Manual Version
Shows the occupancies and vacancies of function and banquet rooms and aids in the effective planning of functions.
Information recorded: the organization or group scheduling the space; the name, address, and telephone number of the group’s contact person; the type of function; the time required for the function; the total time required for preparation, breakdown, and cleanup; the number of people expected; the type of setup (s) required; the rates quoted; the nature of the contract; and any other pertinent remarks to assist property personnel in staging a successful function.

32. The Guestroom Control Book-Manual Version
A Guestroom Control Book
Is used to monitor the number of guestrooms committed to groups.
Should list the number of guestrooms allotted to each group and indicate whether the allotment is firm and tentative.
Front desk, reservations, and sales office employees all book guestroom business, it is important that they all be aware of group allotments.
Used to record all pertinent details regarding group room sales, including confirmations, options, and hold on rooms.

33. The Function Book and Guestroom Control Book-Automated Versions

35. Filing Systems Filing Methods The Master Card File The Account File
Alphabetical filing
Keyword alphabetical filing
Numerical
The Master Card File
Are instrumental in establishing data banks of information on the needs of clients.
Contains a summary of everything needed for an effective sales effort.
The Account File
Is a standard-size file folder holding information needed for serving a client’s basic business needs (Exhibit 16).
The Trace File
A tickler file, bring-up file, follow-up file.

36. The Automated Marketing and Sales Office
At many properties today, much of the time-consuming and costly effort is handled with one of sales’ most effective tools: a computer system.

37. Benefits of Automation
Allow tedious tasks to be accomplished quickly and efficiently.
Allow immediate access to sales information.
Facilitate personalized mailing based on the data in their memory banks.
Reduce the risk of error.
Store information that can help the sales office direct specific sales promotions or programs to prospective clients or individual guests based on zip code, desired time periods, areas of interest, and so on.
Simplify mass mailings, generating mailing list (often by zip code or group type) in a fraction of the time it would take a secretary to sort through records and type letters to specified target groups.
Enhance communication among properties, greatly facilitating the sales effort in larger hotels.

38. Additoinal Application of Automation
Database Marketing
Involves using information from routine sources-guest folios, registration cards, customer surveys, the group histories of meetings, and so on-to build relationships and market the property’s services most effectively.
Home-Based and Virtual Offices
Lists, Reports, and Analysis Applications
Yield and Revenue Management.
Yield management: a technique that is used to maximize room revenues.
Revenue management: group’s potential for room revenues, group’s projected impact on the property’s overall bottom line.

39. Evaluating the Marketing Office
Periodic reviews
Communication
Authority delegation
Scope of the authority
Duties and Responsibility
Adequate support staff
Etc.