ADVANCED COMMERCIAL STRATEGY COURSE Homework – Lesson #5

Consider your hotel’s current B2B sales strategy and tactics. Answer the Impact Questions below.

Activity #1

Think about the idea that “conversations create cash.” Answer the questions below.

How are you using or applying this concept today? Is there opportunity to leverage this further? What does that look like?

To aid you in this activity, consider what percentage of time your sales team spends responding to inbound enquiries vs. proactively calling on potential customers. Think about the volume of inbound opportunities and the average win rate – is the time spent processing these beneficial? Or could you yield greater benefit from a shift? Consider your comp set’s sales activities – are they engaging in proactive business development conversations, or could you gain an advantage over them?

Activity #2

Think about GitGo’s B2B Buyer’s Journey, as pictured, below. Answer the corresponding questions.

What is your hotel’s buying window (timeframe combines all three zones presented) vs. booking window (timeframe spent in The Commoditization Zone)?

In what part of the B2B Buyer’s Journey is your hotel primarily engaging with customers?

Using the steps below, you may be able to see the origin of a group booking within your Sales & Catering system. If you can, are you able to quantify the percentage of business won from inbound vs outbound leads for your hotel?

To aid you in this activity, look at one individual piece of ‘definite’ group business in your Sales & Catering system. Look at some of the following information on the example you select:

1. When was the customer/contact and account/company first created? This will help you understand when your hotel first made contact. This is the first step in determining the Buying Window.

2. What sales activities were logged between the time the customer was first entered? This will help you understand which zone the buyer was in, and how the hotel was interacting with the buyer. This will help you understand the Buying Window and the activities which took place to move the buyer along the journey.

3. Can you see what date the group lead/inquiry was entered, and the date of subsequent status changes (prospect, tentative, definite) for this booking? This will help you understand the Booking Window.

Activity #3

Hotels traditionally measure sales pipeline based on revenue or room night volume by booking status (Prospect, Tentative or Definite) in their Sales & Catering System. Consider the Hidden Revenue Zone and Influence Zone. Both of these zones have active sales engagement before a piece of business is identified and a proposal is generated.

What KPI’s could you use to measure success or pipeline size in the Hidden Revenue Zone or the Influence Zone?

How could you track the KPI’s you want to consider?

Questions? Get in touch – education@focalrevenue.com.