Tag Archives: Opera Training

Getting Sales Calls in during Training……AHH!

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Well, the Opera Sales Training….was not Sales Training!  It was half a day of inputting data for configuration.  What!!!???  Why was it half a day instead of the full day scheduled….because nothing was ready, nothing was set up and we finally crammed all of the training materials in my DOS’s office.  Maybe, just maybe there could of been a better way to do this where we didn’t loose sales time.  We all looked like chickens with our heads cut off running around trying to come up with a solution.

The economy is bad, there is not enough revenue on the books for 2009…but yet I sit in class inputting information that I don’t feel that I should be inputting?  Maybe this stuff should be handled by the company that we purchased the program from?  Gosh, I won’t even mention what the hotel spent for this Opera System.  With that price, someone should of been dedicated, someone should of had it done…at least the skeleton of it so Sales efforts would not have to suffer.  Good thing I’m not an Owner!

In the midst of the day, I found the time to call back messages and even solicit some potential new business via telephone.  And I got some good response.  I booked one small sports group and received one signed contract.  It was a late night but I didn’t leave until I knew that everyone was called back, emails were answered and follow up was completed.  This is why my clients love me. 

So if I rated myself for Time Management Skills today, I would give myself a B-.  Tomorrow I will shoot for an B+.  I never give myself an A, why?  Because my job is never done and if for some reason I am acutally caught up, I would wonder what I am not doing?  Sales is fast paced, hectic, sometimes last minute and crazy!  Everybody has questions, everybody wants something and they want it NOW, everybody trusts you to make the difference.  And I forgot to mention….mentally draining. 

I have left the hotel after working many hours during the week and by the time I got home I couldn’ t even form a proper sentence.  This is signs of burnout but thank goodness I am hiper and energenic and a good night’s sleep usually puts me right back on track.  P.S. And the coffee helps too!

I almost forgot…..recall the Restaurant Sales Blitz from last week?  Well, they did do a great job changing the Restaurant around.  And the decorations they added looked…I must say, pretty sweet.  We had 6 people come in from off the street with the $3 off coupon that we published in the local paper.  And, not to take away their thunder, we had a meeting in that uses the Restaurant and they were also pleased.  I heard that we did over 50 covers….THAT IS AMAZING!  Good for them!  We will see what tomorrow brings without the meeting in-house to inflate and add to the numbers.

Well, no time to play on screaminsalesmanager.com.  I have still plenty to do before I call it a night! 

Sales People….shine tomorrow!

Pure Energy

Sales Manager and Time Management……

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I have one word…Time Management. This is the skill that I will have to conquer this week with the Opera Training for this week. I’m not sure what to expect……I’m not sure if I will have to go to every class…..I’m not sure about the program at all. This is going to be interesting.

I start tomorrow with 7 days of Opera Sales Training. Plus, afterwards, the assistance of inputting data. All of the future bookings from group rooms to catering events, accounts and traces and God knows what will need to be entered. So, I’m hoping that I will have time to “Sell”! This is where the Time Management Skills will come in. No goofing off, limited smoke breaks and focus.

We are picking up now in the groups and banquets. It is going to be very busy. Hopefully the Management Team will hire the additional Sales People that we are in great need of in the Sales Office soon. I know that they are getting close to their decision on the Catering Sales Rep and the Corporate Transient Sales Rep.

I’m still getting used to the new formats and contracts. They take me so long to complete and so far everyone one of them I submitted to my DOS to sign off on, had a typo. They are so detailed and I’m not saying that’s bad, but boy it takes some time. I haven’t worked with that many of them but I changed my format so that I will be sure not to hand in any more contracts with mistakes. It’s embarrassing. A contract should always be reviewed anyway.

I’m struggling with this attrition deal. This effects both banquets and rooms. I have never worked with attrition before. We did shop calls on some of the other local hotels and yes, they do attrition too. So it was interesting to me to see how they sold it because when I first heard we were applying that to our contracts, I frankly panicked a bit. The clients will be accountable for 80% of their room block for banquet event.

I have found this policy to be a challenge with the brides who are looking to block rooms for their wedding guests. But, I remind myself that my competition is selling to them the same way.

Although it isn’t fair that the hotel takes their rooms out of the inventory lets say for 20 rooms and they only pick up 7. They should be held accountable. Brides make me laugh, don’t they make you laugh too? They always request a million rooms and truly they have no idea where their guests are going to stay. I have learned to ask them how many invitations they are sending out to get a rough idea on how many rooms that they may have. And it also depends on where the families are coming in from. So when I ask……how many invites…..and they say 100, what makes me think that they are going to pick up 50 rooms???? LOL. It’s not there fault, they really don’t know.

And another question…..learned from my own personal experience……I always ask now if they are going to list more than one hotel? Why do I ask? Well, some of them will note multipal hotels to choose from in the area. When I noticed that a couple of my blocks weren’t picking up, I called and one of them told me that they also listed another hotel. Sure enough the other bride told me the same thing. What? Well, this attrition will certainly assist in making sure that I book my share. If they are going to sign a contract with me then I will need to make sure that they hold to their end of the bargain.

Selling a farewell breakfast is a piece of cake to these types of groups. They will only meet in your restaurant or at another restaurant to meet for breakfast and wish each other farewell anyway. Why not Sales get credit for it? Give them a small meeting room that is their own, and sell them the deal. If you ask I would bet that you will get at least 50% of them wanting to do this and they will love you for it.

Well, I’ll keep you updated on my Time Management Skills and the Opera Training.

Have a great Monday!

Pure Energy