Tag Archives: SMERFE Sales Manager

Sales Manager makes Venue connections to Promote Hotel…

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I had a great appointment today with a venue that has over 850,000 visitors each year.  I met with their Group Sales Manager and I’m a Group Sales Manager and we are the perfect fit.  She was cool too and appreciates that I am reaching out for a partnership that will benefit both of us.  It was a smart move and why I didn’t call on my venues earlier is beyond me.  I must have lost sight somewhere.

Since this appointment went so well, I am going to get more aggressive. I have one more appointment next week confirmed and more than 10 more to connect with.  Not all of the calls and emails I sent were responded to.  Guess they have so much business that they feel that our partnership will not benefit them.  Or maybe they are just bad Sales People.

I’m going to note a small line at the bottom of my emails with their venue and contact.  I’m hoping that my DOS doesn’t mind but I think it’s a good idea.   It certainly can’t hurt anything and I’m sending to SMERFY clients anyway.  I think it would add a nice touch.  You may wonder why I even mention this?  My DOS had me sign my job description and it noted exactly how my signature should be spelled out. 

The Catering Manager and I have been training to use the Opera Sales & Catering Program.  So far I like it and I’m not having any problems…..yet.  The Catering Manager is not computer savoy and is not even familiar with the keyboard.   She has not had a need and we were all manual with the big bible book and all.  She has never used a sales program nor has had any training on basic computer skills.  I am watching her struggle and get upset and it’s killing me and frankly I don’t know what to do?  I can offer motivating advise (that I think she wants to tell me to stick it up my you know what), coax for smoke breaks and offer assistance.  I wish she wasn’t so upset…..she’s my partner and friend.

The Trainer with Opera is awesome and we love him.  He’s friendly, helpful and knowledgeable…not like the goofs that training us on the reservation system.  They were the worst and with that in mind, it turned my stomach to think that I was going to have the pleasure of being trained by another idiot.  But no, I was wrong.  He’s a good trainer.

Well, if there are any hotel sales people reading this blog, then I suggest you go in to work tomorrow and check out your local venues.  Hopefully you are not in my market…..lol. 

Off to bed………..go after your venues!

Pure Energy

Curb appeal…kickin’ it up a notch!

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Wow!  What a difference.  The new outside lighting has finally been installed down our driveway.  Not working yet but in a day or so it will be.  Looks absolutely awesome.  Great job to all of our staff involved who conquered the project!  I will personally make it my duty to shake their hands and congratulate and thank them. 

Ok, so I’m calling, faxing and practically begging for one of my regular group accounts to send their rooming list in for ……their arrival for tonight.  By early afternoon I finally received it but of course I had no nails left.  Now – all of a sudden – the issue with the rate.  I received a message from their Owner complaining about how they advertise free for us etc….want some cheese for that wine?  Where, where is the advertising and if you are then shouldn’t the hotel approve it? 

I’ll tell you, it’s better not to offer introductory rates if you don’t have to cause when you go to raise them it’s a royal pain.  They don’t care about inflation, gas prices, multi-million dollar completed renovation plans….or new parking lot lighting.  The haggling is enough to make you scream.

The new transient account is producing well already.  And so far so good.  Although they are not my client, I still plan to drop off a thank you package later this week.  It’s important to nurture new business, especially since they will make a difference to our bottom line.  And take a moment to educate the Front Desk Staff about them.  Knowledge is power so give it to them so they don’t look like fools….thus complaints, thus lost account.

I found a ton of leads in the Book of Business.  Certainly worth the $99 a year for the Business Journal.  They will send you a Book of Business each year that you are a member and monthly news prints.  I feel like I’m holding a million dollars in leads and if I work them, I will book them and succeed.  If your property doesn’t have it in the budget, then you can get daily news and information emailed to you for free by creating a free account. 

As far as the direct billing accounts, I’m finding that:

A. Most of the contacts are gone and the new contacts have no idea that direct billing is established.

B. Their needs have changed.

C. And the worst scenario, they are using a competitor.

Just because direct billing is established doesn’t mean that they will choose your hotel first as a preferred although, in the Sales mind, they should.  I require at least $10 grand in revenue before I even bother to send up information about the account that is requesting direct billing.  I have made a FEW acceptions.  It’s just too much work for accounting.  What about the requests that expect immediate billing?  Give me a break.

Good luck selling tomorrow!  Don’t let nothing get in your way.

Pure Energy

A New Dawn for The Screamin’ Sales Manager

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Today I was pretty busy. I did some soliciting over the phone this morning working on trying to get some appointments for next week. Finally all of my letters went out and are completed. And my traces are caught up. Since we don’t have any sales program in the office, I still use the old trace system writing down the group name on index cards. We even still use the big “bibles” for our function bookings. Pretty amazing and what a pain. I waited for my tour bus to arrive tonight…est 5pm…just 16 rooms and found out that they weren’t arriving until after 10pm. Everything was all ready for them so I left to go home about 6:30pm.

I have almost 16 years experience in the hotel industry and I have worked in every department with the exception of Housekeeping….can’t even keep my own home clean! My most recent hotel – full service mid class – is just under 350 rooms with 15,000 square feet of flexible meeting space.

We are located 2 miles of an airport so we draw a lot of business from the airlines and distress passengers. The hotel is newly renovated but still has area’s that could look better and there are projects that we are still working on. They renovated for over 3 years so a lot that has been done is looking worn now. There was no preventative maintenance program ever in place. Yes, I have never experienced a 3 years renovation plan either until now.

I’ve been there almost 2 years to date working mostly as Director of Sales in a 3.5 man office – p/t secretary, 2 catering sm and me the DOS…by 2008 we were down to 1 catering sm (1 had to be let go) and myself and finally I got more hours for the secretary to work with the Catering sm. I mostly booked SMERFE groups. We did increase sales but not enough although we did make budget 9x out of 12. Still many service issues and rude staff. When the new GM came aboard about 2 months ago, I simply was tired of being beat up by my guest’s and the back stabbing, gosh. I asked to be a Sales Manager and for them to bring in someone new to handle this mess.

My new boss is pretty cool and I like her. So I was asked to work in Corporate Transient Segment which I did for 2 weeks and then I was asked to take on the SMERFE Sales Manager position that they were interviewing for. Although at first I was a bit offended, but when I thought about it I realized that I really enjoyed working with the groups….so I’m settled now and plugging away. I have the gift of patience and I’m very friendly so I fit well with all types of SMERFE clients.

Most of the Management Team was let go and new people are being brought in. At first I felt like I was walking on eggs shells each day as these new people were so hard to read. They were and still are always behind closed doors and you just don’t know what is going on or if you are going to be the next one fired. I’m in my 40′s now and I simply want to settle down, book tons of business and have some fun.

I don’t have an interest in hotel hopping anymore as like I did when I was younger simply to make a few bucks more. I did think about looking for a new sales job but my positive benefits list simply out weighed the negative. I like the staff and I know the product and I want to be a part of the team that turns this hotel around. I don’t feel like that everyday though….

Good luck selling tomorrow. I’ll be back.