Sales Strategies | Learn from the Past; Work in the Present, Plan for the Future: Make it Happen!

As we are approaching the end of 2012 and looking forward to 2013, we are probably doing a lot of thinking about how this year went and what we'd like to see next year in our sales strategies.

In planning for your future, it is always wise to take some time to think about past history and what we can learn from it in order to more fully enjoy and maximize our present position - personally and professionally - and not repeat past mistakes. Also, taking time to think about what we want our future to look like allows us to put plans in action NOW in order to achieve those goals. Here are some good questions/lessons to think about. . .


What We Can Learn From The Past:

1. Where were our most rewarding prospecting efforts focused?

2. Always fine tune our communication skills - both verbal and written!

3. Finish one task before you start another.

4. Have our hand in all market segments in case one or the other falls off.



What We Want Our Future to Look Like (create your own goals here - here's an example!):

1. Own the Hospitality Industry - Be the Benchmark - Create the Trends

2. Make our personal financial goals.

3. Make exceeding our customer's satisfaction a primary goal so they become our biggest fans and sources for referral business.

4. Work smarter, not harder!



What We Will Do in the Present to Make it All Happen:

1. Market to who is spending money now

2. Connect with all aspects of your business - Target all markets

3. Build on current business to accommodate their expanding needs

4. Increase prices if appropriate and timely

5. Work your marketing plan!

6. Have a balanced life. . .

Article by Lynne LaFond DeLuca, Sr. Vice President

eSales Strategies | Email's "Reach" & Rules for Building Your Database

eSales strategies through email marketing campaigns seem like a fabulous way to reach lots of clients easily, inexpensively and in a timely way with current information. It is important to know what your expected outcome is from any marketing program so you can gauge your results and not be disappointed when numbers fall short of high expectations. So, let's explore some factors to creating effective marketing campaigns.


First of all, you must know your "email's reach". What is "email reach"? Email reach is a function of:

How many client/customer email addresses are collected

How many of the collected emails are put into your database

How many of those emails are error-free

How many clients/customers successfully receive the email

How many clients/customers OPEN the email
For example, if you have a client base of 1,000 people and are trying to build your database of
emails for marketing purposes, you:

Collect addresses from 50% - 500

Enter 95% into database - 475

94% are correct - 447

98% receive the email - 438

33% open the email - 144

That's a total of 14.4% of your total client base that will actually see your email. Just see it. Depending on the content, sense of urgency, relevance and timeliness of the email, this number will further decrease. If you get a 10% response rate when you send out a "call to action" type of email, you now have about 14 clients out of a client base of 1,000 actually responding to you from an email.

So, what does this tell us? It tells us that the quality and depth of our email database is paramount in actually seeing results from an email campaign. Let's look at some rules for accomplishing the first step – increasing the number of emails you collect.


Collecting Addresses

Have Standard Procedures for email collection

Brainstorm with your team on creative ways to collect new emails

Define WHO does what and HOW

Rehearse a "pitch" and response to refusal

Define who puts the addresses into the database and how often

Regularly Request UPDATED Information

Add a note to the bottom of every email:

Changing jobs or email addresses? Remember to let us know of any email address changes!

Annual "Update Your Info" Campaign

Know which Clients have bad email addresses

View "Permanent Failures" when sending out an email

Follow up with those clients to get updated addresses

Update database with "auto-reply" responses that give you information on a new contact


Content must be kept professional, brief and to the point. Clients DO appreciate emails that have RELEVANT, timely information that will help them. Include a table of contents when necessary, and organize information logically. It's ok, and preferable, to link to a website for more information. And please - don't forget the "unsubscribe" language.

Article by Lynne LaFond DeLuca, Sr. Vice President

Planning for Catering Sales Success in 2013 | Maximizing Your Space and Revenue

There could be no better time to start planning for catering sales success than right now. Budget planning is done for the new year, and now we just need the action items and programs to make it happen. By creating a comprehensive marketing plan, you are ensuring that everything you want to accomplish and all the target markets you need to address are covered. Marketing plans can be as simple as you want to make them, but it is important to include some key aspects. Here is a guideline of what every good marketing plan should include:

Quantifiable Goals
Your goals outline exactly what you want to do and should be quantifiable (have a dollar amount of percentage increase represented). For example: "Increase wedding business by 10 weddings in 2013"; or "Increase weddings by 15% in 2013". There should be a goal for every market segment you wish to impact such as corporate events, charitable events, golf tournaments, schools, etc. You can also break down the corporate market into specific segments such as medical (hospitals, pharmaceuticals); or real estate and mortgage companies, etc., if a particular segment has a strong presence in your marketplace.

Action Items with Descriptions
This describes exactly what you will do to accomplish your stated goals. How will you increase your wedding business? Will you build new relationships with wedding planners? Start to target an ethnic or cultural wedding group that you have not focused on in the past? (This is an awesome way to add a new revenue stream to your wedding market, by the way!) List all the activities and action items you have to do in order to reach your goal.


Anticipated Revenue
We have to know if a certain program or action item is time-worthy and will contribute appropriately to achieving our goals, so estimate what you think you will generate in revenue from each activity or action item. When you total up all of the revenue associated with the programs and action items, you should be over your financial goal. If you are not, you need more programming or better execution!


Assignment of Responsibilities
Do not assume that someone else will be doing a certain action item. Assign responsibility to every single item so there are clearly defined "to-do" lists.


Timeline
Your marketing plan should be easy to use and execute, so by applying a timeline as to when each program and action item should be happening creates a very easy system for you to follow as you work through the year.


Expected Expenses
We should always be aware of any related expenses that are associated with the action items or programs. Spending your dollars wisely is key to getting the appropriate return!

Really challenge yourself and your team this year to create an exciting "new" marketing plan. The temptation is always there to "copy and paste" from years past, but now is the time for creativity and a clever marketing approach. Not only does it yield better results, but it keeps your team engaged and motivated. Every year, try to incorporate one brand new market segment into your marketing plan - who have you NOT focused on in the past?


And, just a reminder, before launching into the New Year, refresh your Competitive Analysis and take the time to complete an SFSWOT (Successes, Failures, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis - they both provide you with great information to fine tune your marketing plan and make it even more effective.   Our online hospitality training program offers a full marketing template, SFSWOT and Competitive Analysis - all tools to help you realize success in 2013.

Article by Lynne Lafond DeLuca, Sr. Vice President

Focus on Special Events Business | Returning to Basics

The special events business and hospitality industry is constantly changing - blink, and you may miss a hairpin turn and continue straight, right off the cliff, so to speak.  However, with technology and strategies all changing at lightning speed , there are still some basics that stay the same and will never change.  In all our years of consulting and ever more so in the recent years of economic challenge, we encourage businesses to return to basics.  What does this mean and how do you do it?

Returning to Basics
1.  Know your market and strengths and focus on this exclusively.
2.  Stop doing what is not bringing in revenue.
3.  Invest in areas where customers want it.  Hint: Use your social media to help get a feel for who your customers are and what they want.
4.  Whatever you decide 1-3  above is for you, stick to it and become known as being reliable for it and giving a consistent experience.

To Discount or Not to Discount?
One of the most common questions in a hard or recovering economy is  whether or not to discount your product or service.  The second most-common question is how much to discount, how long the discounting should take place or should be used. 

Discounts are no longer a point of reference for .  If all you do is compete on price alone, you will never be able to win.  While low rates may initially attract consumers to a product, indiscriminate discounting can isolate current clients as it decreases perceived quality.  But further, it does not guarantee that new customers will become long-term , loyal customers.  To help ensure this does not happen, the following are recommendations:

1.  Have a knowledge of who you want to target.  This is focused discounting to a specific market for a specific service or product and time. 

2.  Carefully watch your competitor's actions.  In the Beverly Clark OnLine Wedding Hospitalty Training Program, there is a dedicated exercise in the Final Exam to help you do just that.

3.  Find your USP - your Unique Selling Proposition - to see how you are different from the competition other than monetarily.  Go beyond to find out where there needs that are not being fulfilled and then fill those niches and make that your differential. The Beverly Clark OnLine Wedding Hospitality Training Program walks you through other ways to help determine your USP as well.

Tying all of this together is a matter of drawing from your history - the strengths, failures, opportunities - and involving your team as well as balancing the feedback of your customers.  Social media has proven an invaluable tool for this in helping to create custom products and packages based on the demand. 

One major airline "returned to basics" with three simple things they decided to focus on:  1.  Baggage that arrives with the plane   2.  A clean plane    and   3.  Friendly customer service.  They forgot all the other "bells and whistles" because they were not bringing in revenue and decided to focus exclusively on those three areas. 

If you focus on the basics - whatever those are for you - and provide service and a product without confusion or irregularities for the customer, you have the potential to increase your revenue the best way possible:  simply.

By Kerry Lee Dickey