Professional Sales Objective: Introducing personal selling in tourism and hospitality. Special emphasis will be given to Fam Trips.

Personal Selling Concerned with direct interaction between the seller and buyer. Highly effective form of communication. Offers chance for the seller to respond to the individual needs of the customers, provide a tailored and flexible solution, answer questions, gain feedback immediately, and adapt the message.

Advantages ability to close sales ability to hold the customer’s attention immediate feedback and two-way communications presentations tailored to individual needs ability to target customers precisely ability to cultivate relationships ability to get immediate action

Disadvantages high cost per contact inability to reach some customers as effectively

Functions of the Sales Team Finding new customers Selling services Communicating Representing the organization Establishing and maintaining relationships with customers or other stakeholders

In the tourism and hospitality sector; Due to nature of the industry, staff responsibilities include a sales function. Staff has the opportunity to make a sale, even if they are not part of the sales team. Many staff has chance to ‘sell up’ or ‘cross sell’. Familiarization ‘fam’ trips by tour operators and hospitality trade to agents have a major role in tourism.

Role of familiarisation trips; Familiarization trips are vital to overcome the intangible nature of tourism services. They are quite common for intermediaries and travel press in tourism. With the help of such trips, intermediaries can have first-hand information and experience regarding tourism destinations and operations and then they act as opinion leaders. Relationships between the media and tourism firms and destinations result in greater exposure.

Management of Professional Sales In tourism and hospitality, regarding personal selling, the following should be considered; Nature of hospitality sales Sales force objectives Sales force structure and size Organizing the sales department Recruiting and training a professional sales force Managing the sales force Managing strategic client relationships

Nature of Hospitality Sales Sales personnel function as the company’s personal link with its customers. The cost is high but it is the most effective tool for hospitality firms since sales representatives perform important functions including; Prospecting; salespeople find and cultivate new customers. Targeting; salespeople decide to whom to spend their time.

Communicating; salespeople communicate information between the company and the customers. Selling; salespeople know how to approach, present, answer objections and close sales. Servicing; salespeople provide a number of services to customers including consulting on their problems, providing technical assistance, arranging financing, expediting delivery. Information gathering; salespeople do market research and fill in call reports. Allocating; salespeople decide who to allocate scarce resources.

Maintaining strategic partnership; senior salespeople including the sales manager provide planning assistance to clients. Today, rather than just concentrated on selling, sales people should focus on customer satisfaction and company profits. They should know how to analyze sales data, measure market potential, gather market intelligence, develop marketing strategies and proficient in sales tactics. They should be knowledgeable about marketing (e.g. yield management) as well as selling.

Sales Force Objectives Hospitality firms set objectives for their sales force. Setting objectives is important because they; help companies reach their company goals. Goals include revenue, market share, improving corporate image, etc. help the sales force to plan and execute their sales programs.

Sales force objectives must be customer designed annually. Annual marketing and sales objectives are broken down quarterly and monthly objectives. These are further broken down by the sales force into personal objectives by day and week. Sales managers are responsible to assign objectives to individual salespeople. Common sales objectives include; Sales volume, upselling and second-chance selling, market share or market penetration, product-specific objectives.

Sales volume; is measured in terms of occupancy, passenger miles, total covers within tourism. They all mean increasing number of customers. Emphasis on volume alone means price dicscounting, attracting undesirable market segments, and cost cutting. Sales volume by selected segments; establishing sales objectives by specific market segment to improve revenue. Sale volume and price/margin mix; establishing sales volume objectives by product lines to get the desired gross profit. It is the basis for revenue management.

Upselling and second-chance selling; selling higher-priced products such as suite rooms through upselling. On the other hand, second-chance is about selling additional services to clients who have already booked some services such as a meeting room for 2 days.

Market share or market penetration; compared to sales volume, less important for most hospitalit operations. However, rather than the individual operations, corporate marketing departments of a chain is likely to be concerned with market share.

Product-specific objectives; occasionally sales force may be given specific responsibility to improve sales volume for specific product lines such as memberships.

Sales Force Structure and Size Common sales force structures in hospitality include; Territorial-structured sales force Market-segment-structured sales force Market-channel-structured sales force Customer-structured (key accounts) sales force Combination-structured sales force Sales force size is determined by going through the following steps;

Customers grouped into size classes according to their annual sales volume. The desirable call frequencies (per year) are established for each class. The number of accounts in each size class is multiplied by the corresponding call frequency to find out the total workload. The average number of calls a salesperson can make per year is determined. The number of salespeople needed is determined.

Organizing the Sales Department In hospitality, traditionally, departments are organized along functional lines. Therefore, in a hotel, there may be a sales department, a guest relations department, an advertising and public relations department, but not a marketing department. Recently, some hotels started to have sales and marketing department. A sales manager is responsible from sales and marketing, although sales is often more emphasized.

Today, there are two types of salespeople; inside sales force and a field sales force. Inside salespeople; there are three types; technical-support persons, sales assistants, and telemarketers. Technical-support persons provide technical information and answers customer’s questions. Sales assistants provide clerical support to field salespersons. They call ahead, confirm appointments, carry out credit checks, etc. Telemarketers use the phone to find new customers. They may call up to fifty customers per day compared four or five that an outside salesperson contacts.

Field sales force; in hospitality, there are different types of field sales force as commissioned reps and salaried sales force. Commissioned sales reps are used for distant potential markets, since some may not justify to have a salaried sales force. These reps may represent several different properties or chains. Salaried sales force are paid a salary plus benefits. This one is the backbone of the sales force.

Recruiting and Training It is important to select the right individuals for sales. Research showed that top 27 percent of the sales force bring in over 52 percent of the sales. In sales force, the following traits are important; risk taking, powerful sense of mission, problem-solving, care for the customer, and careful planning. Among the most important traits, empathy and ego drive (strong need to make the sale) comes.

Especially new graduates with no experience should be trained. The person should be also right for the corporate culture of the organization. Especially new graduates with no experience should be trained. However, sales training is not a onetime process. Sales force require training regarding; Product/service training Policies, procedures, and planning training Sales techniques training

Managing the Sales Force Sales success depends on the development of long-run relationships with clients or accounts. The 80/20 rule prevails within the hospitality industry. Most of the business comes from a minority of the firm’s customers. They are referred to as key, national or major accounts. Based on the concept of key customers, the following general strategies must be followed by the sales force;

Six key sales strategies; Preventing erosion of key accounts Growing key accounts Growing selected marginal accounts Eliminating selected marginal accounts Retaining selected marginal accounts but providing lower-cost sales support Obtaining new business from selected prospects

Sales force tactics, in other words, these are the principles of personal selling. The ultimate purpose of a sales force is to sell. Sales people are trained in tactics to make a sale. Following are the major tactics used in personal selling; Prospecting and qualifying Preapproach Approach Presentation and demonstration Negotiation Overcoming objections Closing Follow-up/Maintenance

Motivating the sales force; special incentives can be given to the sales force to make them work at their best level. The following may be used; Sales force compensation Supplementary motivators Evaluation and control of the sales force; sales force should also be evaluated on their performance. The following may be used in evaluations; Sales quotas, time-and-duty analysis, cost/return effectiveness of trade shows, formal evaluation of performance, other control techniques (such as sales reports, customer complaints etc.).

Managing Strategic Client Relationships Relationship marketing; is based on the idea that important accounts need focused and continuous attention. Salespeople should monitor key accounts, know their problems, be ready to serve, and become part of the client’s team, rather than just call when they think the client is ready to make an order.

Strategic alliances; are highly developed from relationship marketing Strategic alliances; are highly developed from relationship marketing. They are relationships between interdependent parties who agree to cooperate but still keep their separate identities. They may share databases, market knowledge, resources, risks, technology. In hospitality, there are three types of alliances; One-night stands Affairs I dos

Sources McCabe, S. (2009). Marketing Communications in Tourism and Hospitality: Concepts, Strategies and Cases. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford. Kotler, P.; Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (1999). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey. Kotler, P.; Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (2010). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism (5th ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey. Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2010) Principles of Marketing (13th ed.). Prentice Hall: New Jersey.