Hospitality Sales and Marketing
In the online learning portion, the 10-steps of Sales Process towards successful relationship selling have been deeply discussed.
You are a professional salesperson managing more than 200 clients (corporate accounts) while working for a hotel. Your clients are located in Toronto and across GTA. Each client has different characteristics, such as hotel revenue contribution, seasonal demand pattern, market segment, etc.
To ensure productivity of sales call, appropriate sales management approach should be adopted in particular circumstances. The Covid19 brought in many changes within the hospitality industry. With keeping the pandemic in mind, answer the following questions.Each answer should be 1 to 2 paragraphs long; please make sure that your answers are specific and to the point, answering the question asked.
a) What “Strategic Factors” and “Environmental Factors” should be considered to manage these accounts effectively? Select three of these factors and explain why you think these factors are important (10 marks)
With the outbreak of Covid-19, many strategic and environmental factors are critical for sales professionals in marketing their products and managing their customer accounts. The strategic factors may include pricing strategies, advertising and channel structure, product distribution planning, and the company focus. The environmental factors, on the other hand, can be severed into two: internal and external environmental variables. The external variables include the cultural and social environment, technological environment, competitive environment, economic environment, and regulatory and political environment. The internal factors relate to various aspects such as the physical resources available, financial resources, the size and quality of infrastructure, and the internal technology, dependencies, and resources.
Among the factors listed above, the most important ones include the regulatory and political environment, technology, and financial resources. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Companies are required to implement strategies to allow them to continue operating while observing the established WHO standards and regulations regarding consumer safety. They must, therefore, have the right technology to reach and communicate with their customers from various geographical locations. Furthermore, they must have adequate financial resources to purchase the proper equipment and technology to keep in touch with the customers during this pandemic.
b) Select any two “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” and explain how those needs will impact your client’s decision making to purchase your product/service now, as compared to 2019 prior the pandemic (5 marks)
Safety needs
Self-actualization needs
The Covid-19 pandemic has made consumers more conscious about their safety and their ability to grow and improve their lives. These needs relate to the self-actualization and safety needs proposed by Maslow. The hotel must strive to protect its customers from contracting the virus by educating them and encouraging them to engage in good hygiene practices such as frequent handwashing, sanitizing their delivery equipment, and maintaining a high level of cleanliness. Self-actualization needs, on the other hand, relate to the need of consumers to grow and realize their full potential. Most consumers need to accomplish everything within their abilities during this pandemic. They need to visit places where their safety will be optimized and where they can be recognized and accorded the best hospitality. Thus the hotel needs to develop adequate strategies to ensure they provide the customers with the best quality services.
c) How would you perform “Account Analysis” in this new situation for your clients? Please explain and provide one example (2 marks)
An account analysis will help me to examine the customers most likely to purchase the products and services offered by the hotel. I can do consumer account analysis in three steps. The first step entails the identification of the current consumers and splitting them into subgroups with similar motivations and traits. The next stage involves showing the needs of the different consumer groups. The final stage encompasses identifying how the products and services offered by the firm can meet the needs of each consumer group. The analysis can help in acquiring customers and migrating them to profitable segments. For example, the hotel can offer high product or service tiers where lower tiers can be unprofitable or have lower margins. To gauge if the strategy is working, I need to identify the number of new and migrated consumers in every tier, how long it took a customer to migrate, what caused the customer to move and if any of my sales efforts make migration less or more likely.
d) What methods can be used to prospect new clients? List two methods and discuss at least one advantage and one disadvantage of each selected method (9 marks)
Referrals and strategic partnerships are some of the best prospecting techniques. The referral approach is beneficial because referrals typically have higher conversion rates. They also have the lowest costs per lead. Most businesses incur zero costs for referrals. Thus, my lead cost may be lower or lowest with this approach. However, the approach will make me unable to control the types of customers to take in. I will also be unable to control the growth of the client base as well as increasing the prices for the products or services. The main advantages of strategic partnerships are that it widens the reach of a firm’s target audience and increases its marketing exposure. However, some disadvantages of this approach include difficulties in keeping objectives on the target over time and the fear of market insulation caused by the presence of the local partner.
e) How would you change your “Sales Call Objectives” in the new scenario (Covid 19)? Please explain and provide one example (2 marks)
f) Select two non-verbal communication modes and explain how these modes will play an important role in your sales call? (4 marks)
g) What type “Sales Presentation Method” would you use in your sales call? Explain the benefits using this method (2.5 marks)
h) Please indicate what method would you use follow-up with your clients and why did you choose this method? (1 mark)
i) What are two ways that you would use to ensure successful “Account Penetration” among your existing clients under the current circumstances? Please explain both points in detail (4 marks)
j) Explain two actions that you will implement, to ensure that you will be on top of your clients’ complaints under the current situation (3 marks)