Hotel B2B Sales - Upmailsolutions

The Secret toHotel B2B Sales:The 4 ‘P’s.Antoine Asselin, UpMailOver a decade managing and consultingfor international hospitality b2b saleswww.linkedin.com/in/antoineasselin

01.OVERVIEWIn this white paper, we will look at how digital market trends havechanged the landscape of hotel b2b sales. We will help you toassess your own team's digital prowess through a check-list ofgood and bad practice. Then, we will deep-dive into 4 key areasthat have the biggest impact on revenue and how they can be bestused by your sales team. These are also the areas that, ifignored/mis-used, will have the biggest negative impact on boththe sales targets and the brand.1. Using data to predict the best way to hone your sales process2. Nurturing leads through personalisation of the entirecustomer journey3. Digital automation to ensure productivity of the sales team4. Ensuring all hotels within a group are aligned on brand,approach and best practiceWe will share real case studies of how hotels have implementeddigital strategies and the learnings we can take away from them.Finally, we will conclude with key takeaways that your sales teamcan apply today.

Predictive analysis from customer dataNot just gathering data, but using it intelligently toadapt your message in real time.Personalization of every touch pointDescribe their business and product offering.Productivity through automationNever missing a beat, or an opportunity, throughautomation and carefully planned nurture campaigns.Positioning of a consistent brand strategySeamlessly deploying sales strategies across a hotel'sdecentralised organisationHotel technology isprojected to be thehighest growth sector forEnterprise IT spendingover the next 5 yearsGARTNER GROUP, 2017

02.SETTING THE SCENESurvival of the FittestDuring 2017, the Welcome Anywhere property managementsystem processed 74m of hotel reservations. More than 50% ofthese bookings came from Booking.com, while the number ofdirect bookings decreased by almost 2m in value.To maintain their revenue stream in the era of OTAs, many hotelsare now focusing on the more lucrative and reliable b2b market.Expedia says that the b2b market is typically more brand-loyal,conservative and less dominated by the millennial generation, whoare known for their lack of loyalty to specific hotel groups/ brands,and their preference for the convenience of OTAs.What this means for your sales team is thatthey need to compete with other hotels forvenue opportunities, corporate bookings andstays. You can do it, but not withoutembracing digital.

Digital is no longer the new shiny object in sales: it’s par for thecourse, with European sales teams now spending an average of 4,228 per rep on sales acceleration technology. Now, b2b sales isfocused on how digital can be leveraged for greater and greaterreturns.But digital doesn't just mean doing things online, orhaving data dashboards. It's a way to describe a new methodologythat informs each aspect of the sales cycle.For example, by using a digital platform to manage leads andnurture possible customers, you can design a lifecycle for yourprospects and customers to ensure they are getting regular,relevant touch-points and you are leaving no stone unturned foreither new business or repeat/ up-sells. This structure is thenaugmented with beautiful, relevant and compelling content andunderpinned with data tracking so you can learn what 'lands' andwhat falls flat and adapt to that information. This content can helpset you apart from the crowd and differentiate your brand and yourhotel.At the end of 2017, Forbes predicted for 2018 that two of the keytrends for digital would be:A “trueunderstanding of[the] customerjourney”“Personalizationalong all stagesof the salesfunnel”

03.IS YOUR TEAMWINNING?Nearly 3/4 ofmarketing contentis never used bysales teams.SIRIUSDECISIONS

GOOD PRACTICEBAD PRACTICEGOOD VISIBILITYYour team are tracking theirleads and able to see what waslast done to tailor and maintainmomentum.POOR/ NO VISIBILITYYour team are using email totrack their leads. Because emailis not built for trackingresponse rates, stage in anurture cycle or click-rate,there's low consistency ofcontact and sometimes things'fall through the cracks' becauseit relies on human memory.PERSONALISED EFFICIENTLYYour team are able to easilypersonalise their emailcorrespondence to the interestsand context of their prospect.This includes images andadaptation of templates.DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONSYour team has access toresponse data so they can makedata-driven decisions to adaptmessaging in order to increaseresponse rate.TRANSPARENT MANAGEMENTManagement is able to see theactivity of each sales person anduse this information to coachand performance manage theteam.A UNIFIED BRANDEach sales person will take thesame approach and present aunified brand regardless of theirlocation (any region, anybranch).AGILE AND RESPONSIVEThe hotel group is able torespond to how their prospectsreceive their messages quicklyand efficiently, experimentingand adapting to get the bestresult.NOT EFFICIENT OR NOTPERSONALISEDYour team don't havetemplates to work from or theyare difficult to use, resulting in alot of time spent personalisingcorrespondence. Alternatively,the team do not personalisecontent.GUT-FEEL DECISIONSData tracked is usually too highlevel (i.e. top line revenue) andcan’t be used to make adaptivedecisions to optimise the salesfunnel.NO VISIBILITY OF SALESACTIVITYManagement is unable to seethe activity of each sales personand struggles to adaptapproaches across the teamand performance managingindividuals.INCONSISTENT BRANDINGAND OFFERSWithout a shared set oftemplates and approach, salespeople use different language/images, potentially damagingthe professionalism of the hotelbrand.SLOW AND NOT AGILEThe hotel group lacks theinformation and/orcommunication structures toeasily adapt their message andapproach to get the best resultsfrom their sales funnel.

How did your team do?If your sales team is not taking full advantage of digital, you may befeeling it on your bottom line. The good news is that there are anumber of tools, purpose-built for the hotel industry, aimed athelping salespeople to get visibility into what's working. This inturn helps managers build a winning strategy (based on data!) forb2b sales that translates across different locations and presents astrong, unified brand. Upmail (the researchers behind this whitepaper) are one of those support systems.Through the remainder of this white paper, there are bestpractices that you can share with your teams and key changes youcan make today to make better use of the tools you're currentlyemploying.A strong brand canimpact the value ofa hotel and its chainby up to 3 times.Cornell University

04.THE FIRST ‘P’:PREDICTIVEPrediction isn't just about where you’ll get the most clicks. It'sabout leveraging data about your customers and prospects tomake smarter decisions across your entire sales process. The rightreports mean you can take decisions that are data-driven. This isthe silver bullet for any sales manager.These reports may include:Channel: What channel is mosteffective for communicatingwith prospects?Content: What type and formatof content has the biggestimpact on your prospects?Nurture steps: What is theoptimal number of steps in thesales cycle?Frequency: Howfrequentlyshould the sales team becommunicating with prospects?Activity: How much doesresponse rate and pace ofresponse impact likelihood ofclosing the deal?Style: What language andimagery do my customersrespond best to?Top performer characteristics:What do my top sales people dodifferently? How can I scale thatto the rest of the team?

Predictive analyticsis the use of data,statistical algorithmsand machinelearning techniquesto identify thelikelihood of futureoutcomes based onhistorical data.SASOne of the ways in which data can beused to make predictive decisions is ABtesting. This means setting up twovariations of your message and seeingwhich performs better by looking atcustomer and prospect behaviour. Bytracking the response and conversion rateto different approaches, phrasing, evencolours or picture placement on emails,you can find what has the biggest impact.

Sometimes, you need to reverseyour thinking to get results!One hotel we worked with created meetings and events proposalswith the bedroom information at the top, followed by the detailsof the meetings space and event. They believed this was the rightway to approach it because accommodation prices for this luxuryhotel were the biggest cost, so wanted to put this up front.We suggested they reverse the order, starting the proposal withthe meeting space, catering option, food and drinks, etc. thenending with the bedroom prices. We believed their customer basewould be making the decision on what the meetings space lookslike, and ‘wow-factors’ such as catering spaces. Bedrooms are not akey factor in a corporate decision, and not a differentiator for thishotel.With UpMail, they quickly tested both options and discovered theyhad 12% higher conversion rate that way. This enabled them to beagile and data-driven in their new approach, meaning it was easyto roll out across different sites.

BEST PRACTICES FORUSING DATA PREDICTIVELYIN HOTEL B2B SALESCHANNELSEyeForTravel says that "email still has an edge" for hotel b2b sales, but, they say, "itneeds to be done right".66% prefer emails ,compared to 26% who prefer direct mail, and 25% who prefermobile apps, according to Campaign Monitor.Success with emails requires understanding and adapting to the tone, style, layoutand content of emails that your prospects respond to.NUMBER & SEQUENCEUpmail's analysis of impact on revenue shows that the ideal number of touchpoints for prospecting is 5 emails with the following topic sequence:1. Company/Hotel introduction2. Value-added #1: this needs to be relevant to the interests of the prospect.3. Relevant information: Testimonials and client reviews that are relevant to theirinterest.4. Value-added #2: this needs to be relevant to the interests of the prospect.5. Stay in contact - check in and (if no response) finish the conversation withoutnegatively affecting the brand.CONTENT TYPEIt's not just about how many touch points you have, but when you bring indifferent types of content into the conversation.Hotel groups need to have the data to understand what type of content is helpingthem to convert different types of communication: Prospecting, enquiry response,client nurturing, etc.

CASESTUDYKEYSTATSUpmail's aggregate data from international hotel chains usesmachine learning algorithms to learn the best approach fordifferent types of sales. For Meetings, it’s clear that for a 20 personor more event, 16 days before that event is the right time tocross-sell additional bedrooms, while 48h before the event is thebest time to up-sell additional welcome drinks, or food andbeverage amenities.Hotels that use Upmail to analyse their sales data found that:Prospecting emailsincreased click rate by3% when there is atleast one link toexternal content.Conversion rateincreased by 5% onmeetings/eventsproposals when theyhad a link to an imagegallery or video.Conversion rateincreased by 7% whenat least one video hasbeen clickedthroughout their salescommunications.

05.THE SECOND 'P':PERSONALISEDAs we saw in the best practices guide section above, the relevanceof content is critical to whether it has impact on your sales funnel.The mantra your sales team should be following is:“Is this email I'm sending today adding value to thecustomer? If not, don't send it. ”Personalisation is about understanding your customers andknowing what they need and when they're likely to need it. Thisdoes two important things:1. It makes your messagemuch more likely to beread because it is useful tothe audience.2. It positions you asanticipating their needs,which makes you their'go-to' expert in whatthey're doing, whether it’san office event, wedding orsomething else!