By Seth Kekessie
In a recent webcast, “How to Create a Hunter Sales Team and Hit Your 2020 Group Targets,” we asked over 250 attendees two questions:
- Which type of group salesperson is most present in your hotel – the Hunter, Order-Taker or Farmer, and
- What is your top barrier to grooming more Hunters in your sales organization?
Hunters were actually the lowest percentage at 30% which is unsurprising. There are a couple of possible explanations. The deluge of in-bound RFPs has dulled the skills of many Hunters, and/or the organizational structure favors and rewards Order-Takers for being the fastest to respond to an RFP.
Nearly half (44%) stated that organizational metrics are too focused on RFP response rates and 34% said the Order-Taker is their most prevalent type of salesperson at their hotel. As the saying goes, you can expect what you inspect. If the group business success metric is on speed of response, you are going to cultivate a sales team of Order-Takers and you are not going to be positioned well to hit your 2020 targets. Unlike business that is sourced directly by your Hunters, when you take into account commissions inbound leads come at a higher cost to your profitability.
Many management companies are making the change to source business directly. Some are putting their Order-Takers on responding to RFPs, as they should and shifting their focus to their Hunter salespeople to proactively book new business. Leveraging your Hunter salespeople to focus on a proactive group sales strategy gives your hotel control over your profitability and success. They can better control for cost of acquisition and build a greater primer for repeat business.
To see the questions and results in this edition of the Knowland Buzz click here