Employee training may be one of the most overlooked aspects within the hospitality industry. This may be due to a perception that every employee inherently understands the nature of hospitality and good service, so we assume anyone can provide these.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Employees must learn the proper way to act and react when engaging with your guests. They need to learn to assess situations and then use the proper words and actions, given each situation. They must gain a complete understanding of the services your organization offers in order to provide the best customer service. In short, they need to learn how to create the best possible experience for your guests.
The Importance of Training Your Hotel Sales Staff
For hotel sales staff, there is a unique challenge. Unlike many other industries, hotels are in the business of selling experiences rather than actual products. Even so, providing hotel sales employees with opportunities to enhance their selling skills and expertise can bring significant benefits to your organization.
If your hotel is considering the implementation of a sales training program, some of the benefits for your sales reps can include:
Understanding the Customer
Most hotels are not designed to attract every consumer. Instead, they are meant to appeal to a defined segment of the market. Financial projections are then driven by assumptions regarding rates and occupancy they expect to generate from those specific markets. Given that, it is important for a salesperson to know the positioning of the hotel and to understand its target markets. Without this basic understanding, a rep can waster valuable time trying to sell to a customer who will never be interested in their property.
Understanding Your Product and the Competition
To be successful, hotel sales reps need to know their property well. They must understand its strengths and weaknesses and how it compares to the competition. A deep assessment of these factors will be a major benefit in convincing a customer to choose your property over the competition.
Learning to Practice Active Listening
Even if you are offering a high-quality property, it is important for the salesperson to understand the needs of the customer in order to properly position it to them for a sale. Active listening is the process of asking good questions of the customer in order to learn about the experience they are hoping for in a hotel stay. The information gathered will help place the salesperson in the best possible position to close the business.
Developing a Winning Attitude
Ongoing, regularly scheduled can help inspire more confidence among your salespeople and help to build a winning culture. Having reps share their success stories and strategies for overcoming objections can help your team to feel prepared and confident for any sales situation that might present itself.
The Benefits of eLearning for Hotel Sales Training
In recent years, as online technologies have continued to evolve, eLearning has emerged as a cornerstone for all types of employee training, including hotel sales training.
If your company is considering the use of eLearning technologies for your sales staff training, you can expect some significant benefits, including:
Convenience
Unlike classroom-based training, eLearning lets users conduct their learning activities at a time and place that is convenient for them. All they need is an Internet connection. And with eLearning, your sales reps can learn at their own pace as they can choose to revisit complex or important content multiple times before moving on to the next section.
Cost-Effectiveness
eLearning can save your organization from having to spend on many of the items required for classroom-based training. With eLearning, you are able to reduce or eliminate such costs as travel, venue fees, the cost of an in-person instructor, catering, and the distribution of printed materials. And with eLearning, there is no need to pull your salespeople away from their work activities as they can conduct their training activities after hours.
Communication and Collaboration
Many eLearning platforms provide tools to support online communications among learners and between learners and instructors. This helps to create an optimal learning environment and can build a sense of community and collaboration as users work through learning materials. It also enables easy collection of user feedback and input regarding the course materials and structure.
Measurement
eLearning provides for the easy collection and analysis of course data. The information can then be used as you work to revise and improve your learning programs over time.
LMS Portals for Hotel Sales Training
LMS Portals provides a customizable cloud-based platform for eLearning. Our system allows you to build and manage your own eLearning programs under your corporate brand and as part of your existing web infrastructure.
Contact us to get started today!