How Sales Teams Can Utilize Emerging Technology to Improve The Guest Experience

Emerging technology encourages positive change for hotel sales teams who are looking to enhance the guest and future client experience.

Finding a way to appropriately leverage these tools is essential to a company's success and assists in providing an overall great experience throughout the booking process.

This is especially true for those on the sales and marketing side of operations, where so much communication is done through virtual platforms. Teams that can properly utilize the resources available to them can work more efficiently, ultimately yielding better results for the company and the client.

How Technology Can Enhance the Impact of a Virtual Meeting

In the past, offering to have a video call rather than an in-person, face-to-face meeting could be construed as unprofessional and was only used as a last-resort option.The pandemic shifted how the hospitality industry operates and has normalized a switch to remote meetings. As a result, there are now numerous virtual selling tools to assist with the changing dynamics and expectations of clients who prefer virtual interactions. The largest sector of sales that this affects is business and group travel, which has surged back to exceed 2019 levels with short-term bookings leading the way.

Meeting the needs of these groups, whether it be a wedding or conference, requires a new approach that keeps sales and marketing teams organized and equipped with all of the necessary resources to ensure a successful event and a satisfied client.

Hospitality companies have adapted to selling virtually and provide meeting planners and corporate buyers confidence in the selection process without the traditional site visit process. Digital media companies are able to provide virtual tours and 360-degree imagery to help create a proposal experience that allows planners to have more confidence in the hotel's ability to match their needs. By investing in and implementing these tools, hotels can present clients with all of the necessary information and perspective even if a site inspection is not possible. Supplementing the traditional sales process with technology helps teams adjust to the changing landscape without losing sight of foundational approaches.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a hotel selection process that is as efficient as possible for the client by creating a proposal format that shows full transparency of the event facility and hotel offerings through video, virtual tours, and diagramming software. These videos can be used in day-to-day selling processes in conjunction with introduction emails, promotional offers, and client experience referrals.

The virtual renderings and technology are not a replacement for exceptional service and research, but rather bolster those tactics with additional assets that showcase the level of detail and dedication the sales team has invested in the client. Video can be used to build rapport quickly with the client and showcase personalization that email and electronic proposals often lack. This added layer of preparation and execution showcases how sales and marketing teams that are willing to go the extra mile for their clients.

Balancing Technology with Traditional Modes of Communication

It goes without saying that even though these modern advances have helped supplement the way hotels market and sell their offerings – they can never quite replace the value that a face-to-face meeting holds. While integrating virtual tours and 360-degree renderings into their presentation, sales leaders should also encourage their teams to find equally creative ways to engage with clients whether in person or virtually. Opportunities to meet in person have been on the decline since remote work took hold and employees don't always live in the same region a company or hotel is located.

When available, in-person meetings are prioritized. Video conferencing to present event space renderings provide another useful option to bridge the gap and can be reimagined to offer an even more personal and tailored approach depending on the client ask. As long as teams do not lose sight of the importance of building authentic long-term relationships, utilizing technology in the process is just as helpful as the tried and true meeting over coffee.

Video conferencing not only provides a solution when in-person options are not available, but also creates an opportunity for hotels to showcase what is possible for the client. Hybrid meeting options and flexibility are increasingly sought after and by investing in that technology on the marketing side, they are also able to present that platform as an option to the client during their event. This can be done in partnership with a hotel's in-house audio-visual teams to create educational forums that can be held in order to better inform clients of the technological options available to them that ultimately create more dynamic meetings that can be adjusted to accommodate a variety of needs.

Bringing the Team On Board

Having video conferencing and site rendering tools on-hand makes for seamless communication and execution when implemented properly. However, without sufficient introduction and training, they can be as much of a hindrance as a help. Investing in these capabilities means more than purchasing a suite of programs, but also investing time and energy to onboard new and existing team members on these tools. Once all members are familiar with the diagramming and virtual tour software, the team can function as a whole with a comprehensive understanding of the resources at their disposal.

Establishing the soft skills of timeliness and efficiency is crucial when working with new technology because otherwise, it's not a useful option and teams are not able to get the most out of it. This is why the onboarding process is essential for sales and marketing executives who are looking to move forward with this model. This may be a hefty undertaking at the outset but will yield long-term results that have teams working under the same expectations with an understanding of the programs that will ultimately make them the best possible resource for clients.

One tactic for achieving this level of cohesion is regular trainings on the platforms to keep the teams informed about changes which overall improves efficiency and results. Technology is constantly evolving and as new updates are available associates will need to be re-trained in order to maintain their familiarity with software and how new offerings apply to them. Through these systemic, internal processes, associates will become fully activated on systems, and tools in half the time, resulting in improved turnaround times.

The Way Forward with Data and Analytics

Data and analytics are invaluable tools for sales and marketing. Specifically considering lead response time, the insight data and analytics provide help shape those sales teams and appropriately allocate resources to vet authentic inquiries. One issue that continues to affect the sales industry is low-quality requests for proposals (RFPs), which impede impede response time and conversion since associates need to properly vet each proposal and distract them from addressing legitimate proposals.

At the same time, sales and marketing teams want to ensure they are addressing every authentic inquiry and not mistakenly writing it off as spam. By implementing data pulled from internal analytics gathering software, teams can more closely and accurately evaluate these leads and how we respond to them. This helps minimize the noise and amplify what is important, further focusing teams on a streamlined approach to sales.

Engaging the emerging tools of video conferencing, virtual tours, and image rendering software help to bolster hotel sales teams' traditional approaches. It will require dedicated time to properly onboard the associates who will regularly utilize them but once they are familiar with the various tools, their approach to clients will only continue to improve. Remote meetings will become another opportunity to showcase the possibilities and allow clients to experience firsthand how technology can be of use to them as well.

The virtual tours, dynamic videos, and diagramming software will provide a unique aspect to informational meetings that were previously only conducted in person. This, matched with first-class service and offerings will result in long-term partnerships wherein clients are eager to engage the suite of options at the hotel's disposal.

By using the technologies available, teams are at an advantage and are overall able to boost the creativity with which they approach every client, sale, and opportunity.

Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from http://www.hotelexecutive.com/.