When Life Isn’t a Party…
How Do You Survive the Struggle?
By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment
When life is good, complacency may set in. The first quarter for an indoor location is typically a BIG revenue time of year. It can also be a dangerous lull into sales atrophy. Many times, the busyness of the business disrupts the consistent pursuit of new sales. In reality, focus on sales is a full-time activity no matter how good revenue is.
Spring Break will be fantastic. There will be high fives all around and then, suddenly, the dip comes. Catching up takes time and now you are behind. But you can change all that. Below are 10 things you can do now to make sure your sales efforts are consistent. After all, don’t you want to have more parties and group events than the competition?
1. Set clear goals. What are your expectations? I challenge you to look past comparing your sales to last year and embrace what’s possible!
2. Make sure you have the right people in the right seat. Is your sales team selling or are they simply reservationists responding to inbound activity? If the latter is true, you might consider the fact that in order to grow and out-pace the competition, you must have a genuine outbound new business focus.
3. Try something new. Create a new “value add” package. Make it irresistible. Think about what would make a buyer feel like, “I’d be CRAZY not to take my group to do this!” Get input from your team. Get everyone excited about a short-term offer that will knock the socks off the buyer!
4. Design a record-breaker week during a traditionally slow week. Challenge the sales team, your operations team, and your favorite customers to help you have the biggest group and party sales week of your life. When you tell others and enroll them into your challenge, you’ll see that people want to be a part of something very exciting.
5. Create your Christmas in July program now. Don’t wait. Plan which day, who you’ll invite, what you’ll serve and what your goals are for booking holiday events early. Call your biggest events from the previous three to five years and extend a personal invitation to this special event.
6. Call all group and party events from one to five years ago. Outbound reach is easiest with people who already love you. Leave no stone unturned. Call them all. You may find that your contact is no longer around, but find out who is booking team outings and talk with them sooner than later.
7. Shop your competition. See what they are doing. Is there something to know about how to compete at a higher level? Maybe you’ll discover you are REALLY knocking it out of the park with your salespersonship and packaging.
8. Attend a sales course, read a book and up your own game with a little education. I have been selling a long time and I read or re-read a book, listen to a podcast or read a blog, weekly. You can never know it all. Professional development is a personal responsibility and the best of the best prioritize training and education.
9. Practice your sales approach with someone. Replay calls to see how you might have done it different. Pay attention to why people say yes and no. I always learn more from the no or when I really goof up, so never worry about failing. There is a ton to learn when you win as well as when you lose.
10. In keeping with item #8, I suggest reading my book, People Buy From People – How to Connect Personally in an Impersonal World. Among the business development tips inside, I discuss having a HIT Mindset. Consistency makes all the difference with sales. Great sales teams don’t depend on the waves of the good times to carry them through the tough times. They operate with a HIT Mindset all the time. Very simply, the most successful salespeople are:
Habitual – “Habitual prospecting must become second nature. It’s something you will do every day, without fail—no excuses. Mark your calendar with specific time blocks devoted to prospecting, and then treat that prospecting time as sacred. Turn off your email and don’t take phone calls.”
Intentional – “When you’re intentional about doing something, that means you do it on purpose. You’re deliberate. So intentional prospecting means that you prospect on purpose. It’s not something you do on a whim or if you have time or if you’re in the mood. You don’t sit around and wait for a prospect to come to you. Your actions are intentional.”
Tenacious – “It’s hard to keep up great habits and that spirit of intentionality if you aren’t tenacious. When you look at the word tenacious, other words such as persistent, persevering, dogged, and stubborn, should come to mind. To me tenacity is never giving up!”
In closing, I hope you spring back BIG after Spring Break. I know you will if you implement either a HIT mindset or engage in any of the top 10 tips above!
Let me hear how you are doing by emailing me at beth@trainertainment .net.
Beth is the CEO of TrainerTainment LLC, a training company devoted to the family entertainment and hospitality industries. Beth and her team are focused on helping the companies they serve make more money through sales, guest service, leadership and social media marketing training. Training products and services are delivered in person, through books and DVDs, and virtually with e-learning courses, webinar development and 24/7 online access. Visit her company’s website at www.trainertainment.com.