Some salespeople think of prospecting as a tedious chore at best, while others find it challenging and exciting. But like it or not,it is a critical element in successful sales.Here are invaluable tips for finding newbusiness through prospecting that will help you become one your company’s topproducers—in good times and bad.

rospecting is not a dirtyword! As a professionalsalesperson and an entre-preneur, I have been“hunting” for business all

my life. What I find interesting is thatin the hotel/travel industry prospect-ing has a negative connotation forsome salespeople. I even hear thephrases such as, “Oh I have toprospect now,” or “I am going in tothe prospecting room.” First of allprospecting is not a penalty and youare certainly not being sent to thepenalty box. So why is there an issueabout prospecting?

The answer lies with the founda-tion of hotel sales in the first place.

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TAKING A POSITIVE PATHTO NEW BUSINESS

Prospecting

[CINDY NOVOTNY]

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Many hotel/travel sales professionalsgot into their sales career by acci-dent. They were great at the frontdesk or in food & beverage andalong the way someone said, “Ohyou have such an outgoing personal-ity, you should be in sales.”Salespeople need to think, act, andlive like salespeople, not as opera-tional professionals that are spend-ing some time in sales. This is acareer and prospecting is the firstand most important step in buildingyour book of business. Some salesprofessionals begin their sales careerwith existing territories, accounts,and possibly a client base. But othersstart with a blank sheet of accounts.They are hired because the hotel orbusiness needs them to producesales that are not already coming in.Here is where prospecting starts.

So let’s take the bull by the horns.It has been a rough 2009, but we arenearing the end. Although 2010doesn’t look bad, it seems to be fore-casted as flat. But will it be flat forall? No! There is business out there,but it only belongs to those that goout and work for it.

Prospecting sounds easy enough,but think about it. Do you ever hearthe words “reactive sales” in yourorganization? There is no such thing.Sales is always proactive—reactivesales is reservations, call centers, andservice centers. One thing that hascome out of this chaotic recession isthe fact that there are proactive salesprofessionals that are making thingshappen and making money along theway. It is not bad news for everyone.

Everyone has to think differentlyabout finding new business. Thereare healthy industries that are book-ing business in cities all over theworld. Examples are energy, gas,biotech, some financial, government,and research. This is just the tip ofthe iceberg. There are so many newclients that haven’t even received asales call. I know this, because Iprospect all the time. Recently in a

workshop, I divided the group intopartners and sent them out to do alive case study searching for newbusiness. They were given a fewparameters and two hours. Theresults were amazing and that provesmy theory—there is so much busi-ness out there, but you need to getout of your comfort zone and find it.

Out of the zone requires what Irefer to as “disruptive innovation.” Itdoesn’t mean you have to invent thenext cool thing (in fact what wouldthat be anyway?), but it’s more aboutcalling clients at a senior level—the“C” level that is so popular thesedays. Everyone acts like the “C” leveljust came about. Books are beingwritten about it, speakers talk aboutbuilding your business by sellinghigher and deeper within an organi-zation, and trainers write case studieson this new idea. But is this new?The “C” level has been around forev-er—without the fancy buzz word itwas the president, vice presidents,etc., at every corporation. Even lawfirms who dislike being compared tocorporations now refer to their sen-ior partners as “C” partners. So

what? How is this out of the zone?Simple, but not easy—calling clientsat a high level means you must planyour call, your strategy, and yourshared agenda idea for the prospect-ing call. Strategy is the key compo-nent and where most sales peoplefail to create an impact with a call.Why are you calling—besides askingif they have business, and if you ask

if they have business, the answer willbe NO? What is the benefit for theseextremely busy ‘C’ level individualsthat you are trying to reach? Unlessyou can tie in how your objective forthe call can enhance their business,save them money, or provide a spe-cific service to them, you are wastingtheir time and yours. Do yourresearch and know exactly what yourobjective will be before you pick upthe phone. If you cannot answer thecaller’s question of ‘what is in it forme’—then you should not pick upthe phone…not yet anyway! So thinkforward, be smart about your objec-tives, and create solutions for thecustomers. Only then will they wantto talk to you!

Many of you reading this will thinkthat this is ridiculous. Why would youcall a senior player when you arealready dealing with a meeting plan-ner, corporate travel manager, orassistant? Why? Because there aremany new accounts out there thatdon’t even have those titles and it isthe senior leader making decisions.Don’t believe me? Well, the competi-tion is calling on them all the time,

playing golf with them, and meetingthese decision makers at social func-tions. Why not you?

In order to really thrive after thismess of a year, you need to re-look athow you have been prospecting, sell-ing, building relationships, and man-aging your time. Stepping up thesales effort is not that hard if youremove the barriers and obstacles

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There is business outthere, but it only

belongs to those that go out and work for it.

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around you. What are those obsta-cles, who are the barriers? One differ-ence between straight commissionsales professionals and salaried salesprofessionals is the fact that straightcommission salespeople won’t allownegative influences or barriers intheir lives. Salaried individuals seemto accept this negativity due to “poli-tics” in the organization. Well, that isnot good enough—whether asalaried or commission salesperson, itis your responsibility to make certainyou have enough time in the day tobuild your book of business. That iscalled SELLING!

As noted earlier, prospecting is notnew, it just needs revitalization. Thinkof United Airlines. Remember a fewyears ago when they came up withTED? They thought it was such aninnovative idea. They would refit theirexisting planes, make them no frillslike Southwest and therefore increasebusiness by competing with lower fareairlines. Fast forward to today—United used existing planes, took outfirst class, kept the same crew with thesame costs, and only transferred theirexisting customers from one plane toanother, not stealing market share butdiluting their own base. Today, wherein the world is TED?

Focusing on prospectingSo let’s focus on the process ofprospecting. Some of you readingthis are newer to sales than others.But reader beware—every one needsa bit of a push. Everyone needs torevisit this most important part ofselling. It is and has been the firstthing that goes when salespeople arebusy or when business gets better.Never again should you put asideprospecting for new business justbecause business is getting better.

STEP ONE Be clear on yourmarket segment or territory. Knowthe industries that you are prospect-ing in and be specific on knowingwhat industries use your hotel/DMC/convention space, etc., before you

start researching for names of newclients.

STEP TWO Go online and lookfor more companies within theseindustries—use search engines thatwill give you company names—suchas oilvoice.com, hoovers.com, etc.You can go to www.masterconnec-tion.com and under free resourcesfind Web sites to use for prospectingpurposes. It is important to under-stand that all of this research hap-pens after selling hours—not duringthe key selling hours of the day.

STEP THREE Contact thesecompanies and ask anyone you canreach who at their organization isresponsible for booking hotel space,hiring speakers, booking transporta-tion, etc. Don’t worry about gettingthose people on the phone at thispoint, simply get their names anddirect line if possible.

STEP FOUR Call the names youwere given and try to either get themon the phone, or try to set a phoneappointment when you can ask theseprospective customers questions andtry to uncover their needs. This is nota time to start selling unless they actu-ally seem interested after you askthem some questions.

STEP F IVE Now it is time forthat initial sales call—the discoverycall. This is the first actual sales callthat moves you from prospecting toselling.

After this call the actual salesprocess opens up and you engagewith your clients. It is important notto get so caught up in the “rules ofprospecting” that you forget the over-all goal. The goal is to try and speakto as many new customers as possible.These new customers should be cate-gorized as new from new, new fromold accounts, and new contacts with-in existing accounts. Too many hotelcompanies get caught up in the rulesof what is new. Let’s not make thisharder than it is. Remember our goalis to find new people whom we arenot doing business with.

It is not a secret that sales andcatering managers struggle with thisprocess, but with practice, coaching,and skill development you can turncold calling into a positive experienceof “prospecting.”

What can leadership do tosupport this process? 1) Redefine prospecting—make this apositive effort and not a penalty.Create excitement around it. Blockout time once a week for everyone togo on the phones at the same timefor one hour and power prospect.This creates a dynamic among theteam that supports the process andencourages friendly competitionamong the team.2) Make some prospecting calls as aleader with your sales managers lis-tening to you on another phone.Let them hear how you get past thegate keepers, voicemail, and whattypes of messages you leave.Remember you will not be 100 per-cent successful on all calls and thatis what they need to hear.3) Create some simple scripts—nottoo lengthy but small bite sizenuggets that will give your sales teamconfidence in making these calls.4) Talk about prospecting everymorning in your line up, or revenuemeeting. Talk about successes, exam-ples of what did not work, and cele-brate some small wins like how manynames did they get to follow up withtomorrow.5) Track prospecting to definite—how many calls resulted in bookedbusiness over the year—this is not asprint but a marathon so track allyear long.

Again, this has been a tough year.Prospecting is hard even during thegreat times when customers really do want to speak with you. If we createa solid selling foundation where pros-pecting becomes a way of life, andorder taking and stealing each other’saccounts becomes unacceptable, youwill see incremental revenue. Selling is

DECEMBER 2009 • HSMAI MARKETING REVIEW 17

proactive—it has never been aboutreactive order taking.

As we leave 2009 and enter a newyear let’s focus on the recovery.There are so many resources at yourdisposal to assist with prospecting. Ifyou don’t have the luxury of salesassistants who can help find lists fromthe Web sites, try interns or evennight auditors may be able to printnames of companies they find on thesites we have suggested. Look forother areas to find prospects that willmake these calls warm instead ofcold, such as:• Service your existing customers sowell that they can’t wait to give youreferrals.

• If you don’t ask for referrals you will never get new names to call.Remember any name can lead youto another name which may resultin interest.

• Get out of your comfort zone—dothings differently this year. Getinnovative and entrepreneurial with forward thinking.

• Always believe you have somethingworth saying that your potentialcustomers will be interested inhearing.

• Reinvent your self confidence inprospecting. Challenge your boss tohelp you. Don’t try to act like youknow what you are doing if youdon’t. Those of you that have been

selling for years may need just asmuch help as others.

• Work on your prospecting plan.Each evening before you leave theoffice, block out your prospectinghour(s) for the next day. Thisneeds to be done each evening asyour schedule changes daily—don’tlook for any excuse to skip a day.

• Measure your own performanceduring prospecting. Whatworked/what didn’t—how will youcontinue to improve your calls?

• Create a weekly theme of benefitsto speak to your potential clientsabout—change it each week so youdon’t bore yourself.

• Accept responsibility for prospect-ing—it is a sales function andbelongs to you.

• Stay the course—stay calm anddon’t give up.

• Adjust the times you call—try earlyand late, and see what works best.

• Become a visionary—how will youbeat your competition by outsellingthem?

Your follow up is also an opportunityin prospecting. Once you try calling,follow up with an email or try send-ing an invitation for a specific timefor a call. Also your follow up onleads generated by bureaus, repfirms, marketing companies, advertis-ing, etc., is important. Your best

chance of qualifying a prospect iswithin a few hours of receiving theirlead. There are many different stud-ies that suggest timing is critical inprospecting. Some are more scientif-ic than others, but the followingthoughts are good to rememberwhen planning your prospectingcampaigns:• Thursday seems to be a good day toget prospects on the phone.

• Fridays are the worst day.• Early or late in the day is best.• Telephone still works much betterthan email blasts.

No matter how you view prospecting,it is a part of selling. Maybe for amonth, shake things up in your salesteam. Let the real “hunters” do allthe prospecting and the relationshipsales managers handle all inquiriesfor the team. Establish a team goaland see how it works. As an experi-ment you may find out who is best atprospecting and who needs assis-tance. Regardless of the scenario, inorder to thrive versus survive you willneed new customers. Not all of yourexisting customers are spending thesame money now that they havespent in the past. Therefore, youneed to supplement that gap withnew business. Where will that newbusiness come from? The answer issimple—YOU! n

Selling is proactive—it has never been about reactive order taking.

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