Continuing on the Twitter theme of my post two weeks ago, I was approached by one of our hotel clients to help their sales managers understand and use Twitter in a meeting and event environment.
This is a new challenge that had been given to the three sales managers, all of whom are seasoned sales people. In our discovery call, I could hear their apprehension about having yet another task on their already long to do list.
What is this going to help them create more leads? What is this going to help them close more business? They wondered. Yet their Director of Sales & Marketing was determined to push them out of their comfort zone to try this new tool.
Not an easy task. But I salute the DOSM for pushing the envelope. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the three sales managers could probably share one account and, using appropriate time management and the right tool, they could away with monitoring ongoing conversation and each tweeting a few times a week.
They started to warm up to the idea when they realized that meeting attendees could be tweeting, and that they could help their clients by tweeting about the upcoming event, alerting them to pre and post block rates, cut-off dates, and other side activities.
This is a new challenge that had been given to the three sales managers, all of whom are seasoned sales people. In our discovery call, I could hear their apprehension about having yet another task on their already long to do list.
What is this going to help them create more leads? What is this going to help them close more business? They wondered. Yet their Director of Sales & Marketing was determined to push them out of their comfort zone to try this new tool.
Not an easy task. But I salute the DOSM for pushing the envelope. Eventually we came to the conclusion that the three sales managers could probably share one account and, using appropriate time management and the right tool, they could away with monitoring ongoing conversation and each tweeting a few times a week.
They started to warm up to the idea when they realized that meeting attendees could be tweeting, and that they could help their clients by tweeting about the upcoming event, alerting them to pre and post block rates, cut-off dates, and other side activities.
Soon they realized they also could get exposure and build trust with sponsors and other meeting organizers within those audiences. This could mean referrals and additional group business.
And that is the answer. Twitter strictly as a promotional tool won't take you very far. But if you look at it as a tool that helps you listen to your clients, and enables you to help them meet their meeting objectives, all of a sudden you are not just "salesperson", you are more of a solution provider. And this helps you build trust. And of course building trust helps you build more sales.
My advice to hotel, CVB, and meetings industry supplier sales leaders: don't look at social media as yet another chore. Look at it as an opportunity to help build trust with your prospective and existing clients.
And that is the answer. Twitter strictly as a promotional tool won't take you very far. But if you look at it as a tool that helps you listen to your clients, and enables you to help them meet their meeting objectives, all of a sudden you are not just "salesperson", you are more of a solution provider. And this helps you build trust. And of course building trust helps you build more sales.
My advice to hotel, CVB, and meetings industry supplier sales leaders: don't look at social media as yet another chore. Look at it as an opportunity to help build trust with your prospective and existing clients.
