Sales 3.0 Technology | Key to New Business Development in 2010 & Beyond
You know that sales 2.0 is so last year when everyone now is touting their sales system as sales 2.0. We are moving into sales 3.0 and not a moment too soon as it is this paradigm shift that will propel sales processes in the future. We may still be in sales 2.5 but moving rapidly toward 3.0.
To clarify, 2.0 was all about search, niches and static user generated content, such as we find on Trip Advisor. The sales process was still a linear transactional process – prospect, approach, qualify, negotiate and close. It was hunter pursing the prey sort of thing.
Use 3.0 to get noticed
- Connect the dots
- How did your current clients find you and make contact?
- Research new prospects and contacts on social networks.
- Using networks, both social and other communities, to create awareness.
- Tipping points in the selection process.
- Becoming the chosen one when the next meeting is being planned.
- Building and maintaining the relationship.
How are these processes 3.0 vs. 2.0?
- Smarter prospecting by engaging current accounts to understand their motivations in the hotel selection process –by doing this we can create fans and not just clients.
- The sales process emphasizes dynamic conversations and collaborations with clients across many channels vs. static linear user generated content.
- It’s about the law of attraction–making a potential client aware of the property vs. pushing product.
- Understanding that clients want to buy but don’t want to be sold–the choice or the close is on the buyer side and rests on relationships of trust not just features of the property.
- Building relationships based on touch points not just pushing the product.
Sales 3.0 is about viral awareness, dynamic user generated content, collaborating with current and potential clients through social networks and allowing them to buy when they are ready versus selling them. In this buyers market of the foreseeable future, the customer really has the control and won’t be pushed.
This doesn’t mean that hotels sales people shouldn’t prospect and use the 3.0 tools to ensure that they are making the clients they want aware of them and presenting the property as a solution to a client’s needs. This also doesn’t mean that sales people shouldn’t be connecting with the appropriate contacts at the companies and organizations that they have targeted.
Here are a few ways to use technology and 3.0 to prospect and get onto the client’s radar so the hotel is where the client can find you when they are ready to buy:Connect the ‘dots’.
How did your current clients find you and make contact?
Research new prospects and contacts on social networks.
Using networks, both social and other communities, to create awareness.
Tipping points in the selection process.
Becoming the chosen one when the next meeting is being planned.
Building and maintaining the relationship.
The linear lock step sales process has been replaced by a more dynamic 3.0 sales process.
Carol Verret and Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on . To contact Carol send her an e-mail at [email protected] or phone (303) 618-4065. Visit .