What Being Resilient Can Do for Your Hotel Room Sales

Jan 02, 13 | 12:07 am

By Doug Kennedy

When eHotelier Editor in Chief Anne Edwards reached out to us regular writers about doing an article on the subject of Resiliency, I loved the idea right away. What a terrific word for our industry, as just about every “average” day working in a hotel requires some degree of resiliency at some point.

Although I was familiar with the word, I enjoyed looking up definitions online, the most common of which centered around the ability for a physical object to spring back to its original form, such as a rubber band after it has been stretched or the elastic waistbands on gym shorts.  But when you dig deeper the word Resiliency has many other meanings, including medical definitions relating to a person’s ability to recover from illness or disease.

My favorite definitions of resiliency were the psychological definitions I found online, which centered on a person’s ability to cope with adversarial conditions and stressful circumstances, and to bounce right back to their normal mental state and not experience long term negative effectives.  As a minister I had years ago used to say, “It’s not what happens to us, but what happens in us, that makes the difference for us...”  and resilient leaders seem to know this well. 
It is during negative guest encounters, during unexpected periods of low demand and during hard times that we most recognize the character trait of resiliency, as that is when it stands out.  You will notice resilient leaders in the hotel workplace as they cheerfully:

• Handle the most difficult and unreasonable guests who might even verbally attach them personally, then calmly returning to their previous task as if they were not emotionally affected, because they were not.
• Do more with less. Whether unexpected staff absences or lack of resources due to budget cuts, they find creative and innovative ways to make it all work out.
• Face unpredictable challenges, whether a downturn in demand, or an overwhelming demand situation such as due to a natural disaster or weather event.  They have the mental fortitude to stick it out and their confident demeanor helps to calm others.
• Go beyond resolving guest complaints and service breakdowns on a temporary basis, and instead are always looking to evolve future systems and processes to avoid the problem from reoccurring the next time.

Although resilient leaders stand out most during stressful circumstances, construction on the foundation  of the character trait of resiliency is best started during good times.  Resilient leaders consistently display the same character traits and behavior patterns even on the easiest days of hotel operations.  They have discipline and step into their character they moment they enter the building.  They know that a warm welcome to their guests at registration starts with the way in which they greet the first employee they encounter that day.

Although the character of resiliency can be observed in hotel operations every day, it is especially important to have the personal charter trait of resiliency actualized in sales leaders.  As my late father George Kennedy often quoted some unknown author, “Nothing happens until the sale is made.”

It is easy to be successful in hotel sales during good times and an up market.  The phones are always ringing, or these days it would be more appropriate to say the email in-box is always pinging with electronic inquiries. But when the market shifts and leads are not coming in on pace, resilient leaders know what to do.  It is in their instinct. They have disciplined themselves in using a sales process excellence that they practice diligently.  They know how to be “hunters” during hard times because they continue to hunt for new business even in good times when other hotel sales leaders rest up and enjoy being “gatherers,” to use an analogy from anthropology. 

Resiliency in sales begins with discipline in sales excellence throughout the sales process.

• Resilient sales leaders have a lead tracking and response process that is in place for all inquiries.  They understand that sometimes the hottest lead is disguised as an average looking inquiry, lost in general sales@yourhotelname.com inbox. They know how to sort and prioritize leads, and still follow-up on every lead, especially those coming in by phone these days.
• Resilient sales leaders report a little early, are prepared for their day and looking the part of a well-organized and put together mentor.
• Resilient sales leaders know the best time to make a cold call to a new sales suspect is right after you just closed your biggest recent sale.  They are never fully satisfied with the sales goals they have achieved in the past, no matter how much they beat budget, and are only focused on the next month, quarter and year.
• Resilient leaders mentor others. They take time to teach others their processes and philosophies.
• These sales leaders know that eternal optimism is a necessary and required ingredient of resiliency.   They understand that it is difficult to prospect for business if you don’t believe people are interested in your product.  When overall demand is down, they know they don’t have to fill all the hotels in the comp-set, only their own.  They look for business in new places.
• Resilient leaders are also realistic in the best moments that there will be challenges ahead.  They prepare for the proverbial “rainy day” and do not over-react to unexpected periods of low demand or the loss of a single large account.  Instead they have been working for months ahead to replace current business before it moves on for whatever reason.  They know that plants close, operations move, projects end, and construction projects are completed.  Yet they are confident that the systems they have in place will yield new opportunities.

So as we finish up the calendar year 2012, which for most lodging operations worldwide was a good or very good year, resilient leaders welcome 2013 regardless of what happens in their local and global  economy.  They have used the recent upturn in demand to fine tune their systems and processes and are ready, regardless.

About the Author

Doug Kennedy, President of the Kennedy Training Network, has been a fixture on the hospitality and tourism industry conference circuit since 1989, having presented over 1,000 conference keynote sessions, educational break-out seminars, or customized, on-premise training workshops for diverse audiences representing every segment of the lodging industry.

His articles have also appeared worldwide in more than 17 prominent international publications including the HSMAI Marketing Review, eHotelier, 4hoteliers, Hotel News Resource, Hotel Online, Human Assets - Dubai and Hong Kong, Hsyndicate worldwide, BAHA Times - U.K., Hospitality - Maldives, and the Hotel Expert Magazine Hong Kong. Since 1996 Doug has been a regular contributor to the lodging industry's number one rated publication, www.hotelmotel.com , where he has been a regular monthly columnist since 2001. Visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com for details or e-mail him at: doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.