Howard Feiertag

Do we really know what sales people are supposed to do? It seems that if some hospitality employees have the word “sales” in their title, then they should be selling. If not selling, then what else is it they should be doing?

The whole idea behind networking is to meet as many people as possible, and to determine how many of those we contact are in a position to provide business at some future date. What it is that we are doing is prospecting, not selling.

All the studies and reports we have seen lately reflect a very good year coming up for increases in occupancy, demand, average daily rate and total revenue. All of this should lead to improved profitability.

Flash sales are really not anything new to marketing, but, for the most part, we see them related to retail sales. However, we are now seeing them grow in the travel business.

The idea with flash sales is to create buying (or booking) urgency on the part of the specific consumer market.

Of all the operating departments in a property, sales is the one that generates the business to bring in the revenue. A GM should be vitally interested in knowing what is going on in that area.

There are more leads right on a hotel premises than most managers realize.

Look at the appropriate figures to determine which markets have been the best based on their ADR and how much dollar business was generated from each of these markets against total dollar room sales for the property.

Howard Feiertag says most poor customer service issues have to do with the telephone.

Howard Feiertag advises to be properly prepared for trade shows. The purpose of being an exhibitor at a trade show, Feiertag explains, is to see as many people as possible to gather information that will locate prospects and lead to increasing sales.