How important are sales calls to our being successful in the hospitality industry? I have always followed the simple philosophy that successful businesses have as part of their culture: you grow your business or you watch as your competition does. It can be written even more simply, grow or die. The following is a message that I often share with my team regarding making sales calls to grow your business.

Here are some statistics on how many ‘touches’ it takes to close a new account:

2% close on the 1st call or touch
3% close on the 2nd call or touch
4% close on the 3rd call or touch (ironically, this is where most follow-up processes stop)
10% close on the 4th call
80% close ON OR AFTER the 5th call

We can look at these stats another way as shared by Bart Berkey; hotel executive, speaker and author. He calls it the ‘truth about soliciting business’:

48% of all salespeople make one call and quit
25% of all salespeople call twice and quit
17% of all salespeople call three times and quit
80% of all sales are made after the fifth call
10% of all salespeople keep calling
80% of all sales are made by 10% of all the people

Now that we know why we have to be persistent, we also have to understand and overcome objections…the dreaded ‘no’.
What “no” means:

I’m too busy
I don’t trust you
This isn’t on my ‘to do’ list
My boss won’t let me
I’m not the person to make this decision
I don’t have the resources to do this now
Your product or service does not meet my need

What “no” doesn’t mean:

I hate the proposal
I hate you

We must have a product or service that matches the potential customer’s need and they must agree that it meets their need, or their answer will always be no. However, keep in mind that they are saying ‘no’ to what we are offering, not us personally.

If you want to have a long and successful career, you need to become effective at sales calls. You have to master the skill of reaching out professionally and demonstrating value to the person and their organization. Please do not take a ‘no’ as the final answer, never stop following up with valuable information and take the actions needed to be in the 10% that make 80% of all the sales.

Are you ready to start today?