Colleen’s Blog

In the hotel business you have three moments to create a positive service experience for your customer. When the customer enters your hotel, during their stay, and when they are leaving. Let’s examine some recent negative experiences of mine and consider what could be done differently. The Hilton shuttle has standing room only on the way in from LAX, and when we arrive at the hotel the lobby is full of people attending. It looks like you're in the middle of a large conference. To greet the approximately 30 arriving guests are only two check-in people. This created palpable frustration for the guests in line. Solution: Have the driver call ahead to alert the front desk staff of the high number of guests arriving and his ETA. I call to find out about the hotel shuttle and I am told that it arrives every 20-30 minutes...on no set schedule. What does that mean and how is that helpful?  Getting to the airport on time to catch flights is a major stressor for many guests, By not having a schedule you are adding to that stress and creating a negative experience of your hotel when guests leave. Will that cause them to want to come back?

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? This may surprise you, but putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. What?! Let me explain. Every time you close a sale you should be adding three to four more leads to your pipeline. When you’re concentrating too much on closing business it detracts focus from gaining new leads. Before long, you will have no new leads to close business with, and this is what causes swings in revenue or sales whiplash...as I like to call it! Don't worry, dear sellers, there are ways to avoid this. Are you wondering how you can attain consistent revenue?

They're hitting and exceeding their targets with no signs of slowing down. Should you even bother to coach your top sales performers? I've been working with executives for the last few years on sales coaching practices. I've noticed that many executives are on the fence about whether or not to coach top performers. Let me clear the air. Your top performers should absolutely be coached, regardless of how impressive their numbers have been and how long they've been exceeding expectations for. Here's the truth, you have the best opportunity to move the bar forward with your revenue by coaching your top performers. So, don't fall into the trap! Executives who implement a "hands off" policy for their best performers are doing a major disservice. <-- Click To Tweet What's the best way to coach them?

Don't forget to first catch up on part one of this two part series! Nurturing and retaining new talent. Back at Boston Beer, the focus is on retention. “The big challenge for us is holding onto our sales people past the two-year mark,” says Geist. Promotions at Boston Beer often require relocation, which young people agree to, yet resist when the time comes to make a move.  Start solving the millennial challenge now, says Francis. “Building the best team possible is a crucial step for businesses that are serious about accelerating their sales,” explains Colleen Francis, founder of Engage Selling Solutions. “Solving the millennial challenge needs to be your top task in that bigger job.” As a sales strategist, Francis works with companies to develop field-tested, winning methods of attracting and retaining top talent. While that search cuts across generational lines, her work with top-ranked sales organizations has helped her formulate specific advice on how best to reach this millennial generation—the sales force and sales leaders of tomorrow.

A few decades ago, a career in sales was a much sought-after career by young graduates entering the workforce. College seniors would clamor to get on the interview list of on-campus recruiters representing blue-chip companies like IBM and Xerox who were hungry for top sales talent. Today, it’s much harder to sell young people on a career in sales. And yet it’s vital for successful organizations both large and small to overcome this barrier if they want to grow their sales force and their profits—not to mention their market appeal to this giant demographic group. In this two-part article, Talent Maximizer® Roberta Matuson of Matuson Consulting looks at why sales gets a bad rap from millennials, and sales strategist Colleen Francis of Engage Selling Solutions explores what you can do to reverse that trend.