Hotel ownership groups oversee the long-term profitability of multiple properties in their portfolio, constantly seeking innovative solutions to enhance efficiency, drive revenue, and stay competitive. In the current global environment, a groundbreaking strategy rapidly gaining traction is leveraging a sales enablement system across teams and properties. Before diving into the benefits of using a sales enablement platform, let’s answer a simple question.

What is a Sales Enablement Platform?

A sales enablement platform is a comprehensive software solution that equips teams with effective tools, including training resources, content management systems, and analytics. These platforms aim to streamline processes, allowing businesses to reduce administrative tasks and focus on impactful outcomes such as revenue generation and customer satisfaction.

They are frequently compared with or even confusedly identified as various sales tools, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems or marketing automation software. Despite potential overlapping features, these tools have distinct purposes and objectives.

In the case of CRM systems, the emphasis is on the management of customer data, sales pipeline, and customer interactions. In contrast, sales enablement platforms concentrate on content management, sales readiness, efficiencies and analytics. Marketing automation software streamlines and enhances lead nurturing and email campaigns, diverging from the sales-centric focus of sales enablement platforms. You can see the critical nature of each of these platforms, and how each focuses on a different crucial piece of marketing and selling.

Now that we have a clear understanding of what a sales enablement platform is and does, this article will highlight some of the most important impacts that the right use of this technology brings to property and above-property teams.

Impact #1 Streamline the Sales Process

Efficiency is key in the hotel industry, so it is imperative to streamline the sales process. Using the right tools and strategies will serve as a catalyst for salespeople, enabling them to engage with prospects at every stage – from initial interactions to on-site visits and post-event follow-ups, enhancing the entire buyer journey and offering a sophisticated and immersive buying experience is the way to win in 2024 and beyond. Our customers routinely report significant improvements in their selling process: the likelihood of conversion increases, shortlisting properties during the RFP process and overall speeding up the sales cycle. They report very high prospect satisfaction with tools that deliver a delightful experience no matter where the prospect is in the world.

Impact #2 Immersive Training Programs for Existing Employees and New Hires

One of the standout features of a right-fit sales enablement platform is its ability to support tailored training programs, ensuring that not only sales but also front desk, customer service, among other teams at the property level have the knowledge and skills needed to drive success, fostering an unified approach to customer engagement and satisfaction.

Many ownership groups use Visiting Media’s hands-on training program to overcome regular challenges to adoption which hospitality companies face: high turnover, low usage, confusing user experience and highly technical maintenance are all areas that a right-fit enablement platform should understand and accommodate through technical and support solutions.

Impact #3 Remote Asset Management

The ideal sales enablement platform will transcend physical boundaries, enabling ownership groups to manage and monitor their assets remotely. Asset managers can virtually walk through properties and engage in crucial discussions without extensive travel. This not only provides a visually stunning presentation but also enhances transparency and confidence in investment decisions.

Additionally, with the use of a sales enablement resource, challenges of a remote workforce are overcome. Ownership groups currently run their investor relations trainings without ever needing to visit a property in person, saving precious time and reducing their carbon expenditures.

Impact #4 Data-Driven Decision Making

The implementation of the right sales enablement platform offers ownership groups a powerful tool to leverage comprehensive and real-time data insights. They gain the ability to analyze sales data with precision, enabling executives to make informed decisions and identify lucrative revenue opportunities within their portfolio.

It also empowers leadership to strategically allocate resources. With a deeper understanding of sales performance across their entire portfolio, ownership groups can optimize resource allocation based on specific market conditions, regional trends, or product/service demand. This strategic resource allocation can lead to increased profitability as resources are directed to areas with the highest potential for growth and success.

Visiting Media’s Relationship with Ownership Groups

Hear from Visiting Media’s CEO, Ben Powers, on the advantages ownership groups are leveraging portfolio-wide:

Our sales enablement platform stands out as a transformative force for ownership groups, reshaping the game for the industry. We are excited about our opportunity to serve ownership groups, encompassing renowned entities such as Host Hotels, RLJ, Park, and numerous others. These stakeholders now leverage our property and above property-level solutions, consolidating all assets from their diverse portfolio into a unified, streamlined enterprise dashboard called the PortfolioHUB.

In essence, our solution brings a strategic advantage that empowers teams to work better, save time, and bring incremental revenue.

With Visiting Media, we shifted from a dollar conversation to a value conversation with our prospects, customers and investors.

Erich Jankowsk – VP of Revenue Management – Host Hotels & Resorts

Read More about how Host Hotels are Mastering Sales Enablement with Visiting Media.

Discover how your hotels can take advantage of sales enablement at scale. Request a demo today!