Is your Sales effort stuck in a rut?

So much of your time in business is spent dealing with the routine or mundane – this is especially true when looking at the Sales & Marketing areas. Meetings to attend, sales call target to be hit, advertising to place, but how strategic are you or your sales team being? I can say for certain it is much easier to plod on & just get through the day, but do you ever ask “what did I actually achieve today?” or ” how much did I really progress my business objectives” Do this regularly & you will be both surprised & depressed to know that often the answer is not very much…………

A better idea is to start your day with a few questions  about how you will tackle that sticky goal, & do at least one thing towards its completion. Some days it can be near impossible to as productive as you set out to be, but those small deliberate steps will make a difference.

You will find some interesting articles on this & other sales topics at carolverret.com  if you want to read more……

Hotel So – So interesting…..

Concepts & new ideas in hotels often come slowly as I touched upon previously. When they do come they tend to hover around the top end of the market, & start in the USA. So when the Hotel So opened last year in Christchurch New Zealand it was a bit of a a surprise both because it seems fairly & squarely in the low to mid- market & in Christchurch?? (most famous for their rugby team the Crusaders & little else……sorry kiwi’s )

It is a real concept hotel, with small rooms but lots of gadgets like mood lighting & flat screen TV’s on the wall. Most of the feedback I have read on the web has been positive, assuming you know what you’re paying for – no servicing of rooms (included in the price), small rooms, some rooms with no windows & apparent noise problems with those that do…..

I do like the idea & if they keep their opening prices seems pretty good value – also like the groovy design of the guest amenities. You can read more in the Guardian online or at Hotel So , for traveller reviews I viewed Trip Advisor

What about an H List ?

Following on from the discussion on the T List, it occurred to me that there really should be an H List – that is a list of the top hospitality, hotel & associated blogs & sites as it can be an endless task finding good stuff……any suggestions for inclusion let me know & I can put something together over the next couple of months…

What is the T List ??

Whilst wasting many hours net surfing to find interesting items to bring to this site, I saw quite a few references to “the T List“….. What was this magical list – did it involve funny walks & secret handshakes?

Nothing so bizarre, it was in fact a list of interesting travel blogs & even an ebook distributed at conferences in November 2007.

With a list like this it is out of date almost as quickly as it is published but anyway it gives some good links to lots of travel related sites, whilst the book, Tips from the T List, has some useful info for anyone in the hospitality or travel industries.

You can view the list at the blog of the Happy Hotelier, or download the ebook for free at tipsfromthetlist.com

No Greensleave’s with this baby…..

In the world of technology things move fast, but in the hospitality world it can often take a while for reinvention of old ideas, so its good to see a new take on the ice cream van from Scoop ice cream in the UK – definitely no Greensleaves with this baby!!!

They’ve been around a little while now so it would be good to know how this idea is working for them……

For the full story go to The Coolhunter