All good managers must also be good salespeople, especially if they’re working in the hospitality sector, including venue management.

Today, the negative connotations associated with a career in sales are well and truly banished. A career in sales is now seen as an exciting, fulfilling and motivating opportunity, with plenty of prospects.

Thinking like a high performing sales person can do wonders for your career prospects as a venue manager. They are creative, innovative and smart individuals who are able to inspire people to buy through well thought out marketing tactics and sales strategies.

Focusing on positioning brands in a way that connects and engages with target markets, there’s an awful lot we can learn from today’s salesperson.

Competition

A good salesperson is always aware of their competition and it’s important that venue managers are too.

After all, London is renowned for its eclectic, exciting and liberating social scene, offering a diverse range of bars, restaurants, clubs and entertainment venues that have put it on the map as one of the world’s most popular nightlife spots!

And, with so much competition, it’s important that venues in the capital ensure that they are always ahead of the game. This means being fully engaged with the needs of their audience, while embracing new trends and innovations.

The harsh reality is, if you’re not meeting the needs of your clients in London, you can be sure that another venue will fill the gap.

In tune with the latest platforms for generating new business  

A salesperson is always on the look out for new ways to connect and engage with new customers, optimise awareness, and maximise leads.

And, signing up to a flat fee listing membership site such as Canvas offers a fantastic return on investment, as you pay absolutely no commission. This means that all of the revenue that you earn is yours to keep.

Unlike agencies who will keep charging you at least 10% commission on bookings with a return client, Canvas only charges a flat fee per year. Of course, this also means that you have full ownership over the client so you can generate upsells and sales without the need to discount your service.

Timing is everything

When you’re working in venue management, you might often feel like there isn’t enough hours in the day. However, it’s important that you don’t leave emails left unread or not responded to for more than 8 hours.

A good sales person will respond to a query quickly, generating a significantly higher ROI than those who take over 24 or even 48 hours. Remember time is always of the essence when it comes to optimising sales opportunities. Don’t miss out!

Understanding

A good salesperson will take the time to really understand the needs of their client so that they can tailor their pitch to meet their unique requirements. Venue managers should be doing exactly the same with their clients, asking the right questions to ensure they really understand what they want from the venue.

This can often be a deal breaker when deciding whether or not to book your venue, so it’s certainly worthwhile tuning in.

The importance of tracking  

In any sales environment, the importance of tracking should certainly not be underestimated. And the same goes for those working in venue management.

It’s important that you have a tight hold on what stage every deal is at, so you can ensure that everything is running smoothly and that there are no hiccups along the way. The last thing you want is for your client to step away from the deal at the make or break point, right? It’s also incredibly easy for enquiries to fall through the cracks and for venues to miss out on business.

It’s worthwhile mentioning that another advantage of using a flat fee listing membership site such as Canvas is that the site’s dashboard allows members to see all their Canvas enquiries together and update their statuses. This means that you can really be in control of what’s in your pipeline.

One call/email is never enough

Finally, in the world of sales, without following up on leads, you’re unlikely to close any deals and the same goes for venue managers too!

With this in mind, if you’re not getting an answer after your first exchange, make sure to follow up with you client in a timely fashion.