Issue 30, August, 2003 

 http://www.carolverret.com

HOTEL SALES TRAINING OPTIONS
 ROI on Web Casts, Live Customized Seminars and Public Seminars

The first is the "laugh and feel good" where the presenter has the comedic timing of David Letterman and the charisma of Tony Robbins. Everyone leaves the room with a smile still chuckling and feeling good about themselves. These are motivational and entertaining. However, a professional associate (not in the training industry) whispered to me after we had attended one of these -- "What do you think you'll remember about this tomorrow and what did you learn that you can use? Long on laughter -- short on content."

Don't get me wrong -- there is definitely a place for laughter and feeling good. Look at the dollars that some of them command. Mr. Robbins was recently speaking in a resort town in Colorado and he filled every hotel room in town on a Sunday night as well as his seminar at a very handsome fee of over $600 per person. Over a 1000 people attended. It's a stressful world out there and we all need to feel good to deal with it!

However, in an industry that has been battered more than most by this economy, few hospitality executives can justify the expenditure on seminars that only make their employees laugh and feel good. There is increasing pressure to produce ROI on every dollar spent. I have the feeling that it is "veteran seminar participants" who have attended one too many "feel good" programs delivered by someone eager to share their inspiring story of going through life with six toes that are responsible for trimming training budgets as an unjustifiable expense. They can't measure the ROI.

The second type of seminar is considered content heavy and can be, at worst, terminally boring. The two need not be mutually exclusive although each has its place. A seminar program that delivers information on a specific topic need not lack humor and should make participants feel good in that they have received a tool to help them deal with a challenge that they are facing.

A worthwhile content-specific seminar should be designed using the principals of instructional design to elicit certain learning objectives or out comes. These tend to fall into three options:

	Customized live seminars for a specific company or organization can be designed with the input of management's desired out comes and specific exercises designed to allow participants to demonstrate their acquisition of a particular skill set. These seminars tend to be more costly but can be more valuable to your company as management has more input into the content and follow--up. As such, it is easier to measure the ROI.
	Public seminars of the content-specific variety are a little different in that you have a variety of participants with differing skill levels and from different company cultures. The position of the participant group requires that the approach be more general in nature while still subject specific. These programs are usually less expensive but they are more general and follow--up is less specific thus making the ROI more difficult to measure.
	Live Webcasts are brief subject specific bytes of training. These can be public, open to the general population, or can be delivered as a customized series for a specific company as the primary sales training delivery or to supplement other modalities such as live seminars. This is one of the most cost effective options in that as the duration of the webcast is relatively brief, the price per participant is relatively small and they need not leave their desks to attend, reducing travel expense and time spent away from the office. These are participatory and focus upon each participant receiving at least one tool that they can take back and use. It is still up to management to follow--up on the application of the tools and skills acquired. The specificity and convenience of the modality make the ROI very attractive with this delivery option as a primary delivery option or to reinforce live programs.

While each of the content laden training options should contain humor and leave participants feel motivated, the ROI is higher and infinitely more measurable on these than on "feel good and laugh" programs.

Sales is a primary focus in this economy and budget concerns are paramount. Every expense item in the business plan must have a way to measure the ROI including training options.

It's difficult being in sales today. There are No Soliciting signs in every building, increased security to enter public places, no-call lists, voice mail hell and tyrannical viruses that are making email contact more difficult. Hotel sales people need all of the assistance they can get in this tough environment. Choose which option is best for your company and sales staff, but choose to train them.

Carol Verret is President of Carol Verret Consulting and Training, a company offering consulting and training seminars to the hospitality industry in the areas of sales and marketing and customer service.  The company's newest product, The Training Byte Series, offers short, real time webcasts on a variety of sales training issues.  Visit www.carolverret.com or email her at .   
 

Verret is a twenty-year veteran of the hotel industry. She arrived in Denver in 1984 in the midst of an economic downturn and quickly established herself as an expert in sales and marketing in hotel turn-around situations, applying her formula for REVPAR improvement. To learn more about Carol Verret, Consulting and Training, visit her web site at http://www.carolverret.com

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Contact: Carol Verret (303) 618-4065
Web Site: http://www.carolverret.com/ 
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