How to empower your booking team for successful sales

• 20.06.2023.
• News, Education

Do you understand how investing in employee education is key to the company's success? Do you know which topics include employee education and what they should do to strengthen their booking team for the current and future seasons?

It is said that every chain is only as strong as its weakest link. For a successful booking team, it is necessary to empower each member. Of course, individuals with less developed sales and communication skills can always be replaced.  
  
But isn't it much more effective and profitable to strengthen your existing loyal team in the long run?  

 

How to teach employees sales skills and techniques  

Where do you even start, and what specifically can you do so that your team breaks the records of sold bookings next season? Below we bring you several ideas for joining the booking team that you can try today and welcome the next season fully prepared for new challenges:  
  
Meet your booking team  
Before taking any steps towards changes or introducing new activities, it is crucial to understand and recognize the specifics of your sales team. This is not just about getting to know names and positions. It includes a detailed understanding of each individual's traits, strengths and unique qualities, but also recognizing their weaknesses and areas in which they are less competent.  
  
When you are familiar with the skills, weaknesses and characteristics of each sales team member, you will be able to pinpoint what is needed to increase their productivity. That way, you won't waste valuable time trying different systems that may not be effective. Or forcing the same approaches on each individual can result in dissatisfaction and lower productivity.  
  
Instead, a personalized approach to each team member allows for better results, as each person has unique needs and learning styles. For example, someone may need additional support in the technical aspects of sales. In contrast, another needs more time to develop interpersonal skills.  
  
In this way, getting to know your sales team is not just a simple task. Still, it requires an investment of your time and energy to give each individual the opportunity to improve their skills. This is the only way I can contribute to the team in the best possible way.  
  
Inform the booking team about the product 
Even the most skilled salesperson can face failure if they do not thoroughly understand the product or service they are selling. That's why your booking team members need to understand everything about your services and vessels. They should know the technical specifications, unique features, advantages, and possible disadvantages.  
  
More than that, your booking team needs to understand the connection between what they offer, the solutions they provide customers, and what added value it gives them.  
  
This deep level of product and service understanding allows team members to prepare for a wide range of questions and situations they may encounter when selling.  
  
Not only will this increase their confidence in their selling abilities, but it will also improve their presentation skills. They will be able to better present the charter of your vessels to potential guests as an experience they should not miss.  
  
Education, education, education  
If you want your booking team to achieve outstanding sales results, there is no better investment than education. Learning and constant improvement of knowledge and skills change the employee's perspective.  
 
At the same time, it raises their self-confidence and provides them with the essential tools needed for successful work. Through education, your team members can organize themselves better, optimize their time and acquire the necessary knowledge that will enable them to be proactive, independent and successful in communicating with clients.  
  
With education, learning how to properly present the company and highlight its brand in an increasingly large and competitive market is important. Quality education gives employees a deeper understanding of the company, its products or services, and its mission and vision, enabling them to convey information convincingly.  
  
Education creates a trained and well-informed sales team ready to face all the challenges and opportunities of the business environment. So when considering improving your booking team, education should be at the top of your priority list.   

Why employee education is key to success  

Quality and satisfied employees can make or break a company, especially those employees who are in direct contact with guests, such as your booking team.  
  
You can show your employees how important they are to you with the help of training. They will learn to better represent themselves and your charter company. In return, you will get more productive, creative and capable employees.  
  
For your charter company, investing in regular training of your sales team is more worthwhile than constantly changing employees. In addition to high employee turnover bringing higher costs, it also looks worrisome to new potential employees.   
  
Education is more profitable, especially when we consider that anyone can learn sales skills and techniques if they approach them correctly.   
  
By investing in their education, you'll also retain your best employees and show them how much you value them. They will reinvest even more enthusiasm in achieving common goals. This attitude towards employees is also attractive to future employees who want to work in a quality and organized company like yours.  
  
At training, your employees learn from experts who have dedicated their time to discovering solutions that have been tested and proven to work. They get substantial knowledge and practical techniques they can use at work on the same day.  

Useful training for more successful sales  

Basics of psychology  
For salespeople to sell anything, they need to know what their target group thinks. The same applies to your booking team. Every decision a guest makes is based on their psychology. Therefore, for greater success in the sale of reservations, it is necessary to understand the basics of psychology that can be applied in the booking process.  
  
How to know how to listen  
It may seem at first that the goal of your booking team is to sell as many reservations as possible. Still, their job is actually to solve the potential guest's problem. At the same time, they need to provide him with enough value for his money so that he wants to come back and brcomes a loyal guest.  
  
For any seller to be able to do anything, it is necessary to know how to actively listen and be aware of what the guests are saying. In this way, they will be able to respond to their doubts in a timely manner, provide them with the solutions they are looking for, and consequently increase their satisfaction with the service. And that ultimately means more bookings for you!  
  
Cold calling and emailing skills  
The so-called cold calling is the most challenging form of sales, and sellers who master this skill will surely be able to sell in all other ways with ease. Calling or sending emails to unknown people is not often done in everyday life. Sellers may experience great fears of public speaking, rejection and failure, which can completely block them.  
  
Fear is a common and natural emotional reaction that people can feel in stressful situations. Therefore, it is wise to set aside time early for training and education so that your team members learn how to effectively manage fear and use it to improve their performance. This approach not only helps to increase self-confidence but also contributes to satisfaction with their performance when it comes time to perform essential tasks.  

Marketing education preferred  

If your employees haven't had the opportunity to learn the basics of marketing, either through formal education or on their own, make sure you give them the opportunity. Knowing the basics of marketing is important regardless of which advertising method you choose to use primarily in your company, traditional or digital marketing.  
 
However, we believe that digital marketing is a more favourable approach that reaches users and is available to everyone. That is why it is definitely desirable that the members of your booking team undergo some of the following training:  
 
Digital marketing in tourism: use the power of the Internet and social networks to create a strong brand and attract new customers.  
 
Social media management: social media is an extremely rich ground for finding clients and guests. Therefore, it is vital to educate your booking team on effective social media management to effectively identify and attract those you want to work with.  
 
Digital content creation: build a path to new customers by creating interesting and valuable content. Content that is relevant and useful to the target audience not only increases your brand's visibility on search engines and social networks but also builds trust and reputation.  
 
Email marketing: as many guests prefer to communicate via email, training your team to write impressive emails is essential. Educating your employees about writing catchy email headlines and other tricks can increase your email open rate. They can also highlight your brand among other messages in the inbox.  
 
 

Whichever type of training you decide to use to enrich the knowledge of your booking team, keep in mind that you can always agree on training tailored to the company's needs, regardless of your employees' current level of knowledge.  
 
Therefore, do not limit yourself to existing training, but look for what the sales team members currently need to achieve the best possible results and support the growth of your yacht charter company.  
  
  
 

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