March Marketing (and Sales) Memo

To: Telephone Staff and Guides

We have begun having a Marketing and Sales meeting every two weeks. The participants are Nicole, Dan, Rick and Steve. While the four of us are busy selling charters, contacting Community groups, keeping concierge happy, and interacting with the Convention Centers we adhere to two main principles: 

1. EVERYONE employed at Tours Northwest is a Marketer. Every action on the job (and many off the job) reflect on the company and have the potential to convince people to take our tours in the future.
2. EVERYONE employed at Tours Northwest is a Sales Person. You have many opportunities to convince people to make a reservation for an additional tour.

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The Telephone staff are Marketers first. They often provide the very first impression someone has of our company. Speaking clearly, being friendly and informative, and answering every question is key to convincing people to consider our tours.

The Telephone staff are Sales People also. Not only do we want them to make the sale in the first instance (taking a reservation for a tour the guest called about), we want them to nudge the people onto our other tours. Often a person calls with a very narrow view of what we do. It is the Telephone staff’s responsibility to ask and inform. Just like the checkout person at the grocery store: “Did you find everything you need?” Ask “Have you visited our web site and/or Facebook page?”

Our Guides are both Marketers and Sales People, also. Every action they take on the tour can be thought of as Marketing: condition of coach, driving, greetings, content of tour, and conscientiousness of service.

And Guides should cross-merchandize as much as possible. Describe our other tours, mention them when there is a tie-in to what you are looking at on the tour you are running. Offer to call the office to book for your guests when they show an interest. Share with them what others tours YOU conduct.

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All this comes full circle after the tour, back to Marketing. Make our guests our Marketing Partners! Encourage people to visit our web page, our Facebook page, Tripadvisor.com and Yelp.com. It is very fun to post pictures and say a few words about their experiences.

March 8, 2011

Steve Powell