Sales Prospecting
“Curious people ask questions,
determined people find answers”
Fishing in the Right Places
to Find Clients!
When to Prospect?
• Keep in mind the selling window of your
customer
• Track when you have the best success
• The earlier in the day the better, human
nature is you are not as motivated and
energetic at the end of the day
• Set an objective to have three calls
completed by 9am
Using the Internet
• Internet Terms & Definitions
• Shopping your competition
• Favorite Search Engines/Websites by segments
– Corporate
– Tour & Travel
– Travel Agencies
– Government
– Pharmaceutical/Medical
– Religious
– Training
– Sports
– Associations
Popular Sites Engines
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www.yahoo.com
www.google.com
www.askjeeves.com
www.ceoexpress.com
www.dogpile.com
www.hoovers.com
www.min.com
metrobot.com
Internet Terms & Definitions
• World Wide Web: The commercial side of the network.
• URL: An Internet or Web address
• Initials that tell us what type of business location we are entering.
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.com: commercial
.org: organizations
-.net: network
-edu: education
-.gov: government
-.biz: business
-.pro: physicians and other professionals
• Web Browser: A computer program to view Web pages.
• HTTP: This stands for hyper text transfer protocol. It tells your
computer that you are looking to go to certain websites.
• ISP: Internet Service Provider
• Search Engine: Categorizes information on all web sites and
addresses
Shopping the Competition
• Rates are there so we know how well we are
positioned against the set
• Attractions that the competitors are leveraging and
creating relationships with appear on the site
• But…….most important of all………companies
on their website are companies that you can go
after!
Here is an example:
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Go to www.marriotthotels.com
Type in a City and State and hit find
Hit hotel directory to the right side
Hit on the brand that you are competing with such as
Courtyard
Select the hotel in your city that is nearest your
property by clicking on the name of the hotel
Go to Hotel Recommendations & more
Search by Point of Interest
Put in companies or any other category they have listed
which will give you an automatic list of who they are
working with!
Corporate
Catch a Client
www.business2.com:
This site will allow you to look at
the top 100 small businesses.
-Click on small business 100
-Go to fastest growing small
businesses
-Click on see more and enter the
state you are in
-Click the name of the company
-Now you know the following:
CEO’s name
Headquarter location
What the company does & how much
money they earned
-Now go to Get Quotes
You will see the latest news on the
company
The latest press releases are there too!
-Click on More Data
You can see everything about the
company!
Officer names
Addresses and phone numbers
You can click on their actual website
for more!
Corporate market
Go to www.lycos.com
Go to the yellow pages
Click on detailed search
Enter street address
Choose find it
Select category to search
www.switchboard.com
Enter your address
Select “what’s nearby”
Type the address and hit
go
Scroll to the bottom of
the page and select “all
nearby business”
Tour & Travel
Tour Leads
Go to www.ntaonline.com
Click on the public search button
Fill in the destination country, state and pick the destination city
Hit Search
You will then get a list of all the tour companies that go to your area.
Click on the name not the web site
You will now see the profile of the tour company!
You will know who the contacts are, what they do in your area, when they come
to the area, etc.
Go to www.buses.org
Click on member services
Find a member
Search by state
Travel Agencies
• American society of travel agentswww.astanet.org
• Association of Corporate travel executiveswww.acte.org
Government
Finding Government business
http://firstgov.com:
This website provides you with all the events that will be occurring
Use the following side bar to find out everything you need to know.
www.fedbizopps.gov:
This site is used by the government to receive bids from vendors!
-Go on the site and type in hotel accommodations
-Hit Go
-You will receive the up to date list of needs.
-Hit the title listed
-Hit Synopsis and read what the need is.
-Go back and bid on the business if it is in your area!!
Remember, if you go below per diem, you most likely will win as they work like
any organization!
Continue
www.fda.gov:
This site will tell you about
recently approved food and
drugs products. You can contact
the product’s manufacturer to
find out when the product
launch will occur and when
they will have roll out
functions! Go to the site and
fish for the by looking at the AZ index!
Military
www.military.com.html
This site has over 7000
military reunions.
www.2ndarmoredhellonwhe
els.com/reunions.html site for the 2nd armored
division
www.normadyallies.org/d
base-infantry.htminfantry associations
Pharmaceutical/Medical
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Medical
www.pharmalicensing.com/company:
This site is a directory of medical and pharmaceutical companies where you
can search by industry and/or geographic location. It contains company
profiles as well as a calendar of events link so you can see what is
happening and go for the business before the competition.
Click on view more profile
You now have the alphabetical list of pharmaceutical companies that
participate
Click on the name of the company and you will see each profile sheet
Make sure to click on events too!!!! You can sort by the organizer as well.
Continue
• Go to www.docguide.com
• This is a great site for
medical/pharmaceutical conference.
• It list many medial conference and meetings
going by month and city.
Religious
Religious
www.711.com:
This is a Christian search engine.
-Go under churches
-Click on your state
www.churchangel.com
This site allows you to search by state and then city from the directory of
US Churches.
-Go to Find your Church
-Click on the state
-You have your find list
Training
Seminars
www.seminarinformation.com:
This is a site where you can find out what seminars/conferences are
occurring in your region. There are over 600 plus providers.
-Narrow your search by inputting your location. You cannot only find
sleeping rooms but also small meetings. Another way to search is by
using the side bar that shows the selected providers or you can search
by using the seminars by topic section.
www.iqpc.com:
-Click on a conference or seminar (i.e. government)
-Click on USA
-A list of upcoming events in your area will appear.
Sports
Sports
www.ncaa.org/conferences
This site gives you the ability to link onto various NCAA sites. When you
click on these websites, you will be able to go directly to each website
of the schools, universities and open their calendar to find out when
they are playing in your area. Develop a flier, send an e-mail and call
to see what business you can book!
http://www.eteamz.com
This site allows you to look up all sports and then drill down to
organizations that need hotels.
-Go to pick a sport
-Click on a sport
-Enter in your state to the right
-Sort by location
-Click on the eteamz link beneath the name to get to the website of the
group listed so you can look at calendars, etc.
Associations
Prospecting for Associations
• Go to
www.ceoexpress.com
look under business
research in the middle
of the page
• Under Company
Research select Web
Directory
• Select View
Alphabetical
• Go to
www.business.com
• Select category,
energy and
environment
• Under the main menu
selection associations
Other Prospecting Methods
Other Ways to Prospect
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Business Journals
Local Newspaper
Networking
Drive a rounds
Reader Boards
History reports
• Chamber of
Commerce
• CVB
• Convention Center
Website
• Competitors
Parking lots
What do we expect from you???
• Fish in the pond that works for your hotel
• Be responsible to research one site each week
• Look to your staff and see if perhaps a Guest
Service Agent can help by researching between
check ins/outs.
• Ask your entire team to help create fliers to be
posted in locations such as wedding halls,
churches, etc. Make it fun!
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What do we expect from you
• Have the corporate team proof the flier
• Remember, just one account…can help
everyone reach their goals and get an
incentive
• Take your competition by storm. Make
them wonder why we are doing so well.
• No matter what………Keep fishing!
#1 “Coach”
#2 “Business”
#3 “First Class”
Pick your option… and hop on board!
Send “Business” & “First Class” requests to: