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又是“想想草莓“的时候
—— 关于“全员销售”的故事！
Doug Kennedy，HAS International公司总裁，国际知名酒店人力资源专家。
很多酒店经理人都会说现在的酒店业已经不如25年前的景气，那我们就应该多向历史借鉴。其中不少例子是和销售技巧培训有关的。
虽然预期今年酒店的入住率大致与去年持平，业内有一些思维创新的经理人大呼“全员销售”的新口号，至少有两家大型酒店集团就将此定为04年的核心战略。酒店业在经历了20多年的风雨起落后，有很多行内的故事至今依然值得我们再三回味。
“全员销售“的理念可以追溯到1973年，是由纽约广场饭店总经理James Lavenson在给美国营销协会进行的演讲中首先提出的，随后在《周末晚报》上就刊登了“想想草莓，全员销售！”为题的文章。当时这篇文章得到好评，在业界广为流传。直到今天，在网络上搜索也能找到一大堆的链接。
现在很多酒店人都希望在原有的客户群身上获取更大的收益，并且开拓更多的市场和提升销售业绩，那我建议大家去重新阅读一下James Lavenson“想想草莓”的演讲。
在演讲中，James Lavenson首先提到了他的“行政办公路径”。“我原来只是酒店业的小人物，当时在广场酒店旁边的一座小楼房里办公，做了十年的行政总监。要知道，没有什么人会比客人更清楚怎样去运作一家酒店。” 同时他还狠批广场酒店过去缺乏实操性的运作模式。
James Lavenson是当时业界的后起之秀，他让饱受多年亏损的广场酒店重新回到赢利的轨道。James Lavenson自嘲当初Sonesta酒店主席，原来掌管广场酒店的Paul Sonnabend的话让他自信心大跌，“虽然在过去几年都一直在亏损，我们有业内最好的管理团队，现在我们要勇于面对最坏的打算。”此话同时在暗示James Lavenson的经验不足。
在推出“把酒店一千多名员工重塑成销售高手”的计划之前，James Lavenson先亲自出马，测试一下员工的销售意识。
“今天晚上在波斯厅有什么节目？”他问侍应领班，“有歌手唱歌”。他继续问，“那是男的还是女的？”“我不是太清楚”，领班回答到。James Lavenson听了就觉得纳闷，那演出是否真的会举行。
James Lavenson没有泄气，继续打电话给订房部，看他们是怎样接听客人的电话。当他问到“84美元的房间和125美元的房间有什么区别？”的时候，对方的回答竟是“40美元”。James Lavenson彻底失望了。
要推行“全员销售”这一雄心勃勃的计划，对所有的员工进行销售知识再教育，还得克服一个阻碍。“他们根本没有概念，究竟要卖的是什么产品”，James Lavenson说道，订房部的员工之所以回答客人“房间的差别是40美元”，是因为他根本没有看过这些房间。其实我们现在也存在类似的问题。
James Lavenson开始评估销售部的时候，情况也是同样糟糕。
“饭店的销售部共有三个所谓的’销售人员’，他们都很尽职尽责，但是只会按照客人的要求和自动找上门的订单办事。他们不会离开饭店，不会去主动上门争取订单。他们会认为如果到处去兜售，会贬低广场酒店高贵的形象。你不主动来找我们，我们是不会去求你的。就是这样。”
“如果你主动找上门来，我们的销售人员就会受宠若惊。你要主动找我们，因为我们不会主动找你。这可不是销售部特有的作风。如果你在饭店的橡树酒吧，要再点杯饮料，就得追着侍应跑，必须采取主动。需要什么更好的，更大的房间，必须主动要求…..因为我们不会去邀请你。”
James Lavenson还谈到他第一次遇到阻力的情景。
“我们的计划里确定了一个联络客人新口号，就是‘全员销售’。也就是说，无论是清洁工，出纳员，服务生还是门卫，都要销售的责任。刚开始的时候，在饭店总动员的大会上，大家的反应很冷淡。服务生第一个积极发言，“现在没有人点甜品吃，大家都在节食”。James Lavenson反驳道，“那你就卖草莓给他，卖草莓”。（是不是有点象现在的Adkins世界和南部沙滩套餐的点子？）
没有比“卖草莓”这点子更能体现我们培训的目的和实质，那就是追求潜在的利润。为配合特色甜品售卖和推介，饭店特意扩宽了走道用于摆设。这在当时是一个创举，也重新教育了员工。
“不要被客人的节食计划所吓倒，服务生可以为他们送上一大碗草莓。相比于低脂甜品，早上新鲜摘下的草莓，听过服务生的一番赞美后，客人多半会心动的。
最后，要把每个酒店人训练成销售员，比如要主动询问客人的要求。James Lavenson要保证提高销售的业绩，并会和前线的员工分享成功的喜悦。
“我们要让服务生知道每周的草莓销量，这个月就翻了一番。服务生现在会主动询问顾客的需求了”，James Lavenson解释说，“想想草莓”的理念实际上可以延伸到广场饭店每个员工的待客态度。
现在离James Lavenson的演讲已经有28年的时间了，酒店业也发生了很大的变化，唯一没变得是我们仍然要利用现有的资源去挖掘更多的收益。下一期，我将会探讨一下如何把酒店的销售计划落实到个人。
It’s time to “think strawberries” once again—Everybody Sells!
While many industry experts will try to tell you the hotel industry looks nothing like it did 25 years ago, we would do well to learn from our history. One example can be found in hotel sales training.
With occupancy projected to be mostly flat again this year, the new mantra I’m hearing from most forward-thinking executives is "everybody sells." At least two major hotel companies have announced recently this as a key strategic initiative for 2004. Those of us who’ve been in this business through two decades of good and bad times can say we’ve seen this before.
The concept of "everybody sells" goes back to at least 1973, when James Lavenson, g.m. of The Plaza Hotel in New York, gave a now-famous speech to the American Marketing Assn., which later was reprinted as an article called "Think Strawberries: Everybody Sells!" in the "Saturday Evening Post." This article achieved no small degree of notoriety, and was circulated widely. Today, a Web search will pull up at least a dozen links to it.
For those hoteliers looking for more revenue from existing customers and to turn everyone at their hotel into an extension of the sales office, following are some reminders from Lavenson’s "Think Strawberries!" speech.
Lavenson started his presentation by talking about coming up via the corporate office route.
"I came from the balcony of the hotel business," he said. "For 10 years as a corporate director, I had my office in a little building next door to The Plaza. I was a professional guest. You know nobody knows more about how to run a hotel than a guest," he chided while on the topic of his lack of hands-on operational experiences prior to The Plaza.
The story unfolds that Lavenson, who apparently was an up-and-comer, was personally assigned to take The Plaza Hotel from a perennial loser into a profit-making machine. Lavenson quipped that his confidence wasn’t boosted much when Paul Sonnabend, president of Sonesta Hotels, which managed the property then, introduced him by saying: "We have been losing money the last several years, and we’ve had the best management team in the business. Now we’re going to try the worst ..." referring to his lack of experience.
Before launching his plan to turn the 1,100 employees of The Plaza into sales superstars, Lavenson set out to personally assess how his staff would respond to common sales opportunities.
"What’s going on in the Persian Room tonight?" he asked the bell captain. "Some singer," was the answer. "Man or woman?" he reportedly persisted. "I’m not sure," responded the bell captain, which Lavenson said made him wonder if he’d be safe going there.
Not to be discouraged, Lavenson called reservations to see what guests heard on the phone. He later said it finally hit home how far The Plaza Hotel had to go when he asked reservations what the difference between the $84 suite and the $125 suite was, and they responded "$40, sir."
Before setting out on an ambitious plan to retrain each and every staff member on sales basics, there was one more obstacle.
"They had no idea what the product was they would be selling," Lavenson said in his speech. "The reason the reservationists thought $40 was the difference between the two suites was because they’d never been in one." Sound familiar today?
It didn’t get any better when Lavenson started auditing his sales department.
"The Plaza had three men with the title ‘salesman’—and they were good men, but they were really sales-service people who took orders for functions or groups who came through the doors and sought us out. Nobody, but nobody, ever left The Plaza. No one knocking on doors, no one asking for the order. The Plaza was so dignified it seemed demeaning to admit we needed business. If you didn’t ask us, we wouldn’t ask you. So there!
"Our three sales-service people were terrific once you voluntarily stepped inside our arena. But you had to ring our doorbell. We weren’t ringing yours or anybody else’s. This condition wasn’t unique to our official sales department. If you wanted a second drink in the Oak Bar, you got it by tripping the waiter. You asked for it. If you wanted something better or larger [such as a guestroom], you had to ask for it. … You were never invited. …"
Lavenson talked about how he first met resistance to his efforts.
"We started a program with all our guest contact people using a new secret oath. Everybody sells. And we meant everybody—maids, cashiers, waiters, bellmen—the works." At first, the response was positive when it was announced at hotel-wide meetings, but the waiters "were quick to call-out the traditional negatives. ‘Nobody eats dessert anymore. Everyone’s on a diet,’" they told Lavenson. Relentless in his pursuit, Lavenson fired back to the waiter "So sell ’em strawberries! But sell ’em." (Does this sound familiar in today’s world of Adkins and The South Beach diets?)
It turned out that selling strawberries was more than a good theme for training, it was a substantial profit center. After ordering specialized dessert carts, a real innovation at the time, and widening the aisles to accommodate them, The Plaza retrained its staff.
"Not daunted by the diet protestations of the customer, the waiter then went into raptures about the bowl of fresh strawberries. There was even a bowl of whipped cream for the slightly wicked. By the time our waiters finish extolling the virtues of our fresh strawberries flown in that very morning … one out of two of you will order them."
Finally, after training everyone at The Plaza to think of themselves as salespersons and to them basics such as asking for the order, Lavenson made sure to measure the results of the sales efforts and to celebrate the successes with his frontline staff.
"We show our waiters every week what’s happening to strawberry sales. This month they have doubled again. Our waiters are asking for the order [now] …" said Lavenson, who continued to explain how the concept of "think strawberries" was expanded out to include virtually every guest contact employee of The Plaza Hotel.
While many things have changed in the hotel business since James Lavenson gave his speech 28 years ago, the need to find more revenues from our existing sources hasn’t. In part two of this column, I’ll explore how you can implement an everybody sells program for your own hotel.
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