Evan Crawford of Pyramid International Hospitality argues that as AI commoditizes lodge search and proposals, clear model identification and real relationships develop into the first aggressive differentiators for lodge gross sales groups.
I’ve been lucky to interview among the smartest folks in hospitality through the years, and each every so often a dialog retains circling again to the identical concept.
That occurred lately with Evan Crawford, Vice President of Advertising for Pyramid International Hospitality.
We lined AI, lodge advertising and marketing, gross sales, branding, RFPs — you title it. However regardless of the place the dialog wandered, Evan saved coming again to 1 theme: know who you’re.
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It sounds nearly too easy to matter, however I believe it’s turning into one of many greatest aggressive benefits inns have left. As AI adjustments how planners uncover properties, evaluate venues, and even submit RFPs, standing out isn’t about bolting on one other amenity or one other piece of software program. It’s about giving folks an precise cause to recollect you.
Listed here are the 5 greatest classes I took away from our dialog.
1. Cease Making an attempt to Be All the pieces to Everybody
One of many first issues I requested Evan was what separates the inns that constantly outperform everybody else. His reply stunned me, as a result of it wasn’t larger budgets, higher expertise, and even sharper advertising and marketing. “Those which have a transparent voice,” he instructed me. “They know who they’re. They know what they must be for the shopper.”
That instantly made me take into consideration one thing I see continually: inns convincing themselves their very best buyer is everybody. Households, {couples}, company teams, associations, weddings, social occasions, luxurious vacationers, leisure vacationers — the entire map. The issue is that if you attempt to attraction to everybody, your messaging normally will get so broad it resonates with nobody in any respect.
Evan made a distinction I actually preferred. One among their resorts is family-friendly, however they don’t promote it as a household resort. That’s a delicate distinction, and it issues: “You could be current for each client with out attempting to be for each client.” That line caught with me. Assembly planners aren’t trying to find one other generic lodge — they’re searching for the fitting match for his or her occasion. The clearer your identification, the simpler it turns into for planners, and more and more AI, to attach the dots.
2. AI Will Deal with Extra of the Work. That’s Good Information.
There’s a variety of anxiousness round AI in lodge gross sales, and I get it. Proposal instruments are getting extremely so good; quickly they’ll assemble charges, availability, assembly house, and proposal content material in a matter of minutes.
Some folks see that as a risk. I see it as a gap, and so does Evan. “Perhaps you employ your AI success as a place to begin,” he mentioned, “however then you definately add one thing private to it.”
If AI will get us 80 p.c of the way in which there, why wouldn’t we spend the time we simply obtained again making the final 20 p.c really feel private?
That’s the place inns will really differentiate themselves. Expertise shouldn’t change relationships; it can buy you extra time to construct them.
3. Your Gross sales Workforce Is One among Your Largest Aggressive Benefits
This might need been my favourite a part of the dialog.
I’ve all the time believed planners purchase folks earlier than they purchase properties. Sure, they care in regards to the ballroom. Sure, they care in regards to the guestrooms.
However greater than that, they need confidence. They wish to know who’s going to reply the cellphone when one thing adjustments, who’s going to unravel the issue, who’s going to make them appear to be a hero to their boss.
I discussed throughout our dialog that I wish to know who’s going to assist me pull off my occasion, not simply whether or not the ballroom has 4 partitions and a chandelier.
Evan took it a step additional: “There’s nothing worse than a salesman who’s phony.”
Folks do enterprise with folks they know and belief, which is precisely why I’m such a believer in serving to lodge gross sales groups construct their private manufacturers by LinkedIn, video, thought management, and academic content material. The connection shouldn’t start after the RFP arrives as a result of it ought to exist already.
4. Your Web site Would possibly Be Making It Exhausting to Purchase
Towards the top of the dialog, we landed on one in all my favourite subjects: friction, particularly the RFP type.
In the event you’ve by no means carried out this, right here’s my problem: go to your individual web site, fake you’re an government assistant who simply obtained instructed to discover a venue for a management assembly, and fill out your individual RFP type.
How lengthy does it take? What number of questions are there? What number of fields do it’s a must to full earlier than you’re even allowed to ask a query?
Evan joked about asking for “a gathering planner’s blood kind.” His suggestion was refreshingly easy: “Have an RFP? Connect it right here.” Completed. That’s a much better expertise than forcing somebody by dozens of fields earlier than you’ve even began a dialog. I’ve mentioned this for years, and I consider it greater than ever that each additional click on prices you enterprise.
5. Relationships Are About to Matter Even Extra
If there’s one factor I hope lodge gross sales groups take away from this AI wave, it’s this: your worth isn’t shrinking, it’s rising.
As AI handles the repetitive work, your job will get extra human, extra strategic, extra consultative, extra relationship-driven.
Once I requested Evan what salespeople ought to be doing as automation takes over extra of the executive grind, his reply was speedy: “Hopefully it’s going out and constructing relationships.”
That’s what nice salespeople have all the time carried out; the distinction now’s they’ll lastly have the time to do it. As a substitute of burning an hour assembling proposals, they’ll spend that hour prospecting, creating content material, reconnecting with previous purchasers, visiting planners, or simply having actual conversations.
That’s a commerce I’ll take each single time.
My Largest Takeaway
Once I assume again on this dialog, one line retains coming to thoughts: “You gotta be greater than facilities and 4 partitions with a mattress.” That applies to inns. It applies to salespeople. It even applies to advertising and marketing.
AI is altering how planners search, how inns reply, and the way consumers consider properties. What it might’t change is authenticity. The inns that win gained’t essentially have the largest budgets or the latest expertise — they’ll be those that know precisely who they’re, make it painless to do enterprise with them, and construct relationships lengthy earlier than an RFP ever lands within the inbox. That’s all the time been good gross sales. AI is simply making it not possible to faux.
