Case Studies
Group Sales Manager
Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau
1. Please give some examples of how your prospect for new business. We want to hear your most “out-of-the-box” ideas and what the end result was.
2. You are a Sales Manager at the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. During your first quarter on the job there were no set quotas established since you were in training. At the start of the second quarter you and your supervisor establish some ‘stretched-but-achievable’ goals that are challenging, but not as high as the sales manager who handled this market before you. Halfway through the quarter, you realize you will have difficulty meeting these goals. What should you do about this?
3. You’ve worked with a client for several years who has a history of blocking more rooms than are really needed, and in the past has ended up canceling them at the last minute. When the subject arises of re-booking the same business for a future year you question the size of the room block and are told that attendance will be much higher this particular year due to an outstanding keynote speaker who has agreed to come. Would you ask the hotel to block the requested number of rooms? If yes, why? If no, why not? What would you say to both the hotelier and the customer to explain?
4. A planner with a highly visible gay rights group has requested your assistance in booking rooms for their annual meeting and freedom march. At the same event held in another city last year, a tremendous amount of negative press was generated because of conflict that arose when protesters engaged in an anti-gay rally right outside the hotel where the meeting was held. How should you proceed with this group?
5. You’re working hard to bring a large association to Durham. You met the planner at a tradeshow, and you’ve built a good relationship with him over the past year. Now you have the opportunity to have Durham bid to host the 2014 annual meeting. The only bad thing is this: in every phone call or email you exchange with him, he insists upon referring to Durham as Raleigh-Durham. You’ve corrected him, given him numerous materials to help orient him to Durham, but this habit still persists. You don’t want him to send this “Raleigh-Durham” message to his board of directors, who will ultimately vote to come to Durham (or NOT). What would you do at this point?
6. Your Director of Sales gives you straight forward directives on how to attack a particular market segment for what he believes to be the highest yield results. You have experience in this market, also, and have an alternative way of doing things other than the way you have been asked to do it. You think your approach will generate a larger return (rooms). How do you handle the situation?
7. Describe a situation in which you had a specific sales quota to meet and did not meet it. What was done to ensure this would not happen again?
- Give a quick outline of your first 90 days on the job and how you will go about ramping up after your DCVB training.