I’m sure many of you have heard of this word, “Networking”. It seems to be fashionable these days, and in fact although we believe that it is a new sales technique, many salespeople have been using these techniques since the origins of marketing.

Let’s define networking: “it is a way to expand our network of contacts and detect potential clients or collaborators, and subsequently create an action plan to benefit both parties.” That is to say, and so that we understand each other, the job of a salesperson does not consist of making visits and handing out brochures and cards everywhere. Although, without a doubt and taking advantage of this definition, we can classify salespeople into different segments:

The internal salesperson: the one who is dedicated to selling their products on-site, advising and quoting clients
The external salesperson: the one whose mission is to promote their products and services, trying to bring the most business for the company and which is subsequently quoted by the internal salespeople or administrators of the companies.
The large account salesperson: coordinates the sales strategy for large accounts and defines the guidelines and actions to be carried out to attract new business.
The account manager: analyzes the production of the accounts by applying Pareto’s law to determine the percentage of time spent on each of them to ensure their loyalty.

Of all of them, having left some pending that you can find in the market, and all of them being, after all, “commercial”, I am left with two types: The hunters, or those who were born with that “gift” of sales, and the harvesters, those who take great care of each of the clients that enter through the doors of their establishments.

Knowing how to choose the type of profile you need in your company is essential, especially if we are talking about differentiating a start-up from a consolidated company in the market, as well as the ownership priorities based on the production levels they take into account. their income statements.

Well, we ask ourselves, what does a salesperson do? How does he begin to do his job? Surely for many laymen and even for some professionals, it is difficult for them to define what the first steps of these profiles are. Well, let’s start with the company that hires, what they call senior these days. Without a doubt, hiring these types of profiles we will not have problems, especially if our Human Resources staff has done a good job and they have found the right profile, since these types of professionals are going to come with a piece of bread under their arm and some very interesting accounts for the property you are contracting for. In these cases, this professional already has a name in the market and brings with him years of experience and consolidated relationships with accounts with important and potential productions for the company for which he works.

The opposite happens with the junior, although if he is a professional in the sector, he does not have the experience and consolidated relationships with important accounts, as the senior brings. But, however, when it comes to starting to make a commercial action plan, both need to create a network of like-minded contacts interested in the services they are selling. To do this, and before going out into the street to launch brochures and visit handing out cards with great fanfare, they have to generate some reasons to connect with their potential clients. This is done through Networking.

We find networking activities every day of the year. Our parents and grandparents met in bars, associations, etc… where they exchanged impressions and communicated with professionals from the same and different sectors, creating a network of services and products that covered the needs of the moment. Nowadays, salespeople are not going to go to bars to implement their action and recruitment plan, although they also make use of many activities and events where needs and services are matched:

National sales fairs
International fairs
Workshops or work tables
Golf Shows
Fam trips

The point is that the salesperson has to create a network of contacts, faithful, known and trusted, where they can weave their structure to promote their services. We cannot create relationships with our clients with a simple visit, or by knocking on their door, because we know that the first reaction will be negative. Networking in the hotel business, as in the golf business, is essential to create that commercial structure that helps us distribute our products or services. It will be access to the needs of our future and potential accounts, as well as the true development of a “relationship” between company and client.

Commercial networking in the hotel and golf industry: Infographic.