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In Las Vegas, Sales Aren’t Left To Lady Luck

Harrah’s keeps its group sales approach simple, but that doesn’t mean training isn’t required

by Paul Nolan

Michael Massari takes a decidedly simple approach to sales and he asks his team of salespeople at Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment to do likewise. Massari, the Vice President of Meeting Sales and Operations at Harrah’s, faced a particularly imposing challenge in 2005 when the company purchased Caesar’s Entertainment’s Las Vegas hotel group and Massari was suddenly overseeing group reservations for six top-notch Vegas properties instead of just two.

He quickly determined that the most effective way to leverage the strength of the combined hotel group would be to merge the sales teams, thereby offering one-stop shopping for meeting and event planners. He immediately set to work instilling his keep-it-simple approach by requiring the salespeople at the new Harrah’s properties – Caesars, Flamingo, Bally’s and Paris – to attend the same biannual 21/2-day sales training sessions that his staff at Rio and Harrah’s had been attending for years.

Achievers International, the Houston-based sales training company that Harrah’s has used since 2000, designed a series of training sessions that would develop trust, camaraderie and mutual support between groups of salespeople that were formerly competitors.

Initially, the training program covered numerous topics. Within the past year, however, Massari and Achievers International President Louise Upshaw-McClenny have drastically narrowed the program’s focus.

“Sales isn’t that difficult. I think we often make it more difficult than it is,” Massari says. “A lot of what it is hasn’t changed: understanding other people’s needs; being able to talk about your product in a way that gets them excited; making more calls than the person next to you – those are things that I don’t think will ever change. We believe that if you hire for personal characteristics – people who are hard working, treat others with respect and like to learn – a simple but robust training program can help them learn how to do what we’re trying to teach them to do.”

At Massari’s request, Upshaw-McClenny developed a training program that focuses on two core skill sets: cultivating new customers and improving negotiations with existing ones. Every salesperson in Massari’s group – about 45 on the room booking side and another 15 strictly for catering – complete two training sessions each year. An increase in year-to-date group revenue of 32 percent in 2006 vs. the same period in the previous year indicates that something is working.

Upshaw-McClenny says Massari is that rare sales manager who understands that training is not something to fall back on after missing sales forecasts. “One of the mistakes that a lot of people make is reactionary training. They call up and want me to ‘do’ some sales training,” she says. “Sales training is not an event. It has to be an ongoing process.”

“Michael Jordan didn’t stop practicing,” adds Massari, explaining why his sales veterans and new hires alike take the same two training sessions each year. “Michael, of all people, was in the gym before everybody else and left after everybody else. It was his commitment to getting better that drove the rest of the team.”

Massari leads by example. He has been through the training sessions about 25 times himself since 2000. “Every time I learn something new and improve my skills,” he says.

Measuring Success

When you have a product that’s as white-hot as Las Vegas, is it really necessary to put your salespeople through training?

You must have a long-term commitment, and training has to occur at regular intervals no matter how strong business is, says Massari.

How, then, does he determine whether increased business year-over-year is a byproduct of sales training or something that would have occurred without training? “So much of it is faith-based,” Massari admits. “We struggle with this like a lot of companies do.”

Each Harrah’s sales rep is put through four “shop calls” per year and scored on their effectiveness. The salesperson receives a transcript and recording of each call and reviews them with a sales manager.

“We review the data against those who outperform their goal and those who score the highest in shop calls also are the ones booking the most business,” says Massari. “As long as that holds true for us – that the best performers are getting the best scores on their shops – we will continue to invest money into our training.”

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See also in:  Have The Wheels Come Off Of Your Sales Training Program?

In Las Vegas, Sales Aren’t Left To Lady Luck

Note to Self:  Have Employees Put Their Training to Good Use

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