Sales Representation in Scandinavia for the MICE segment
Throughout the history of our blog, we have done several interviews with professionals to be able to inform our MAXfollowers about the news and situation of the sector. This time we would like to present ourselves. We believe that by explaining our activity in detail, we will achieve optimal communication with all of you, and as a result, a better relationship and understanding.
We are a Sales Representation Office focused on improving sales with the Scandinavian market and especially in the MICE segment through Marketing Communication.
We decided to start this project when we discovered that some companies wanted to grow in other markets, but did not have enough time, knowledge of the market or did not know the right people. If you are curious to know us in depth, do not miss this interview with Valeska Nawatzki, the founder and director of MAX Tourism.
What are the functions of a sales representative of touristic companies?
The work of a sales representative of touristic companies does not work exclusively for hotels. In our case we represent hotels, one DMC, have collaborated with Girona Convention Bureaux as well as the destination of Alicante and Costa Blanca. In any case, the function of a sales representative is to be their sales person for a specific market and segment. There are also sales representatives that take care of several segments (leisure, MICE or golf) and many markets.
We organize our “Sales Calls” with a predetermined agenda, where we visit the accounts and do presentations. We complement our work with Online Communication, which means that we are present in the main Social Networks to promote our clients and be constantly in the mind of the Meeting Planner. The most common networks we use are: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Youtube in addition to the corporate blog and the website.
We also organize Fam Trips to the destination/hotel, send Newsletters every 2 months to our data base, attend fairs and organize meetings between agencies from Scandinavia and our clients from Spain.
What are the advantages of having a sales representative?
By having a sales representative you have an expert partner in that market and that segment. This partner usually has a solid experience, a big network and therefore knows who to contact depending on the hotel and destination. In addition, nowadays it is very difficult for a hotel to get an appointment with an Eventplanner, if they do not know you or there is no particular interest. Lets take a hotel as example as they travel with high frequency in order to promote their establishment.
A sales representative, having personal contacts, can reach these people much more easily (it is a job of many years!) and become a reference for a market (in my case Spain). This means that you will get results much faster than if the hotel does it on its own. Your internal sales team can in the meantime dedicate their energy to other markets and to the daily work of a hotel (inspection visits, organize events, etc).
Do you think it is very difficult for an independent hotel to promote themselves internationally?
Yes, for an independent hotel it is difficult to promote themselves in other countries, since they surely want to enter several countries at once and everything takes time. You need to have a really new, different, beautiful, innovative establishment so that the agencies will listen to them and accept to receive their visits. Most of the agencies are saturated with work and some markets such as Germany, United Kingdom, Scandinavia receive many requests from many companies and they need to prioritize.
You can find more information about MAX Tourism on our YouTube channel. Do not miss our last video!
