Tragic + Strategy = STRAGEDY!
I heard this word on, of all places, Armchair Expert - the funny and sometimes moving podcast hosted by Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. I think it was a slip of the tongue, but their conversation quickly turned to what a perfect word stragedy is to describe tragic strategies. I couldn't agree more.
In hotels, much is made of strategy vs. tactics. Leaders lament that their teams don't really understand the difference, and -- trust me on this -- many of those leaders don't either.
Hotels are not vocabulary quizzes, but this one is pretty simple.
In my own business, I think of it this way. A strategy is a plan for reaching a goal, and tactics are the actions you have to take to complete the plan.
Like this:
One of my business development strategies is to speak at conferences in order to give more people the tools to get better top line revenue results. When I share my ideas and experiences with groups of hoteliers, I usually connect with kindred spirits and folks I can help.
My goal is to get invited to speak at three conferences this year.
My tactics are:
Make a calendar of all the conferences where I could be a good fit.
Co-host a podcast so conference planners can hear me talk.
Offer a few "free samples" - webinars or panel appearances that give the organization a taste of what I bring to the table.
Sign up as a potential speaker for those organizations that offer it.
Share my speaking engagements on my social channels.
Ask people if I can speak at their events.
Write an article on LinkedIn that announces my goal. (You. Are. Here.)
In a hotel sales office, this might look like this:
One of our revenue growth strategies is to increase the number of wedding blocks we actualize on weekends, because group base on Fridays and Saturdays reduces the amount of discounted inventory we need to sell on OTAs at high commissions.
Our goal is to actualize 30 room nights every Friday and 45 room nights every Saturday.
Our tactics are:
Create a wedding block package that makes our hotel the most attractive choice.
Require a consumption minimum (i.e., attrition) on wedding blocks in order to unlock the most attractive perks in that package, like gift bag delivery and transportation to and from the wedding venue.
Offer a discount on pre- and post-wedding events such as rehearsal dinners and newlywed brunches.
Attend a wedding show.
Start a wedding blog.
Improve our listings on the Knot and WeddingWire to get more attention from wedding couples.
Secure back-links from wedding reception venues.
Offer referral incentives to wedding vendors.
Host a quarterly wedding tea to show off our hotel to wedding couples.
Etc. etc.
Pretty good plan. When does a strategy become a stragedy?
When an individual contributor doesn't know how her work ties back to the hotel's overall strategy. In my wedding block example, if the seller was only told to increase wedding blocks but not why, he might prioritize booking a ton of courtesy wedding blocks over booking the right amount of attrition blocks.
When the strategy is really a tactic. This is an annoyingly meta argument and not that easy to parse, but what I mean is if the strategy is something like, "Attend a wedding show to book more wedding blocks."
When the tactics are really strategies. In other words, when the tactics do not move forward to an end goal, but rather exist as something the sales manager can write "in process" for in the results column every week. An example would be, "Become the preferred destination for wedding blocks in the city."
When no one cares. If you require your team to create and update monthly or quarterly action plans but neglect to give real, honest, constructive feedback, you are wasting everyone's time. If a seller on your team continually changes the due date of a particular tactic and doesn't get called out, there is no point to this exercise.
And finally, if the sales team is afraid to include tactics because they don't want to be held accountable for them, that's a real stragedy.