 Change is never easy, but if you're in hotel or DMO sales, you know that it's coming. Sooner or later, you're going to experience a change in your sales market. Like it or not, it's coming, so let's learn some tips on how to best deal with this time of transition. Hey everyone, it's Leanne, and whether you're in hotel sales or DMO sales, chances are you've experienced a change of markets at some point in your career. Now, I'm going to do a separate blog post and video on some of the pros and cons I think there are when it comes to changing markets on you guys as often as they do. But for now and for today, we're going to tackle some tips on how to best deal with this time of transition because it is a time of transition and a lot of change is happening. So let's find some ways on making this as smooth and seamless as possible. Tip number one, learn from your predecessor. Now, if you're lucky enough to have your predecessor in the building, sit down with them and really learn from them. So I'm not talking about them telling you about their clients, but you need to ask some probing questions as well. For example, what are the pain points of this client in this market? What frustrates you about working with these clients? And what makes you happy about working with these clients? Where are they hanging out? Really dig deep into what makes these clients tick and learn a little bit more about them from your predecessor. Tip number two, learn from research. Now you can do the research, the standard research of looking at their programs and the size of programs and how often they're hosting their meetings, but also dig a little bit deeper. Where do these clients like to hang out on social media? What are they talking about when they're on social media? Really find out what makes these people tick. Tip number three, call or email to introduce yourself. Now, while this one goes without saying, really focusing on numbers one and two before you hit number three, now gives you some great context and great value when you do that introductory phone call. Now, I did a blog post and a video about tips for new sales managers. You can find that video here as well as in the description for this video. But those tips still apply if you're changing markets as well. So check out those tips for new sales managers and you might find a few nuggets of goodness that you can use as a changing market sales manager. Tip number four, revisit your goals. This is the best time to really revisit your business plan and you might have to throw out the whole thing and start from scratch. This time of transition is just full of opportunity and renewal and challenge. And I really want you to embrace it and start to set some new goals when you're working with this new market. Now, once again, I did a blog post about setting goals that you can find in the description for this video. And I also encourage you to maybe download the Smoke and Sales Business Template which is a business plan template if you need to start from scratch. So hopefully those resources will be helpful for you. Tip number five, transition your existing clients to their new sales manager. This is the one that hurts the most because you're now moving the people that you've built a relationship with onto a different sales manager. And might I offer you some encouragement to try and call them or even leave a voicemail before you send an email transitioning them through to another manager? In the same way, none of us want to be broken up over a text message. Our clients would probably prefer a phone call versus an email when you're moving them to a new sales manager. If you're not able to reach them on phone, yes, email, make sure that they have the contact information of their next person. Remember, folks, change is happening on both sides of the coin. These clients are going through change as well as you change your market. They have to get used to a new person and they have to rebuild the habit of reaching out to you whenever they needed help with their program. So be patient with these clients as they're learning the new person that they need to talk to for their programs and understand that you're going to have to rebuild some trust with these clients because they invested a lot in the former relationship as well. So naturally, they might want to take a small step backwards and now rebuild trust with that new person as well. Have you recently experienced a change in market? If so, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know what tips you use to get you through your change as smooth as possible and comment in this video below. I hope these tips will help you the next time you go through a change and if you know someone that's currently going through a change in market, will you do me a favor and share this video with them? Perhaps they'll find some tips that can help them get through their transition easily. For more sales inspiration and tips, check out all my sales and service videos here and hop on over to liankholderwood.com to download the handy how to attract more meeting planner attention checklist to help you build your business today. Thanks for watching this week's video and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.