How Apollo Hotels optimally facilitates its sales team by enabling Marketing and Sales alignment through Scaura.

Apollo Hotels is a chain of 14 high-quality hotels in the Netherlands. In addition to hotel rooms the chain also includes a wide range of other services such as restaurant facilities and event venues, making it possible for them to focus on the corporate market as well. A separate Sales Team consisting of 25 people deals with this corporate market.

The Sales Team does a lot of lead generation through trade fairs, events and specifc sales programs it participates in. In addition, many individual sales presentations with existing customers and prospects take place. During these sales presentations it is important that every conversation is supported by relevant content that specifically and vigorously conveys the broad proposition of Apollo Hotels.

From ‘picking up’ content to ‘bringing’ content

“We have a decentralized Sales Team which works from its own region, however they do have to sell the entire Apollo Hotels product, so it is important that each member of the team has the latest Marketing & Sales materials to support every pitch.” says Valerie van Mol, in charge of Marketing. “Because we did not yet have a good solution for distributing content to our Sales colleagues, our need in this area became very clear when we heard about the possibilities that Scaura has to offer.

Before we started working with Scaura, we still worked a lot with hard copies and created a lot of tailor-made content that we used at fairs or for a specific customer. This was certainly not an ideal situation. Our sales people had to figure out whether new content was available on our central server. Very cumbersome and no guarantee that you always had the right materials for a powerful presentation of our proposition.”

“With Scaura we turn this concept around, content is automatically ‘brought’ to our Sales Team and that provides huge efficiency.”

“With Scaura we turn this concept around: our Sales people no longer need to ‘pick up’ content, but instead it is automatically ‘brought’ to them, which provides huge efficiency for Sales as well as for Marketing. We use the Scaura Content Management System to add the newly available content. These updates are then automatically ‘pushed’ to the Scaura Application used by our Sales people. After the Application has been synced, all newly added content is updated and available offline within the Application. Whether or not you have an Internet connection, you will always be able to access the necessary materials during a sales meeting. Another big advantage is that Sales always works with content that is uniform and ‘on brand’.”

Sales always ready for the pitch

“The Application has been well-received by the Sales Team and is used in all its facets,” says Francesco Monaco, Managing Director. “Our users experience the Application as very intuitive and user-friendly. Our sales process is characterized by many commercial meetings: many networking events, ‘speed dates’, back-to-back meetings. At any given time our Sales people must be able to give a pitch including relevant content ‘on the spot’. This is now all made possible by the Scaura Application.”

“We offer a wide range of locations and products. The Application is structured in such a way that it is easy to switch between different types of content during a sales meeting. This can be done by searching within the menu structure of the Application or by searching on the basis of tags that we have added to the content. With this, the presentation follows the meeting and not the other way around. It is also possible to prepare a ‘linear’ presentation with the Application, by selecting content specifically for the meeting and putting it in the desired order.”

“With the Application, our Sales people can now give a sales pitch ‘on the spot’, at any given time.”

Because the Application can be installed on a tablet, computer and smartphone, everyone is always prepared for every commercial meeting. It also supports follow-up: content is easily selected from the Application, and then shared through a portal formatted in our corporate identity. Another advantage is that our customers and prospects experience the Application as very professional, partly because of its visual design and its corporate identity. In addition, we believe that these kind of digital presentation techniques contribute to the sustainable brand we want to be.”

Use content more effectively

Francesco continues: “Visual content such as videos and (360 degrees) photography is becoming increasingly important in conveying our proposition. With Scaura we now have a channel with which we can make this content available to our Sales Team more effectively. We realize the value and that is why we make sure that the content in the Application is always complete, up to date and ‘on brand’. An additional advantage is that now the materials with which we put our proposition on the market are visible in an integrated way. For example: we see which hotels have quality photography and which hotels don’t. We can take appropriate action and continue to improve the quality of our content.”

Focus on what really matters

Valerie concludes: “The most important feedback I received from my colleagues from Sales is that using the Application gives them confidence and peace of mind that they are always prepared for any commercial meeting, planned or unplanned. They have access to all the up to date content, even when they are offline, and they can start up each presentation within a second using the professional Application formatted in our own corporate identity. This allows them to focus on what really matters: the meeting and increasing the return from their customer interactions.”

“This allows them to focus on what really matters: the sales meeting and increasing the returns from their customer interactions.”

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