New Castle Hotels & Resorts, based in Shelton, Connecticut, manages 31 hotels in North America, including Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood flags, as well as several independents. In 2002, the company began sending teams of food and beverage people to a three-day beverage training program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. The company has subsequently seen beverage sales jump by as much as 45 percent since implementing the course, which was offered for the fourth time last spring.

Equally important has been the impact on hotel personnel. “It shows them that we as a company are willing to invest in their futures,” says VP of F&B Vince Barrett. “They feel they have more tools to present to their clients.”

Barrett saw a need for additional training as he observed the behavior of his catering staff. Though well-versed in their jobs, staffers were not pushing the envelope as hard as they could. “Our catering salespeople were order takers,” Barrett says. “They were bright and intelligent, but they were coming up through the ranks and didn’t have a lot of sophisticated knowledge of beverages, of the upsell, of wine and food pairing. ‘Do you want an open bar or a cash bar? House call or premium?’ And that was about it.”

Barrett turned to Johnson & Wales, where the hospitality division helped New Castle develop a curriculum of beverage product knowledge. The program goes beyond beer, wine, and liquor to include water, tea, coffee, and energy drinks. The emphasis is not just on what beverage choices are available, “but on how those beverages can be marketed to their audience to increase sales,” Barrett says.

Employees selected for the course are those deemed best suited to take action when given an enhanced understanding of the beverage universe. “We look at those who have the touch points with guests,” says Barrett. So far, approximately 100 New Castle employees have completed the program.

The effort started with the sales staff, headed up by directors of catering and catering coordinators. Organizers soon realized operations people were stymied by the new information they saw coming down the line from the salesforce, so they in turn were included among the trainees.

Sales and operations now train together, under the theory that a shared understanding of the material can be to mutual advantage. “When they leave, there is a unified front on what is being sold and what needs to be delivered,” says Barrett. “It has become a win-win for everyone.”

In practical terms, the course is very much about the ways salespeople can approach clients. “It’s about giving customers choices rather than closed-end options. They can take that new product knowledge and use it to dig deeper into the choices,” says Barrett. “They talk to them about their needs and start building a menu around that paradigm.”

THE CREATIVE ELEMENT
Instead of offering a wedding couple the usual options—open or cash bar, house or premium— trainees are taught to introduce a creative element. They might suggest taking the bride’s favorite drink and passing it around at the reception. “It slows down the mad rush to the banquet bar, adds a level of service, and makes the couple feel special.” Or a salesperson might offer a selection of different wines at a corporate event, with the maître d’ explaining various food pairings. “It creates an entirely different experience,” Barrett says.

For these strategies to work, food and beverage trainees must be ready to change their mindsets to adopt new patterns of thought and action in their work. And it has to stick over the long term. “It helps tremendously that the program is held offsite,” says Barrett. “They retain significantly more this way than they would if I or a distributor did a presentation. What I have found as a trainer is that when trying to do something in-house, people are always pulled away into their operations. It’s rare to get their full attention. But when people go offsite they retain more,” he continues. “They come back with more energy and are more enthusiastic.”

This may be doubly true when the offsite venue is the campus of a respected university. Ensconced in such surroundings and led by professional instructors “gives more credence to it,” Barrett says.

REINFORCEMENT
Changing behaviors requires reinforcement. While an offsite program may help get employees focused, these sales and operations leaders still need support when they get back on the job if the lessons are to last. “We constantly follow up, send out emails or trade publications to reinforce these ideas. We get product knowledge from vendors, and we send those out when we get them,” Barrett says.

The financial ROI on these programs has been measurable. For example, Barrett says improved beverage management has boosted revenues in some of the company’s 65-square-foot grab ‘n’ go kiosks from $400 or $500 a month up to as much as $3,000 a month, mostly on the strength of beverage sales.

Moreover, the program has had a direct impact in the personnel arena, pumping new energy and enthusiasm into the staff. “Especially on the sales side, they feel more engaged and are excited about having something new to sell. They can sell something to clients they didn’t even know they wanted and also give them a great experience from it,” says Barrett. “They can feel good about learning more and adding to their toolbox.”

Adam Stone is a frequent contributor to HOTEL F&B.