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Collaborative Selling Necessary with Meeting Demand Returning
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With the demand for meetings growing, with owners and operators itching for a return to those pre-recession profit days, once again we’re seeing pressure put on hotel sales associates to push for higher room rates and greater total spend. Professional meeting managers and planners - - in particular, those with budget responsibility - - have expected this, but now they bring with them lessons learned and negotiating skills acquired from the heavy rate discounting, perk adding, planner-friendly booking days of 2009-2011. Let’s hope that this time around we’ll find a more collaborative approach by sales associates and a new appreciation by planners of how critical room rate is to the profitability of hotels. Meeting managers and
hotel sales
associates to collaborate
Here are a few suggestions that should help during this new round of group bookings: Meeting managers and planners:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ News and notes . . . “Keep America Meeting” - - in case you missed seeing it, The United States Travel Association (www.usta.org) has produced an excellent report underscoring once again the importance of meetings to the American economy. Meetings contribute billions of dollars to the US. gross domestic product; directly employ nearly two million in jobs, supporting nearly five million indirect jobs; generate billions of dollars in tax revenues for the federal government; and meeting participants spend billions of dollars at local businesses including hotels, restaurants and shops. I wrote a piece on the value of meetings back at the beginning of the economic dive (Time for Hotel Sales Professionals to Lobby Meeting Planners / David M. Brudney / April 2009. I pointed out meetings and events provide the “highest return of investment of any marketing channel,” according to a survey of Fortune 1,000 chief marketing officers. More: meetings and events are strategic tools that deepen employee relationships and contribute to the overall health of companies. And a 5% increase in employee retention can generate a 25% to 85% increase in profitability. The report addresses the “converging trends” that still impact the meetings and events business: 1) businesses and government still discouraging meetings travel (budget, cost-cutting) concern over media, shareholders and taxpayers perception, 2) long-haul travel hassles and 3) new technology substitutes (video conferencing and virtual meetings - - see PCMA's Successful Experiment With Hybrid Meetings / David Brudney / March 2012). The report concludes with these recommendations: 1) make meetings more relevant uniting the entire travel industry behind strong messaging, research, and real data (the blueprint for success), 2) make meetings more accessible; safe, efficient cost-effective travel, invest and modernize the nation’s air infrastructure, help the nation’s airlines and airports succeed by reforming aviation taxes and ensuring that all revenue is reinvested into the aviation system and 3) make meetings more competitive: a new national dialogue; the final challenge is for the meetings industry to evolve and meet the needs of tomorrow’s consumer. The entire travel industry must engage in new dialogue on how we can provide even better experiences for our customers. This includes harnessing the power of new technology, including unified communications, to strengthen the value in-person meetings. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Luxury corporate retreats are back” - - Forbes Travel Guide, April 4, 2012, reports group travel spending went up nearly 8% in 2011 and is expected to rise in 2012. “2012 Top Ten Meeting Trends” - - www.benchmarkhospitality.com, February 2012, cites 1) luxury is back, 2) meeting demand strongest it’s been since 2008, 3) meeting size is trending up and space is at a premium (see report’s trends # 4-10). ___________________________________________________
David
M. Brudney is a charter
member of International Society of Hospitality Consultants
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