Have you ever gotten stuck while targeting a major account because you weren’t sure who the right person was to call? Hoteliers like yourself face this issue constantly when attempting to book business in their event space. Trying to dissect the meetings department of an organization can seem impossible when you’re starting from scratch.
Knowing exactly how a meeting planning department is laid out before making a phone call can drastically shift the tone and success of your sale. Meeting planners receive numerous emails and phone calls daily from hoteliers trying to book business, but many of these sales managers have limited working knowledge about how the organization works.
Sometimes, you don’t even know what you don’t know! It’s important to make sure you understand:
- Whether the department is centralized or decentralized
- If they utilize a third party planner
- Who the primary points of contacts are and how to reach them,
- Their SMMP and RFP policies
- A history of their past events
- Their list of preferred hotels
- And their experiences with previous hotels
Advanced Researcher Profiles contain this information (and more) on thousands of organizations.
Let’s take a sneak peak …
- Best Buy – “…Many Best Buy events are sourced through a third party. Main meeting planner contacts at Best Buy (on site at HQ in Richfield, Minnesota office) include…”
- MetLife, Inc. – “…All meetings that are held outside MetLife facilities and require a contract must be registered with the central meetings department” and meetings “range from small one day meeting in major US cities such as NYC or Chicago…”
- Wells Fargo – “…Wells Fargo Offices are allowed to book their own meetings without going through that Divisions Centralized Meeting Planning Department. However, the Wells Fargo SMMP Rules and Regulations DO apply to those decentralized planners that book meetings…”
Being prepared with this information will allow you to sell more strategically to major accounts. Instead of spending time researching who to contact and the organizational procedures, you can spend that time building relationships with the right meeting planners. For both hoteliers and meeting planners, time is very valuable!
If you would like to learn more about how to drastically improve sales within your hotel, sign up for a customized online demo.
