By Seth Kekessie
During a recent webcast, How to Please Two Stakeholders: Your Group and Your Revenue Manager, we discussed how to gain better alignment between the sales and revenue management teams.
We conducted a survey, and 14% of the sales people answered they are aligned with their Revenue Manager like a well-oiled machine and 68% noted they believe their Revenue Manager tries to take care of them. The role of the Revenue Manager, among other things, is to make decisions on “preferred” revenue because not all revenue is equal. More should work on getting aligned with their Revenue Manager and it is imperative to understand that their role is not to refuse business without justification, but rather to make the best revenue decisions for the property with the information and data available. Part of your role is to provide that data insight into your group.
To do that well, it starts with the conversations you have with the planner. With 18% always having an in-depth conversation with the meeting planner before they price a group and 54% which have it only 50% of the time leads us to think there is room for improvement. If you can demonstrate you understand the group’s historical booking behavior before engaging the planner, these conversations are enriched and can help you not only win the business at hand but also help you uncover other business the planner may have for that group and beyond. This will go a long way to pleasing both your planner and pitching your group at the Daily Business Review (DBR) meetings to get support from your Revenue Manager.
Data is the language of a Revenue Manager. Of the 77% indicating they are well prepared for their DBRs we would challenge you to think about how you prepare and to ensure you are speaking in the Revenue Manager’s language to not only support them and their decision but also your planner’s need.
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