The Power of Religious Meetings
Tough Economic times have put a damper on faith-based meetings, but the Religious Conference Management Association’s member survey shows that in 2010 religious conferences continued to be a strong component of the U.S. meetings industry.  Learn more HERE.

Increase direct hotel bookings with social media
For many hotels, the profitability of direct website sales justify investment in website optimization. Fortunately, this process does not have to be difficult or expensive. It simply requires an understanding of recent changes to search engine algorithms and consumer behavior that guide current best practices.  Read the article in its entirety HERE.

Read the article in its entirety HERE.  Cheers!

Read the article here.

Are Boutique Hotels Ready for Meetings?
A rooftop pool that morphs into a dance floor at night. A lounge that hides behind an open-sesame bookshelf. A lobby that’s more like a living room. Boutique hotels have always employed design to create unique experiences for guests. Now, more of those guests are corporate groups.   Read the entire article HERE.

How The Museum Hotel Improved Their Website Conversion Rate by 100%
Today, Dave Lemmon shares with us how Redcow Marketing helped The Museum Hotel improve their conversion rate by 100% and achieve a 70% increase in online sales. You can download Dave’s case study in its entirety, below.  Read the entire article HERE.

The Big News About Meetings
Larger than the auto industry, the U.S. meetings business supported 1.7 million jobs and generated $263 billion in spending in 2009. Here’s our inside look at the big numbers from the new Convention Industry Council economic significance study—plus seven ways you can promote your meetings internally and externally.  Read the entire article HERE.

Business travel is growing in Latin America
The region’s growing importance to business has led to more investment from the travel industry including American Airlines, Delta and Continental, all of which are launching new routes to Latin America, and the TAM Brazilian and LAN merger, intended to help them contend with foreign competitors.   Read more here.

MeetingPlannerLists.com is powered by The Salesman’s Guide, publishers of the industry’s leading meeting planner databases, and the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the global organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry.

“Now, when hospitality marketers buy lists from MeetingPlannerLists.com, they have the option of adding marketing services to convert their meeting planner contacts into qualified leads,” said Frank Finn, Executive VP & COO, MeetingPlannerLists.com.

The services include email broadcasts, direct mail and lead-generation calling. Clients who choose the Platinum-level plan also receive one year’s membership in HSMAI and a lead-alert service, which delivers bonus qualified leads that fit the client’s specifications generated during the term of the plan.

“We are very pleased to offer this new service to hospitality sales and marketing executives,” said Bob Gilbert, President & CEO of HSMAI. “Since we launched our partnership with The Salesman’s Guide last year, our members have told us they would welcome marketing services as the next logical component of MeetingPlannerLists.com.”

“Members also told us they would prefer marketing services with no back-end commissions on bookings, so every MeetingPlannerLists.com plan is commission-free,” continued Gilbert.

Marketers can choose plans that last either six or 12 months.  See that attached fact sheet for details.

HSMAI members receive a 10% discount on MeetingPlannerLists.com’s marketing services.

For more info, visit www.meetingplannerlists.com/services.cfm

Media  Contact:
Stacey Gaines
Briefings Media Group, LLC
800-788-5684
SGaines@BriefingsMediaGroup.com

Converting Leads into Sales – Rumpelstiltskin’s Rules for Spinning Straw into Gold

By Frank Finn

Hospitality sales and marketing professionals face the same challenge the miller’s daughter confronted in “Rumplestiltskin,” the 19th-century German folk tale immortalized by the Brothers Grimm. Don’t remember the story? Here’s a recap:

Once upon a time, a miller who wanted to seem important bragged to everyone that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king caught wind of this and locked the daughter in a tower with a spinning wheel and a pile of straw. “You have three nights to spin this straw into gold,” said the king. “If you fail, you will be executed.” The miller’s daughter despaired until an odd little man named Rumplestiltskin appeared in her room. In exchange for her necklace, he spun the straw into gold. The king was so pleased, he made the miller’s daughter his queen.

There is a lot more to the story, but the point is, hospitality sales and marketing people face the same do-or-die situation every day: take straw (leads) and turn them into gold (bookings). After all, a sales lead is as worthless as a pile of straw until someone converts it into a booked meeting.

So what’s the secret? Follow “Rumplestiltskin’s Rules” and while you may not become royalty, you will live to spin another day.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #1: Don’t Let Hot Leads Go Cold

Sales leads are like bread; they go stale overnight. However you generated the lead, whether through a show, a print ad, your Web site, a direct mail campaign, act on it quickly. With each day that goes by without a “touch”—a follow-up telephone call, email message, or some other contact—the odds of converting a lead drop.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #2: All Leads Are Not Created Equal

Too many sales and marketing people treat all leads alike, when in fact their quality varies widely. Show leads often get priority treatment because they are costly to generate.  But let’s face it, those business cards you collected by holding that “Win an iPad” drawing in your booth aren’t leads from serious prospects interested in booking a meeting at your facility. All you’ve got is a list of people who would love to win an iPad. They aren’t nearly as valuable as the list of people who requested information about your meeting facilities on your Web site yesterday.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #3: Qualify Leads Using the Three I’s

At every stage, make sure the leads you are devoting time and effort to pass the “Three I’s” Test:

1. Interest – The meeting planner is actively seeking a facility to hold an event.
2. Influence – The contact is responsible for selecting the site.
3. Investment – The planner’s budget for the meeting is in line with your rates.

If you are diligent about confirming the Three I’s, you won’t waste time on prospects who can’t or won’t book a meeting with you.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #4: Put a Fuse on the Hottest Leads

When you assign a lead to a salesperson, especially those that come in as RFPs, always give him or her a deadline. Nothing creates a sense of urgency in a salesperson like the words, “I’m taking this away from you in 10 days and assigning it to someone else if you haven’t booked the business.” On the appointed day, unless the salesperson can show they are making real progress on the account, reassign the lead to the next person in line.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #5: You Can’t Hit the Bull’s-Eye if You Don’t Have a Target

Effective conversion of sales leads depends on defining the kind of business you are targeting. And in today’s environment, your target may be change every six to 12 months. Be very specific about which type of group and meeting suits your facility best. Then screen your leads and rank them according to how well they fit the profile.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #6: Old Leads Never Die, Unless You Let Them

If a lead doesn’t convert into a sale in short order, don’t purge it from your database entirely. As long as the organization holds meetings that you can accommodate, put them on “life support.” Send the contact an invitation to receive your e-mail newsletter. Add the person to your postcard mailing list. It’s well worth using these low-cost, low-maintenance tactics. For one thing, getting address corrections back from postcard mailings will help you keep your list up to date. And if certain lead never open your email promotions, they just aren’t interested. Purge them from your prospecting database.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #7: Drill Down to the Decision-Maker

Whatever system you use to track leads, make sure that you can see all the players in a target organization, and that you focus your sales efforts on the decision-maker. Too often, sales resources are wasted on second- and third-tier players who influence the buying decision at best, while the person whoreally decides never hears your story.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #8: It’s All About . . . Timing

You know that the prospect’s meeting is a perfect fit for your facility. You know you have the amenities they are looking for. You know who will make the ultimate decision. But you are still missing one critical piece of information: when the decision on a meeting location will be made. Your sales effort should build to a crescendo just before the decision date and build in a contact just prior to that time. Talking to the planner at that point gives you a chance to adjust your proposal for last-minute changes in the meeting specifications and win the booking.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #9: Change Equals Opportunity

Be sure to track the changing profile of every lead, both individuals and organizations, in your database.  Here’s why: When the person who books meetings at a prospect organization leaves, that change can create two opportunities. A current customer at a new organization could book additional meetings with you. And the person who moves into the old customer’s job is a prospect for return bookings.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #10: Customize Follow-Up by Lead Source

Today’s sales and marketing departments generate leads from multiple sources: Web sites, shows, direct mail, print advertising, email broadcasts and so on. You’ll get better results if you tailor your follow-up efforts by source. For example, prospects who inquire over the Web expect a quick response. Don’t be shy about feeding Web requests and RFPs to your sales staff with instructions to make the call immediately. If you need time to draft a response to an RFP, program your site to send an instant email advising the prospect that a proposal will follow within 48 hours. That’s not to say you can dawdle responding to leads from other sources (see Rule #1).

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #11: Exploit the RFP Opening

With the proliferation of RFP generators, meeting planners can broadcast these documents to multiple hotels and CVBs at the click of a mouse. So is each RFP less valuable as a lead than it once was? Yes, but every RFP still deserves to go to the top of the active prospect list. Never miss an opportunity to contact the planner, preferably by telephone, to get more information. You’ll be in a better position to respond to the RFP in hand and you may also learn about future meetings still in the planning stages.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #12: Fire Up Your Team with a Tote Board

Salespeople are competitive by nature, and competitors thrive on recognition. That’s why a tote board is an essential tool, whether it takes the form of a white board at the front of the sales department or a spreadsheet in a shared folder on the network or a weekly email to the entire team. And that tote board should highlight each salesperson’s current close rate, the percentage of leads converted to bookings for the month and the year-to-date. The top performers will enjoy the limelight and compete to stay on top. The stragglers will feel the pressure to raise their game.

Rumplestiltskin’s Rule #13: Feed the Funnel

While you’re working to convert leads into sales, don’t forget to keep the leads coming in the first place. When acquiring lists for direct mail and telephone campaigns, stick with sources that provide the organizations’ prior meeting activities—the number of meetings per year, preferred location, peak room nights and other data you need to target qualified prospects.

As you can see, there is nothing magical about Rumplestiltskin’s Rules. Converting leads into sales takes hard work, organization, and more than a little determination. But hospitality sales and marketing professionals can be sure of one thing: When the time comes to tally sales results, those who follow his rules will be golden.

[bio]

Frank Finn is Executive Vice President and COO of Briefings Media Group, LLC, the publishers of The Salesman’s Guide® meeting planner directories. Briefings has also partnered with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International to create MeetingPlannerLists.com, the largest online source of qualified meeting and event planners.

BTN’s 2011 U.S. Hotel Chain Survey
Hotels in 2010 rebounded in more than just occupancy, according to the results of Business Travel News‘ 2011 U.S. Hotel Chain Survey, an examination of business travel buyers’ opinions on the hotel brands they most frequently use in their travel programs.  Read the entire article HERE.

Meetings Industry Executives Form Alliance
The chief executives of five exhibition industry organizations have formed an alliance through which they will meet regularly to explore opportunities to cooperate on matters of mutual interest. It’s the latest example of the spirit of cooperation that has taken hold throughout the meetings industry since the financial meltdown and the resulting AIG effect.   Read the entire article HERE.

How Meetings Benefit From Today’s Technology
The term “meetings technology” is broader than ever. Industry consultant Corbin Ball catalogs no fewer than 1,400 such products, across more than 40 categories, on his website (corbinball.com). To drill down to the essentials, we’ve selected and demystified today’s hottest meetings technologies. These are the methods tech-savvy planners already are using to make their meetings more efficient and effective. Those who aren’t should consider following their lead.  Read the entire article HERE.

The 25 Most Influential Executives of the Business Travel Industry
The 25 Most Influential Executives of 2010 is Business Travel News‘ 26th consecutive annual effort to identify the executives who most directly drove those changes, who forced the industry to take notice of and react to their decisions. The list of those executives is not a ranking; BTN is not measuring their relative influence against one another. An appearance on this list is not necessarily an honor; influence, after all, can be perceived positively or negatively, and this list over the years has hosted its share of disrupters alongside its visionaries and innovators.  Read the entire article here.

RCMA Tampa Conference Hits High Notes
“It’s a testament to this organization and to Tampa that with all the doom and gloom about the impact of the economy, we enjoyed the highest turnout in planner attendance in three years,” remarked RCMA Executive Director and CEO Dr. DeWayne Woodring during the state of the association address on the final day of the Religious Conference Management Association 39th World Conference & Expo, January 25–28, Tampa, Fla.  Read the entire article here.