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The Challenge of Credit The
10 February 2004 edition of the Zeitgeist e-Zine In the increasingly volatile environment in which Destination Marketing Organizations operate, the Janet Jackson line “What have you done for me lately” is being asked with more frequency. In order to avoid a “funding malfunction,” smart DMOs continually look for ways to “reveal” their true impact upon a community. One of the ways this is accomplished is through tracking the number of convention, motorcoach and sports leads they generate, the number of room nights that are associated with these events and the number of these leads that are either converted into bookings and/or serviced. Invariably, when the productivity reports are released, someone in the hotel industry or at the Convention Center scowls (or shouts) “Did Not!” To which the Bureau is left to retort, “Did So!” And, as the “Tastes Great / Less Filling” volley evolves, it’s usually the DMO that has to back down because, after all, the booking was most likely inked by the hotel/center…and they should know best. Of course, we all know that this isn’t always the case. We’ve seen lots of examples where hotel and center sales staff, in order to look good to their management, claim stuff that they picked up from the Bureau. It’s one of the uglier traits of human nature that some people need to claim credit for things with which they had no meaningful involvement (save signing the final contract). And, to be sure, sometimes Bureau folk are just as much to blame in this department as their private sector partners. But that’s life. Either way, this should motivate salespeople everywhere to accurately document every one of their moves. From identifying a prospective piece of business, to making the contact that qualifies interest to cinching the deal, every move should be recorded in your contact management database. And, if your Bureau doesn’t use one of the industry specific software packages out there, pick up your own copy of GoldMine, ACT!, FileMaker Pro, Now Contact or DayLite to at least start. Hey, even using Outlook is better than nothing! Regardless of what you’re using (or will start using this week)…keep a record of everything. I know that most salespeople hate record keeping but this is crucial if you wanna avoid the “Did Not - Did So” battle back home. On a related note, the subject of tracking business came up during one of the Shirtsleeves Sessions at IACVB’s exceptional PDI event in Kissimmee last week. A number of the participants were commiserating about how hard it is to get hotels to provide data on the Bureau generated leads that were successfully converted to bookings. In probably one of the biggest “ah ha” moments of the conference, George Cooley (Washington DC CTC) and Steve Hayes (Tampa Bay CVB) responded with these deceptively simple questions: “Why are you depending upon the hotels for this information? If you generated the lead, why aren’t you calling the contact directly?” Good questions. If your Bureau is going to take credit for identifying and relaying a new piece of business to your industry partners, shouldn’t you have developed a good enough relationship with the planner to make a follow-up call? Even more importantly, why aren’t you following up? Don’t you want to know what happened? And, if they came to town, don’t you want to know if they liked it, how they were treated and (most importantly) what you need to do to entice them to return? If you're relying on your hotels for anything more than an accurate room pick-up figure, you’re not doing your job. Trying to prove impact? The answers are all in the follow-up phone call with the client. All the best, Bill Wanna comment on this or other topics. E-mail Me!
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