12/1/2010
Ten Fundamentals for Growing Your Catering
and Conferencing Business
CECS 2010
Tim Copeland
December 1, 2010
1
Your challenges?
•
•
•
•
Generate more revenue
Do more with less
Staff reductions
Attention to value and
ROI
• Shorter time frames
• Public perception of
meetings and events
2
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Conferencing units with well-developed
business development plans will thrive,
while others will be contracted or
outsourced. We have to be good stewards
and effective managers.
Agenda
1. Current environment
2. Ten fundamentals for growing your catering
and conferencing business
3. Three recommendations to move forward
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Your business?
• Run a dedicated
conferencing facility?
• More than 60% of
revenues from campus?
• Part of a CE unit?
Housing?
• Directors?
• Program
managers/coordinators?
• Furlough days?
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Q&A
• What are you seeing in your
market?
– External?
– Campus?
• Seeking new revenue sources?
– Explain
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A New Economic Reality
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Competition
• New trend – holding
meetings at
customer sites
• From $1,000 to $87
per day
• Reduce costs
• Inspiration
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Sometimes we are not user-friendly
•
•
•
•
Secret shopping university conferencing units
Emails
Web forms
Phone calls
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Example: The Delay
• We were returning their voice
mail
• Transferred multiple times
• 30% of our call time was on
hold
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Example: The Web Shuffle
• The prospect was on the
phone,
• … yet sent to website to
complete application
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“Who are you again?”
• Transferred, disconnected,
and interrogated
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Pass the buck
• A leisurely stroll through an
organizational web
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Other examples
“I called number provided on website. Representative
answered…found out he was ‘in a bucket/fork lift’.
Yelled to other staff to ask how to transfer calls. Very
nice person, but not the most professional
experience.” DemandEngine researcher
“Representative bordered on being combative.
Questioned which facility I was calling about and
then basically talked me out of doing business there.
Ended call suggesting I call the other facility.”
DemandEngine researcher
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What this means
• An already competitive business
just got tougher
• Downward pressure reducing
state budgets – reduction in
academic conferences and travel
• Corporations looking to
improve/innovate meetings,
reduce costs, and improve travel
processes
• To compete, we have to be userfriendly
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Agenda
1. Current environment
2. Ten fundamentals for growing your
catering and conferencing business
3. Three recommendations to move forward
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Ten Fundamentals
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
A business-development mindset
Clear and realistic goals
Management by the conference funnel
A written business development plan
Development of an adequate inquiry pool
Efficient means for follow-up
Methods to manage the conference funnel
Use of information systems
Management reporting and progress toward
business objectives
10.Outward-looking business processes
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Fundamental #1:
A business-development mindset
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Conferencing is sometimes viewed as
‘easy money’
“Everyone who has an extra
room or two thinks they
have a conference
center…I’m surprised we
haven’t seen the Funeral
Home and Conference
Center.”
Louise Silberman, Summit Executive Centre
Copyright 2010, DemandEngine, Inc.
A business-development mindset
Inhibitors
• “Return revenue”
• No pressure to set goals
and accountability
• Realization that a
commitment to grow
generally includes
new/shifting resources
• Lack of pipeline reporting
• Disconnect with staff
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Questions?
• How have you ‘designed’
your product?
• How many are looking to
grow conferencing/event
business?
• How do you set goals
today?
• When do you set goals?
• How do you currently
report on goal
attainment?
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Fundamental #2:
Clear and realistic goals
Clear and realistic goals
Setting targets
• ‘Grow’ is not an
actionable goal
• Simply looking at revenue
is like driving by your
rear-view mirror
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Questions
• How are your goals
determined? Consider
potential? Capacity?
• Do you ‘reverse engineer’
your goals?
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Fundamental #3:
Manage by the conference funnel
Funnel Example
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Manage by the funnel
Developing a pipeline
• Forward-looking
• Improves forecasting
• Failure to record
conferencing inquiries
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Questions
• Do you record inquiries
today? Why or why not?
• Pathway? Proposals to
contracts? How many?
Conversion rates?
• What do you track?
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Fundamental #4:
A written, business-development plan
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What’s in a plan?
• Clear goals by market
segment and
product/service offering
• Strategies for achieving
your goals – at least one
per goal
• Success indicators
• Defines accountability
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The ‘plan’
Writing a plan
• Tendency to get lost in
SWOT, etc.
• A list of stuff (e.g.
directories,
advertisements)
• Reluctance to commit
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Questions
• Do you have a
documented business
development plan? Why
or why not?
• Elements of your plan?
Good and bad?
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Fundamental #5:
Development of an inquiry pool
Growing conferencing revenues
• … is really a simple
business
• In order to have an
event, what must
happen?
– A customer with a
conferencing need
– Raise their hand
– Qualify
– Propose
– Sign
Inquiries
Proposals
Contracts
Customers
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Five approaches to finding customers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Solicitation
Self-initiated
Referrals
Past customers
Events
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Psst … Your online presence is important
“Where would be the first place you would go online to find out more about
a product or service?”
Budget ranges
<$500
$500-$1,000
$1,000-$2,500
$2,500-$5,000
$5,000-$10,000
$10,000-$50,000
$50,000+
Source: Enquiro, October 2004
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72%
15%
4%
67%
14%
6%
20%
6%
61%
69%
15%
5%
25%
6%
9%
25%
20%
14%
60%
54%
60%
Search engine
Known manuf. of
the product
Portal for the
industry
Base: approx. 1500 business respondents
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UCSB is ready for business
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How you rank
First
page?
University name
City
Search term 1
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Merced
University of California, Santa
Barbara
University of California, San Diego
Los Angeles
Berkeley
Merced
los angeles conference center
berkeley conference center
merced conference center
University of California, Riverside
Riverside
University of California, Davis
Davis
Possible
Possible
Google competitors, competitors,
maps? Natural Search, paid search,
1st page
1st page
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
no
Santa Barbara santa barbara conference center
no
San Diego
no
san diego conference center
riverside california conference
center
davis california conference center
13
4
5
5
0
1
no
7
1
no
10
4
yes
no
5
1
yes
no
6
0
Source: DemandEngine
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Developing an inquiry pool
Inhibitors
• Ability to manage multiple
points of entry
• Inputting all inquiries
• Tracking the source, date
of inquiry, and timeframe
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Questions
• What sources provide
you measurable
inquiries? What’s
working?
• What offer strategies do
you use to get prospects
to raise their hands?
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Fundamentals #6 & 7:
Efficient means for follow-up and
managing the funnel
Efficiently managing the funnel
Inhibitors
• Lack of resources make
this seem impossible
• Inconsistent follow-up
• Too few communications
particularly with past
customers
• Requires systematic
communications
approach (e.g. print,
email, phone)
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Questions
• How do you
systematically follow-up
with past customers?
• What happens when
someone inquires?
• Do you treat the decision
process as a consideredpurchase? Why or why
not?
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Fundamental #8:
Use of information systems
Databases
Inhibitors
• Non-existent or shadow
database systems
– “the Book”
• Failure to utilize
capabilities of existing
systems
• Lack of database
competency among staff
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Questions
• How do you manage your
customer information
today?
• How would you rate your
own data quality?
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Fundamental #9:
Management reporting and progress
toward business objectives
A Reporting Example
Conferencing Pipeline Report
Week ending March 20, 2010
Inquiries
FY2011
200
FY2010 - YTD
225
FY2010 - FINAL
300
FY2009 - FINAL
350
Proposals
90
125
150
170
Contracts Signed
23
35
50
58
Conversion rate
45%
56%
50%
49%
Yield (close) rate
26%
Source: DemandEngine, Inc.
28%
33%
34%
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Management reporting
Inhibitors
• Unsure what to measure
• Not defining what to
measure
• People issues
• Lack of process systems
and technology
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Questions
• What reporting do you
use today to manage
your business? Top five
reports?
• What adjustments do you
make to your plans based
on the data?
Copyright 2010, DemandEngine, Inc.
Fundamental #10:
Outward-looking business processes
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Recent research
• Shopping scenarios
– Corporate leadership retreat - 25 participants
– day meeting, 30-50 participants, breakfast and
lunch, 1 large room, 1 breakout room, audio
visual
Copyright 2010, DemandEngine, Inc.
Any follow-up
Is this
after their
organization
General observations
initial
easy to do
response?
business with?
She responded quickly but just asked me
yes, they asked for my number to call me
no
yes
for my phone number to discuss the scope
of the event.
Date/time email
submitted
Date/time
response
received
Qualifying
questions?
11/16/10 @10:22
11/16/10 @3:14
no
11/16/10 @10:25
none
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
11/16/10 @10:26
none
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
no
They already had my basic info from the
web form I completed. She asked the
age group that would be attending the
meeting & if I was located in the LA area.
yes
She responded quickly. She was very
helpful but ultimately re-directed me to a
person in another group that had a more
appropriate meeting site. She said they
recently posted some ads on Facebook &
asked if that was how I heard of them.
yes
They emailed a respose quickly. They
indicated that one of the dates requested
was not available. They attached a
document with information regarding
their rates & provided a phone number for
further questions.
11/16/10 @10:33
11/16/10 @12:45
Capture info? Ask to call?
UCLA Catering and Meeting Rooms
no
UC-Berkeley
UC-Merced
UCSB
UCSD
UC-Riverside
no
no
UC-Davis
11/16/10 @10:27
11/16/10 @5:33
no
11/16/10 @10:28
none
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
11/16/10 @10:36
none
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Source: DemandEngine
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Outward-looking business processes
Focus on your customer
• Most are organized by
how we want customers
to do business with us
• Secret-shopping reveals
sometimes delayed and
non-existent follow-up
• Beware: the more
channels you open, the
more you have to
manage
Questions
• What’s the experience
like for your customers?
Internally? Externally?
• How many one-stop
shops do we have?
Copyright 2010, DemandEngine, Inc.
Agenda
1. Current environment
2. Ten fundamentals for growing your catering and
conferencing business
3. Three recommendations to move forward
48
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Three Recommendations
1. Start with clear goals
and measurable
objectives
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Three Recommendations
2. Reverse engineer your
goals into funnel metrics
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Three Recommendations
3. Develop a written,
business-development
plan connecting actions
with results
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If you would like a copy of these
slides, leave your business card
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12/1/2010
How we can help
ASSESSMENT
Tim Copeland
Managing Partner
Email
Phone
Web
Blog
Twitter
[email protected]
912-354-8007
www.demandengine.com
www.enrollmentmarketing.org
www.twitter.com/tim_copeland
•Audits on current marketing
approaches
•Secret shopping institutional
touch points
•Developing audience profiles
PLANNING
•Business development strategy
•Communications planning
Outsource Services
For upcoming events, research
reports, and white papers visit:
•Email marketing programs
•Search engine marketing
www.demandengine.com
•Social marketing
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