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Impressions from IncentiveWorks – Part 3

August 31st, 2010. Written by Doreen Ashton Wagner

This is the third installment commenting my recent attendance at IncentiveWorks in Toronto. Here are my impressions about the educational sessions:

I had not attended the education portion of IncentiveWorks in the last three years. Last year I’d heard great feedback about one of the speakers (Retired General Romeo Dallaire), so this year did not want to lose out. The $59 education package, which conveniently included 2 lunch vouchers for the show, was a fantastic bargain.

The first speaker I heard was Queens University professor Ken Wong speaking on “Brand Abuse: why so Much Marketing Fails.” Some planners may have avoided this topic because it sounded too general, not addressing meeting industry-specific material (I almost did because the session on Social Media sounded more timely). But I was SO GLAD I stuck with this one!

Ken is the ONLY presenter I had ever heard give concrete “how-to” advice to planners about how to address the needs and interests of the C-Suite. MPI has been touting education to give planners a “seat at the corporate table” for many years, but never had I witnessed a prescription for how to do that. The presentation was so ripe with good advice that we have decided to make our “take-away” the subject of our blog in early September. Stay tuned!

The next session featured keynote speaker Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Sinek was not a particularly exciting speaker, though he was attractive to watch in a geeky sort of way… but he had a message that resonated. A great story-teller, he described how Apple is a company that clearly understands why they do business. Consequently they have a fervent following who will pay a higher price, shun a superior product and even experience inconvenience to do business with them. (Judging from the number of iPad giveaways and other promotions I witnessed at the show, I think Sinek was dead on about the Apple “following”). Having a clear vision of why your organization exists, he maintains, is essential to inspire people to attend your events or buy the products and services you’re selling.

On the second day of education, I’ll admit that I missed the earlier sessions (please don’t tell my boss). But I made sure to attend the 10:30 keynote with Gary Vaynerchuk. I was curious about this presentation which had been tagged with a “parental advisory” for explicit content.

Well @GaryVee (as I have come to know him on Twitter) is described as a “social media sommelier” who claims to have taken his father’s liquor store business from earning $2 million annually in the late 90s, to well over $60 million five years later. Between dropping a few b*llsh*t exclamations and one or two f-bombs, Gary weaved his tale from his early days as a stockroom boy to wine blogger and finally appearing on the Conan O’Brien show and making the host eat dirt. That’s right: dirt, as well as grass and other things. Check it out for yourself here.

The point to all this? With social media, the game is rapidly changing. Marketers and meeting planners need to diversify and adopt these new communication means. Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare et al. are not going away. Their influence is only increasing exponentially…

As someone who is already fairly active in social media to promote our business, this talk confirmed that social media is not just a fad… it is a new way to engage your following, and it is NOT the waste of time my husband thinks it is!

So was the IncentiveWorks educational program worth the investment? Without question. And I plan on attending again next year!

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Impressions from IncentiveWorks – Part 2

August 31st, 2010. Written by Doreen Ashton Wagner

Team Ottawa did seem to have great traffic throughout the show. Ottawa reps in orange shirts: Nathalie Boulet, Patrick Dault, and Sabrina Strang with MPI Ottawa President, Carole Saad

I recently had the pleasure of attending IncentiveWorks in Toronto. The following are my impressions of my tradeshow experience:

It’s still a wonder for me how a tradeshow can be “great” or “fantastic” for some and the “worst ever” for others. Sure I can see how booths in the back rows may get less traffic than those monster booths at the front. But I talked to a LOT of exhibitors and even smaller independents at the back of the hall were happy with the flow of attendees while some reps from bigger, more visible booths were belly-aching at the lack of people. I don’t get it. Why are some of these people in sales?

As a registered attendee for the premium side of the show (I did ALL my client & staff Xmas shopping at the show!), I only got one email from one exhibitor and one postcard from another to incite me to stop by their booth. If suppliers are going to spend that much money for a show, why don’t they try to promote ahead of time to generate more attendance?

I was walking the floor with a new strategic partner who specializes in tradeshow marketing. He was surprised at the “blandness” of some booths. Big logos, some photography, lots of which was generic or nondescript (white sandy beaches, people golfing, but once you’ve seen those, haven’t you seen them all?). But little to compel anyone to stop by. This begs the question: how should meetings industry suppliers draw planners’ attention and provide value?

Stopping by booths to inquire about certain products or services, I was disappointed at the rush to “scan my badge” instead of asking me questions about my needs and interests. In one instance I had no use for the product, and said so, but the rep insisted on scanning my badge! Now I’m curious to see what this large communications company (who is affiliated with the show organizers incidentally) is going to do with this information…

So I’m thinking: could tradeshows have lost their lustre not because of lower attendance, but simply because salespeople don’t know how to sell? For years Barry Siskind and various sales experts have been trying to tell us how to improve the tradeshow experience, but are we listening?

With the proliferation of hosted buyer programs in North America (AIBTM, IMEX), will exhibitors learn to maximize appointment time by asking questions and properly qualifying prospects? Will they top up their efforts with pre-show promotion and effective post-show follow-up? Or will we just get lazier and expect planners to show up with business on a silver platter…?

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Impressions from IncentiveWorks – Part 1

August 23rd, 2010. Written by Doreen Ashton Wagner

Last week I attended IncentiveWorks, Canada’s largest event dedicated to the meetings & incentive industry. Since I spent 14 years in Toronto, this event is always a “homecoming” of sorts for me; a place to see old friends, colleagues and clients.

Just for fun, here are a few musings, findings and observations from the event:

Canada Rocks!

Canada Rocks was the official opening party for IncentiveWorks. For the fifth year, this was also the main fundraising event for the MPI Foundation Canada.

The event was held at a nightclub formerly known as Schmooze, which clubcrawlers.com as “a destination of choice among the 25-35 crowd that loves to party, dance and let loose.” Attendees had been urged to wear red and white and Canadian or not, many came with the requisite attire.

MPI Foundation chair Joe Nishi welcomed the 500 plus crowd like a true rocker: wearing shades and strumming an electric guitar, Nishi introduced night’s main attraction, The Sam Roberts Band. Caesars Windsor sponsored the 75-minute performance by the multiple JUNO Award winning group, whose hits include: “Where Have All the Good People Gone?”, “Hard Road”, “Brother Down”, “Them Kids” and “Detroit 67″.

Olympic Gold-Medallists hockey stars Becky Kellar and Jennifer Botterill were on hand to meet Canada Rocks participants, as special guests of the Olympic Voice Program.

Another attraction of the evening was the silent auction, featuring prizes such as a four-night stay at the Wyndham Nassau in the Bahamas, two return flights anywhere Porter Airlines fly, a Flip Video from the Ontario Marketing Partnership and a GPS from the Allstream Centre.

Once the band started, there was little choice but watch and enjoy the Asian-themed food (stir-fried noodles, sushi, and Thai hors d’oeuvres). The music was great, but no longer being in that ephemeral 25-35 age group, I found it a little too loud for my liking. There was a much quieter lounge on the club’s roof top, but I only heard about it the next day. Too bad signage did not point the way to a stop where people could have a chat and network…

Tags: business development, IncentiveWorks, lead generation, meetings industry, prospecting, tradeshow
Posted in Hospitality & Meetings, meetings industry events | No Comments »

Reaching Meeting Planners in a Saturated Marketplace

July 23rd, 2010. Written by Doreen Ashton Wagner

On Thursday, July 15, SPIN Planners ran a webinar titled, A Rare Look Inside the Buying Process of Senior-Level Planners. Participants included third-party meeting planners Kimberly Ruby, CMM, of Ruby Meetings, Blanca Diaz of BND Meetings. Association planner Stefanie Simmons of IAAM. Moderating the discussion was Shawna Suckow, CMP, the Founder of SPIN.

Here are their recommendations on how hotel, CVB and other meeting industry sales representatives should reach out to planners like them:

About cold calling: while all planners universally hate pushy, “telemarketing”-like cold calls, they admit that the telephone is a necessary tool of business. Do your homework, they advise – which means make sure you’ve checked out the types of meeting and destinations they have executed in the past. They also warn to make sure you ask permission when starting the conversation.
A pet peeve: cute, but useless giveaways and leave-behind gifts, said Kimberly.
Because of their frequent business, all panellists report having close relationships with national sales office (NSO) reps. In their opinion, CVB reps are not visible enough and don’t convey the often free services available through their bureau.
About industry events and supplier receptions: planners will attend your event if it is in an unusual or new venue, or features a new food or theme, asserted both Blanca and Stefanie.
About familiarization trips: “no more fams without an educational component!” they plead. Optics are such that planners must justify fams to their bosses and clients. Suppliers should include at least one educational opportunity in their program, and consider giving Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from a provider approved by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).
When asked by this author about regular, old-fashioned mail, panellists admit they open hand-addressed mail or other unusual, personalized email. Shawna recalled a speaker at a past MPI event who asserted that “lumpy mail gets opened.”
Be careful about email: Mass eblasts seem too impersonal, panellists said. But a direct, personalized message inquiring about interest or through a group on LinkedIn is OK. One supplier suggested sending an Outlook appointment, requesting a phone appointment. Even if it’s “at the planners convenience” planners judged this to be intrusive and even “creepy.” Says Kimberly, “being a planner, I’m a control freak. I want to choose when I speak to a new supplier.”
How else should a supplier get known to planners? Be visible at industry events, volunteer with industry associations such as MPI or PCMA.

Not quite earth-shattering advice, but the good news is that business is picking up. And those suppliers who find ways to balance personal touches and a professional, consistent approach will be successful.

Tags: business development, direct mail, meetings industry, prospecting
Posted in Hospitality & Meetings, best practices - sales, marketing to meeting planners, meetings industry events | No Comments »

Sustainable Marketing for the Meetings Industry

March 17th, 2010. Written by Doreen Ashton Wagner

Lively discussion at Table #10 (photo courtesy of Melanie Hudson)

Last week I had the pleasure of moderating a roundtable discussion at the March luncheon of the Ottawa Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI). The topic was “Growing Your Business with Green Marketing: Sustainable Practices to Make Your Business Memorable and Sales Driven”. When I volunteered to lead this discussion my objective was to generate conversation about sustainable marketing, what works and what doesn’t.

But what is “sustainable marketing” or “green marketing”? Many think it’s the marketing of green products. Others maintain it’s marketing that is more respectful of the environment.

Others say it’s what serves an organization’s triple bottom line of people, planet, and profitability. Peter Korchnak defines sustainable marketing as what aims to: “empower communities by enriching their social capital (people), protect and restore the environment (planet), and generate prosperity for the organization and its stakeholders (profitability).”

While the latter definition was in synch with MPI’s Corporate Social Responsibility objectives, I think we too often overlook the “sustainability factor” for the marketer himself or herself. Are your marketing practices working? Are they bringing in leads for your sales team? Do you have the time and energy to keep up what you’re doing in a sustainable way?

At the lunch, after everyone introduced themselves and gave an overview of their current marketing activities, it became clear that we were all struggling with the same tug-of-war: how should meeting professionals “green” their marketing activities, keep within budget, and maintain their sanity in the process?

Much of the frustration seemed to focus on the role of social media in the marketing mix. How should a hotel or venue use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other sites? Does a presence on any of those sites bring in enough business to warrant the time required to manage them? The consensus at our table seemed to be that while some presence may be warranted, especially on the individual travel or leisure side, but that group leads were far from pouring in…

Rather than settle that debate, our conversation shifted to other activities. Sustainable marketing ideas included:

With over 95% of all B2B transactions being researched on the web prior to a sale, make it easy for planners to do business with you. Put your sales materials online where they are easy to download.
Consider “gating” your more detailed online resources (banquet menus, policies, theme ideas, etc.), asking prospects to enter their name and e-mail address so these resources are forwarded to them. This can be done automatically through many content management systems. You may lose some prospects who do not want to provide their information, but you quickly gather a list of interested prospects with whom you can continue the sales conversation.
Invest in Search Engine Optimization to improve the volume or quality of traffic to your website via “natural” or un-paid search results.
Direct mail: Junk mail is definitely out, but personalized direct mail is in! Make sure your piece is addressed to a qualified list of prospects. Choose Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified/post-consumer recycled paper and print with vegetable inks. Better yet, support a cause by using cards from non-profit organizations such as UNICEF.
If you’re going to personalize any marketing campaign, make sure your list is accurate. Account management experts say the average salesperson can only manage about 250 accounts annually. If your list is larger, cull it back. Most salespeople cannot stay on top of more than that. For tips on how to clean up your list, see our blog post on Keeping on Top of Your Database.
Make your direct mail piece a “keeper”. Provide tips (“top 10 ways to save on your next banquet at…”), checklists, or other resources that planners will want to pin to their wall and remember you every time they see your logo.
Send out handwritten cards. Again, make sure they are the greenest possible (Pistachio cards are great products, available at Chapters/Indigo and online at http://www.epistachio.com/).
Get out of the office! Too much is done by email. Lasting, sustainable client relationships are fostered in person. Aren’t we in the meetings industry, afterall? So pick up the phone, make an appointment and make a sales call.
If you choose a giveaway for a tradeshow or as a leave-behind gift for a sales call, consider items made by a local artisan, perhaps even using recycled materials. Think about potted plants or flowers (Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days). Edibles, such as cookies, chocolates or squares are always a hit, especially if you attach the recipe!

Isn’t it interesting to note that 6 of the 9 ideas listed above are actually “traditional” marketing practices, only with a greener mindset? Happy selling!

Tags: CSR, green marketing, meetings industry, sales tips, sustainable marketing
Posted in Hospitality & Meetings, best practices - sales, database management, marketing to meeting planners, meetings industry events, sales appointments | 17 Comments »

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