14 Oct 09 Gaining and Keeping Your Customers Trust – Part 1
Building customer trust is key in any business undertaking and all the more so for meeting planners. Did you know that approximately 70% of revenue comes from established customers? Established customers trust your business. They are comfortable coming to you because of your shared history and track record.
Attracting new customers can be difficult. For one thing, consumers are more savvy than a decade ago. Increased knowledge combined with increased financial worries makes it difficult for new customers to take a risk on your services. That does not mean it is impossible to win their business, meeting planners just have to be more mindful of establishing customer trust.
Building a rapport with new customers takes time but is well worth the effort. New customers must have a way to contact you whenever a question arises. That may mean sharing your personal cell number and indulging in some hand holding.
Keep your communications clear and to the point. It is vital that both sides understand the demands of the upcoming event and maintain their focus. Too much information can be as big a handicap as too little. Sell the first event before you plan the second.
Part 2 of this blog will explore other factors in gaining and building customer trust.
Tags: Attracting New Customers, Blog, Building Trust, Business Meeting, Business Undertaking, Consumers, Customer Trust, Customers Trust, Decade, Financial Worries, Focus, Handicap, Meeting Planners, Personal Cell, Personal Number, Rapport, Risk
09 Oct 09 Combine an Incentive Reward Trip with a Conference
It’s no secret that business meetings are often a combination of business and pleasure. People are working harder than ever to keep companies solvent. Rewarding employees is a bit more complicated; they deserve a nice trip to an exotic location yet it’s important to keep up appearances to the public. Try combining events, the reward trip with a conference. A corporate cruise event can fill both those needs.
Sea travel is a great way to build team spirit while traveling to an exotic location. An incentive cruise makes an ideal place for a business meeting – after all, how far can your people wander off? Food is available almost 24/7 and there are numerous activities to break up the intensity of the conference. It’s also private and while there is much to do, there is great opportunity to focus solely on the matter at hand.
In addition, when you come into your port of destination, that’s when the fun begins. Everyone feels a sense of accomplishment by completing the demands of the conference and they are ready to cut loose and have a bit of fun. The company saves money because the mode of travel has absorbed part of the conference costs, including food and lodging.
Tags: Accomplishment, Bit Of Fun, Business And Pleasure, Business Meeting, Business Meetings, Business People, Corporate Cruise, Incentive Cruise, Incentive Reward, Intensity, Mode Of Travel, Money, Nice Trip, People Working, Rewarding Employees, Sea Travel, Team Spirit, Traveling
05 Oct 09 Meetings at Sea
It’s no secret that business meetings are often a combination of business and pleasure. People are working harder than ever to keep companies solvent. Rewarding employees is a bit more complicated; they deserve a nice trip to an exotic location yet it’s important to keep up appearances to the public. Try combining events, the reward trip with a conference. A corporate cruise can fill both those needs.
Sea travel is a great way to build team spirit while traveling to an exotic location. A cruise makes an ideal place for a business meeting – after all, how far can your people wander off? Food is available almost 24/7 and there are numerous activities to break up the intensity of the conference. It’s also private and while there is much to do, there is great opportunity to focus solely on the matter at hand.
In addition, when you come into your port of destination, that’s when the fun begins. Everyone feels a sense of accomplishment by completing the demands of the conference and they are ready to cut loose and have a bit of fun. The company saves money because the mode of travel has absorbed part of the conference costs, including food and lodging.
Seasite.com, the first online cruise portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meetings market. And the timing couldn’t be better because cruising slashes 25-40% off the cost of a land-based meeting or incentive trip, helping event planners adapt to today’s shrinking budgets. The single, most comprehensive source for savvy, do-it-yourself planners and novices alike, Seasite delivers all the tools, ideas and resources needed to launch a successful incentive cruise event or meeting-at-sea.
Tags: Accomplishment, Bit Of Fun, Budgets, Business And Pleasure, Business Meeting, Business Meetings, Corporate Cruise, Cruise Portal, Event Planners, Incentive Cruise, Incentive Trip, Intensity, Meeting At Sea, Mode Of Travel, Nice Trip, Rewarding Employees, Sea Travel, Seasite, Slashes, Team Spirit
31 Aug 09 How Regulations Help Your Business
Meeting planners today are faced with a changing environment, and these changes are not always friendly. Regardless of who is to blame, perhaps you should be thinking about who to thank. Here’s why.
Let’s take the medical meeting regulations. These guidelines change often and sometimes without ceremony or warning. They squeeze a little tighter every time, and give you less freedom to make decisions and offer variety. However, this can be a good thing–when you and your client are pressed for money, time, or both, who needs to be worrying about choices?
For example, let’s say that the regulations now include how much you can spend on a keynote speaker. You have a slew of them that you often use for your medical meetings, but now three of them no longer qualify because of their level of pay. This may leave you two. Now you only have two people to call.
The rub comes when you can’t fill the position. Let’s say that neither of those two speakers is available. You can offer less money to the other three–quoting the new regulation–or you will have to find another way. (more…)
Tags: Business Meeting, Business Relationships, Business Today, Choices, Debris, Decisions, Flexibility, Freedom, Keynote Speaker, Medical Meeting, Medical Meetings, Meeting Planners, Money Time, Slew, Speakers
21 Aug 09 Take Advantage of Federal Guidelines for Bailout Companies to Increase Your Value
As a business meeting and event planner, you are constantly searching for ideas to add value to your services. Recently the federal government published guidelines to the businesses receiving bailout dollars. These guidelines can in fact aid you to be a preferred planner.
The boards of directors of corporations getting cruicial relief from the government have to adopt a company-wide policy on any outlays linked to air travel services, entertainment and holiday parties, and conferences and events. This policy is not aimed to include justifiable outlays for sales conferences, human resources development, unexcessive performance incentives and other controls attached to a firm’s ordinary business operations. What does this mean? Here are a couple of the stipulations and ways you can employ them to cause your client’s businesses seem golden even if they are planning incentive travel. (more…)
Tags: Air Travel Services, Bailout, Boards Of Directors, Business Meeting, Business Operations, Conferences, Corporations, Event Planner, Federal Government, Holiday Parties, Human Resources Development, Incentive Rewards, Incentive Travel, Loyalty, Neighborhood, Outlays, Performance Incentives, Regard, Stipulations, Target, Travel Rewards
06 Aug 09 Fourth Quarter Play Strategies–Conferences
Even though the recession brought the bailouts, which in turn brought scrutiny into meetings and conferences, emerging from the economic downturn does not guarantee that the meeting business will spring back. However, the hardships don’t not guarantee that it will stay in the toilet, either.
Fourth Quarter Cautions
Conference and business meeting planners may see a slight uptick in business with no real surge simply because companies are concerned about their images. There are articles all over–including blog posts here–about the idea of image and spending. The flip side of that is this: meetings are important to education, motivation, and technology sharing. You can be prepared for reluctant spending by having lots of alternatives to lavish accommodations, high-tech meeting environments, and expensive dinners with high-priced keynote speakers. (more…)
Tags: Bailout, Behinds, Business Meeting, Economic Downturn, Education Motivation, Flip Side, Fourth Quarter, Goldman Sachs, Hardships, Incentive Travel, Keynote Speakers, Last Quarter, Lavish Accommodations, Meeting Planners, Property Owners, Recession, Scrutiny, Strict Rules, Uptick, Warrants
01 Aug 09 The Ultimate Meeting Destination – Las Vegas Has It All
Las Vegas is one of the most well known meeting and conference destinations in the world. From world-class resorts to unparalleled shows and events, shopping, dining, nightlife, golf and luxury spas, Las Vegas has something for everyone. Whether you’re planning a business meeting, wedding, or the ultimate vacation escape, there’s one destination that has everything right there at your fingertips — Only Vegas.
For more information visit www.VisitLasVegas.com.
Tags: Business Meeting, Conference Destinations, Destination Las Vegas, Fingertips, Information Visit, Luxury Spas, Nightlife, Planning Wedding, Shopping, Vegas Las, World Class Resorts
21 Jul 09 What is “Business as Usual?” No, really!
Many meeting and event planners are self employed. While this is always appealing to people who love independence and “setting their own hours,” there is much more to it than meets the eye. Here are three things you may not have thought about, even if you have a business degree.
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This can be one of the hardest-hitting realities you will face. You can’t simply hang up a sign, sit in front of your phone all day, then complain later when you have no business. You have to take matters into your own hands. These are the places you will need to turn to for getting the word out: (more…)
Tags: Business Advertising, Business Degree, Business Law, Business Meeting, Business School, Citizen, Decent Number, Event Planners, Friends Family, Human Behavior, Journalism, New Car, Own Website, Press Release Distribution, Realities, Snack, Social Networking
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Corporate Meeting Planner Resources
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