Courtesy Louisville CVB
Tight turnarounds
A number of factors set small meetings apart from larger ones, and make it logical to designate one sales person to work with them.
CVBs have found that working with a small meeting can take as much or more time as a large convention. Small meetings require faster and more intensive service, given that their turnaround times are typically tight.
Small meetings also are more likely to be planned by the volunteer planner, especially for certain market segments including military and religious meetings.
“In going over our past leads and past groups we found that with some of the smaller meetings, the meeting planner might not have had as long a tenure or they might have been an executive secretary,” Outman said. “We found that the smaller meetings need a little more direction; sometimes they don’t know as much about dealing with the hotels and venues.”
Ric Luber, president and CEO of the Columbia bureau, made the structural change in the CVBs sales department when he joined the bureau a couple of years ago.
“We took an assistant sales manager and put them in the position where they would handle the smaller meetings that tied up a sales manager who could be working on a much larger piece of business,” said Luber.
The small meetings sales staff are sometimes viewed as entry-level positions. As a result, in some bureaus, the person in that slot changes frequently, as employees are promoted to other sales jobs.
In Palm Beach County, having the same person handle small meetings for the past three years has only strengthened the power of the position, said Crist. “Having the same person in place has helped even more.”
In addition to promoting its small meetings focus on its meetings microsite, Palm Beach has also sent its sales person to tradeshows that are geared to small meetings.
Statistics show payoff
Statistics show that a focus on small meetings pays off.
After having the small meetings sales manager in place for about a year, the Reno-Sparks CVA is up 25 percent in the number of transactions on the small meetings side, according to Leinen.
Columbia and Austin have also seen a rise in small meetings.
“The numbers have definitely gone up with room nights associated with the small market,” said Outman. “It has become a solid performing market for us.”
“When we added the third person, we saw a 32 percent increase in meetings booked for the year,” said Genovesi. “Having a manager focus on those size groups — it continues to be a high priority for us. That is the message we want to convey to our clients and our hotels.”
In Palm Beach, where the program has been in place about four years, “we’ve had double-digit growth in that market since,” said Crist. The increase has been about 10 percent each year.
Larger meetings often follow small
The payoff goes beyond more bookings for small meetings.
CVBs realize that providing good service for a small meeting could lead to a larger conference or convention.
“I think we have taken such good care of a small meeting that our clients get the confidence to share a larger RFP with us,” said Van Berg.
“We are seeing a large increase in associations with large programs that aren’t familiar with Austin that decided to do an executive meeting as a first step to look at Austin,” said Genovesi. “Often on these small meetings, you are working with a high-level executive that can make decisions about other meetings.”
“We treat them the same as someone who is bringing in 2,000 rooms,” said Luber. “It helps, especially with a short turaround time. Instead of them having to call 13 hotels, we can put the lead out and get the information for them.”
Susan Phillips, business manager for the Institute for Outdoor Drama in Greenville, N.C., experienced the service delivered to small meetings by the Louisville CVB sales team when the institute brought 50 people to the city for a four-day conference last fall.
“I can tell you I’ve worked with a lot of CVBs all over the country and the Louisville CVB was by far, hands down, the best,” said Phillips.
The bureau sent out her request for proposal to area hotels, accompanied her during a site visit and answered questions about transportation and other conference needs.
“I had never had such good service,” Phillips said. “Normally, I go around to the venues by myself. This time, Minerva, the bureau’s sales person, drove and I felt like a queen.”
