HeadStand Consulting "TurnAround Tactics"

'Lost Business' became my Biggest Booking!

When most of us think about the business we ‘stole’…it usually engenders tales of sneaking around competitors’ hotels, clandestinely chatting up their customers at coffee breaks, or even making furtive phone calls with a newly acquired false identity. All great material for regaling our fellows in “cloak and dagger” tales but, unfortunately, never meant to be shared with the outside world.

But would you believe me if I told you some of my greatest thievery was much less the stuff of Mission Impossible…as much as getting back to the mundane strategies of “Hotel Sales 101” basics. Yeah, real heinous stuff like accurately recording and regular follow-up to Lost Business reports…and knowing the ins and outs of basic inter-departmental accounting. And finally, some very scary stuff - being politically-savvy enough to convince other departments that the Sales Dept. really does have “everyone’s best interest in mind”!!

Set the time-machine to 1981, when Marriott Corp. had ONE franchisee in Cincinnati, OH (now there must be 10-15 between all the Courtyards, Residence Inns, etc…) We typically butted heads with a huge Holiday Inn “Holidome” (BWP - BEFORE Water Parks) at the same Interstate exit but, back in those days, we were all very cordial…if not downright fraternal…with our competing colleagues. In fact, the gentleman that I “relieved” of the Cincinnati Insurance Account would some day get his company to purchase a huge training program that I was later selling. But I was not about to have him ‘one-up’ me…so I returned the favor by getting him introduced to my employers, and soon after he had a great position in the same (what was then) fledgling training company that would go on to be the largest in North America.

But back to how the steal came to be. My boss, the Director of Sales, NEVER reviewed a Sales call (we had weekly meetings with him picking out a few “select” call reports of the requisite 50 we had produced the week before…) without asking the outcome. If for WHATEVER reason we didn’t get it (or, as he shrewdly taught us…we didn’t WANT it), he then asked about the Lost Business Report. It could go 1 of 2 ways. First way - the business was not wanted because it had a poor arrival /departure pattern, too much meeting space given-up versus sleeping room block, etc. This was then sent as a “lead” to our closest and/or most naïve competitor. Talk about nostalgia - you know sometimes it was more fun comparing stories of how we “sold” the business we did NOT want to our unsuspecting competitors as it was to share our booking victories!

The second way was that we did NOT get the business that we WOULD have liked to have. Then it was filed as “Lost Business”, but a better name would’ve been “TEMPORARILY Lost Business”. This is now where the first “inside steal” takes place. I would sift through these LB reports every so often and usually I could find something that had begun to ‘smell better’…than when it had first been filed. Examples - you lose a piece of business over “too much meeting space”…but you know you have a 4-day city-wide block coming up later in the year that takes no space in your hotel. Now 20 rooms that needs meeting space for 100 - but pays a good rate and had nice F&B functions - makes sense! Or, you find one that you wouldn’t touch when you’re hitting 75% year-round occupancy because of the rate…but the economy takes a dive (are you listening - this is what should be going on NOW) and now it doesn’t look half-bad.

I come across Cincinnati Insurance, and it’s in the “low rate” pile. But I’m thinking ‘Hmm - I know some folks who work there…and they do VERY well?!” Dig a little more and see they “have to have” sleeping room rates less than $35 (remember - this is 1981, but that is still VERY low), BUT…come to find out there’s both a REASON…and (this is true with most business if you look hard enough!) a “neutralizer” - something you can get from them ($$$) if you just dig enough, go to the right person, and present it well. The reason for low sleeping room rates - the attendees are all “agents” and the company can’t/won’t pay for their sleeping rooms…but it’s their annual incentive/recognition weekend for their TOP performers…and the company spends FIVE TIMES the equivalent of one night’s room revenue in LAVISH F&B functions all weekend long -even fully stocked Hospitality Suites!

Here’s the second part of the inside job. I went to the F&B Director and presented my case - “If I can get you the entire July-Aug. Catering budget dollars in ONE weekend (it really was something like almost $200/person @ 400ppl for two weekends in a row)…would you let me “re-direct” an agreed-upon $$ per person to be posted to sleeping room revenue?! What do YOU think he said?! And, for those of you who fear the wrath of the Controller who is always finding a way to tell you how they “simply can’t account like that” - here’s a tip. Pay a visit to the GM’s office…with the F&B Director still foaming at the mouth over making up 2 months shortfall - and fill him in on how you’re going to have to ‘sell this’ to Accounting. He just may visit the Controller with you…with a big stick marked “Make this work…or ‘it’ will work on YOU”!!

So - the moral of this story - “Do unto yourself FIRST…and you may not even NEED to do unto others”.