 If you are currently in hotel or destination sales, or perhaps you've even been furloughed from your job at the hotel, the questions being asked right now are should we even be reaching out to meeting planners when not a lot of meeting planners are booking business? The short answer, my friends, is yes. And today we're talking about why we should be reaching out and how, stick around. Hey friends, it's Leanne and changes are continuing to roll throughout the meetings industry. And we find ourselves asking a lot of questions about engagement. Do we connect with meeting planners and prospect that business? What are the ramifications if we don't connect with them? Why should we do it? And more importantly, how do we do it that sensitive to their needs? I want to help start a dialogue that will answer all of these questions. And while I may answer a few of these questions today, some of these are going to be tabled for future posts. So if you haven't yet subscribed to my YouTube channel, please click on subscribe and the little bell to be notified of new content. Because as the weeks go on, we're going to continue this dialogue on why meeting planners and hotel sales professionals need to continually connect during this critical time. As of today, here's what I'm feeling as a meeting planner and here's what I'm hearing from other meeting planners out there. The answer is yes. Hotel sales and destination sales, AV sales, any other partners out there, we want to hear from you. Granted, a majority of our meetings for 2020 have either changed or been canceled and still 2021 is up in the air and the formats may look different in the future. But this is exactly why we want to stay connected with you. We need to learn from you and continue building relationships with you. The game has changed and you are in the starting lineup. We need you to be part of this conversation. And stay with me to the end of the video folks because I'm going to be giving you creative ideas also on a shoestring budget of things that you can do to connect with your planners that are really unconventional. These may be things that you've never tried before, but they are ways that you can stay top of mind connected with your planners and create engagement during this transition period. These ideas are not salesy and more importantly, they can be used by people who are even furloughed at this time because it's very important for you to also stay engaged if you're waiting to get back to your organization. But first, here is what's going to happen if you don't engage with planners. You see there is so much change happening at the destination, the brand and the property level in terms of operating procedures, availability, pricing, when you're going to open, when your staff is going to be back on site. We are almost starting from scratch with our value proposition and planners no longer know what they are buying if they approach your property for a proposal. So you need to communicate changes with them constantly. You need to stay top of mind and you need to continue building those relationships for when they actually need research and proposal information from you. So now it begs the question, how do we sell to our meeting planner clients at this time? Like everything else, our messaging needs to change. For starters, we're back to the drawing board when it comes to figuring out who the meeting planner is. A lot of meeting planners are also furloughed or they've even been let go by their organization. So we need to even go back and find out if they are still the correct contact at the organization or if we need to pursue a new contact. I did a video about researching potential clients on LinkedIn. You can find that video up here. Secondly, and not surprisingly, we are ditching the hard sell. This is not the time to sell your property. For starters, you may not even know what you're selling anymore. Now is the time for cultivation, not for selling. Thirdly, one of the things that's changing is around hotel operations and hotel procedures. Get that into the hands of your clients. That could help them with decision making and also help them with planning their future program. This includes your capacity charts and floor plans as they pertain to social distancing. We're starting to see these floor plans and capacity charts come out and they're really, really helpful for those who are hearing from their stakeholders that they need to have more distance between their delegates in the meeting rooms. So if you haven't started working on that resource, now is the time to get together with your team and map it out. Make sure you highlight any promotions or incentives for booking business at your property, including flexibility around cancellation, attrition, and your force measure clauses. Understandably, these are things that planners are gonna be looking at through a magnifying glass. So let's get ahead of it and ensure they have the information about what you are doing in their hands. Idea number six, provide value. So all the other ideas that are tangible in nature aside, provide them with something that has nothing to do with your property at all. They are on a learning curve like no other right now trying to figure this out just as much as you. So provide them with information and resources that can help them in their day to day and they won't soon forget it. And finally, be unconventional and creative in your strategy with connecting with them. And this is where my new resource comes in really handy. I've outlined a number of really creative ideas, a lot of them that you can do on a shoestring budget that will help you cultivate relationships with your meeting planners. You can find the link to that downloadable resource in the description for this video as well as over on my website at leoncaldorwood.com. I think you're really going to enjoy what I've outlined. And for those of you who are currently furloughed and you feel that this is best left with the sales team still standing at your hotel, again, my friend, I have some good news. These are things that you can do as well. And I encourage you to do so. You need to stay in touch with your clients. And I get it, your organization isn't paying you to do this work right now. But if you have the time in your day, I highly recommend that you investigate ways of staying in touch with them on a casual basis, using the ideas I've outlined in this resource. When you get back to your organization, you are going to be ahead of the game and you are going to have stronger relationships than you've ever had before. Don't let this opportunity and this time pass you by without being proactive in growing your personal brand and in growing your career. Friends, when I started this video, I said I wanted to start a dialogue and this is where you come in. I want to hear from you about how you are connecting with clients, how you are staying top of mind and any advice you have for people who are feeling stuck and just aren't sure what the next steps are in the industry. Please comment below this video. Thank you. Friends, for more sales inspiration and tips, check out all my sales and service videos here on YouTube or head on over to liankholderwood.com and check under sales and service. Good luck to you during this time. I wish you nothing but the best as you navigate these uncertain times and you grow and cultivate stronger relationships with your meeting planner clients. Bye for now.