 If you're a meeting partner that works with site selection firms to close business, this video is for you. We're going to talk about some myths that exist about site selection professionals and how you can work better with them to close your business. Partners, it's Leanne from leancaldorwood.com. We're talking about site selection professionals today, which is a topic very close to my heart as I am a site selection professional. And when I came on the scene about 11 years ago to work in site selection, I was actually moving from the meaning planning world. So I was not in a hotel and had any preconceived notions about what site selection professionals' perceptions were in the industry. I just joined this vibrant, industry in this vibrant challenge of growing a business with site selection. So over the years, started to talk to people about some things they believed about site selection professionals. And in all honesty, I was so saddened and disappointed and a little bit shocked about what some people think about our rules in the industry. So that's what this blog post is today. It's a bit of a touchy subject because it talks about some of the myths that exist about site selection professionals. Now, before I dive in, I should preface this by saying there's a chance that you have worked with some of these site selection professionals who live the myth. And wow, for one, I apologize that you've had to put up with that, unfortunately, less than ethical behavior. But certainly, it's not the norm. So there are exceptions to every rule with everything in this world. And the same goes for site selection professionals. But the truths I want to share with you today are things that we, a majority of us, that's how we manage our business and manage our relationships, not only with our meeting planner clients, but also with you guys, our meeting partners. So let's look at some of the myths, tackle them, and then maybe turn them around into truths about working with site selection professionals. Myth number one, hotel site selection professionals do it for the money. Now, there is a little bit of truth to this because our income potential is unlimited. We can take on as many clients as we can manage and those clients might be big in nature, leading to some pretty nice paychecks. But if you would have said I was doing it for the money during the first three years of my business when I wasn't making any money, yeah, that's a little farfetched. So what I prefer to, how I prefer to describe site selection professionals is they don't do it for the money so much as they do it for the challenge of building a business. And with great risk comes great reward and that's where the income potential kicks in. If you work hard, and I mean work your ass off, you can make really good money being a site selection professional. But if you join the firm because, a firm because of the flexibility it allows and you can choose your own hours to work and you don't do a lot with the time in your day because now you're working for yourself, you are not going to make a lot of money. So the chances of all hotel site selection professionals making a ton of money is pretty slim because you need to be a very hard worker. The difference is we're working now for ourselves and we got to self motivate to get going to earn that money. Myth number two, hotel site selection professionals steal our clients at networking events. I love hearing this one and here's why. I think networking events and receptions are a terrible way to pick up new clients. I think there's a lot more effective formats but that's not what I don't like about this myth. I think what concerns me about hearing this and I've heard this several times is that there's a perception out there by hotel sales or even destinations or even by site selection professionals that we own clients and that they are our client and no one owns a client. So if I was to walk into a networking reception and I hit it off with someone that works with you and your property or destination and that meeting planner feels that they have a good working relationship with me or want to start working with me. Is that me stealing your client or was that client already on the move to find a different fit for their working style? So we don't own clients. I've lost clients over the years just as much as I have found clients and that's on me. That's not because some savvy hotel person swooped them out from underneath me. No, I obviously did or did not do something to nurture that relationship and so that client has moved on from my services as well. So when we're in networking receptions we're doing what you're doing is we're networking and we're meeting new people and we're finding like-minded individuals to hang out with and learn from and yes, the potential exists that we find a new client there. But my experience has been finding clients in other places and it's certainly not top of mind when I walk into a networking reception to see how many clients I can get out of this place. So I hope that one helps. Myth number three, hotel site selection professionals have no industry experience. I don't know about all site selection firms but I know the one that I work with, they are very strict about who they hire and a majority of them need to come from either hotel sales experience, DMO experience or they are meeting planners themselves and that's kind of where I fall is. I came from the meeting planning world into site selection. Now, I have seen some firms mine included that hired sales people and while I think that's a great strategy because sometimes the characteristics of a strong sales person are hard to teach, hotel industry lingo is easier to teach. So if you find the right individual that has a strong sales background or strong relationship background, it's easier to teach them how to look at a hotel contract and how to understand all the hotel lingo and even partner them with another site selection professional that has that background. But no, a majority of us come from the industry and we know the lingo or at least a good good chunk of the lingo which makes starting up our business a lot easier to do. Myth number four, hotel site selection professionals are biased in their recommendations. Oh, this is a big one, right? Are we an unbiased resource or are we a biased resource? Well, here are some resources that are biased in their recommendations and that is hotels, right? They're going to toot their own property, which they're supposed to if they're a good sales person. Hotel brands who are also going to toot their own properties if they are good hotel brands. Destinations, they want you to visit their destination versus other destinations. So we are actually the unbiased resource and our unbiases stem right from the beginning when we start a search for a property or destination for our client. Because we're looking at the goals and objectives of that client and we include places that they A have probably never even thought of or places that don't pay into a DMF or aren't branded hotels. So we're turning over rocks and looking in nooks and crannies for things that meet their goals and objectives that potentially other suppliers may not have thought to recommend to them. So we are not biased in that way, but here's where our biases fall is if a property has gone to pot and they really need a ton of renovations, I do not want my client going there and I will tell my client that. On the reverse, if there's a property that is looking fantastic and the service levels are exceptional and all of my clients are having incredible programs going there, your darn rights. I'm telling my next client about that because that is where our value proposition is is providing that kind of biased information so that we are setting them up for success in whatever hotel or destination they go to. So does that help? I hope so. And the final myth about hotel site selection professionals is we are not suppliers. Now you know personally I struggle with the word supplier, I don't even think anyone in the meeting industry is a supplier. I prefer the word meeting partner. So hotel sales professionals are meeting partners, DMOs are meeting partners, AV companies are meeting partners, site selection professionals are meeting partners. But if you have to characterize the two and we're going to do the planner supplier thing like we've always done, we actually don't fall on the supplier side, we fall on the planner side. And here is why is it's the program's goals and objectives that are driving every decision we make as our clients advocates. And so that's why we fall on the planning side is we are looking at the contract, the proposals through the lens of the planner and through the lens of the delegates. So what is the flow of a property and how are the delegates going to flow through this program? And that's the planner head. That's not the suppliers take on it as they're trying to potentially fit square pegs into round holes. We need to try and fit round pegs into round holes, square pegs into square holes, and so on. So we really fall on the planner side versus the supplier side. So again, I hope that helps. All right. So those have been my five myths about hotel site selection professionals. There's probably others that you have heard, and I would be so curious to hear them as well. So if you could comment on this post or this video below and let me know the myths that you have heard in the industry. And the resource I created over at leoncaldardwood.com about attracting meeting planner business that actually applies to site selection professionals as well. So take a look at that resource because there might be some nuggets of information in there that help make your job easier as a meeting partner in trying to attract me to purchase some of your goods and services. So I hope you enjoyed this video. Have a great week and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.