Open Forum

I work for a hotel, and as a venue I'd love to know planners' thoughts on venues cold calling them for business. What are your pet peeves and what do you find the most intriguing and then actually consider the venue for future events? 

#SourcingaVenue

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Teresa James
Director of Sales
Aloft Gainesville University AreaUnited States
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Hi Teresa,

I would not want cold calls. 

Now... let me put on my sales and marketing hat for you! Can you promote your hotel within the Cvent sourcing tool? We use that and find it very helpful and a huge time saver!

I'm also thinking that if you knew a company had used a Gainseville area hotel in the past for a function... those would be worthy cold calls to make! If I had an event in Gainesville in the past, but not at your hotel, I think it would be very appropriate for you to call me, and if I was planning another event in the same area, I would take your call. 

Hope that's helpful!

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Lori Wildman
Marketing Director
DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.United States
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I'm not a fan of cold calls as often my days are already booked to capacity and if I'm actually able to answer my phones, I'm likely in the process of hopping on a scheduled call or am waiting on someone to return my call to discuss something.  I'd prefer to have an email request for a 15 minute call or meeting and get an elevator pitch along with collateral (digital or brochure if you stop by in person).  Often I'm not looking for a solution at that particular time, but having something to reference when a client (I'm third-party) has a request becomes beneficial.

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Julie-Michelle Davis, CMP
Meetings Manager
Amex GBT - USA
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Hi Teresa,

I personally would not want cold calls.  I would prefer an email/information on the venue - rate cards etc. I work for a large university and we have SO many rules that cold calling is pushy for us. I need to see that a hotel can give us a preferred rate, meet certain parameters etc.  I work a lot with a central reps from the larger corporate hotel chains and this has always been helpful. One POC and I can get direct contacts to hotels based on where my event is in the Metro DC area.   

Hope that helps!

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Lesley Irminger
Events Manager, College of Public Health
George Mason - Office Of University EventsUnited States
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Don't call. I know people think it's more effective than email, but for me it's just an annoyance. I'm in meetings most of my day, and I don't want to be interrupted by a call I'm not expecting. 
The other thing is that I want to know you know something about the events we hold. Does your hotel have enough breakout rooms and guest rooms to host us? Is your main room big enough? Show that you've done some homework.

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Elena PEREZ
Communications Coordinator
SEIU - UHWUnited States
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While I'm not a huge fan of cold calls, I understand what you're looking to achieve. As many have said here - an email with an intro, and links to check out your property would be a great start. In my role, I would look at the links and decide if a conversation is necessary and follow up on my own. I think if we are too big or won't work for your property, we've just saved each other time by not discussing it on the phone.

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Beth Vriesen.
Events Registration Administrator
Associated Bank Corporation
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Agreed with all the prior comments. A cold call these days is a lab unwelcome interruption (to be brutally honest). But I love what Cvent Celebrity does go highlight venues in some of the challenges. I'm not sure what that costs but it's a great way to get me to read about a venue I may not think I need to know about and either a) it applies more than I thought it would or b) I have knowledge for future programs. 

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Stacy Wright
Senior Manager, Meetings& Events
Sight Sciences IncUnited States
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What are your pet peeves and what do you find the most intriguing and then actually consider the venue for future events? 

pet peeves- the hotel being flexablel and working with issue that arrise. 

Future events- that is alway a possibility

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Mary Ann Hall
Event Specialist
Federal Reserve System
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I don't think we'd appreciate that as we are specific in the venues we search for, I think it'd be better to just get your place out there online or in the cvent database and we'd find you.

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Rachel
NJ
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Teresa, 

As a fellow Hotel sales professional that has been selling for over 20 years, I have found that cold calls are not received very well. One strategy I have used to connect with new Planners is to send them a short intro email and request a call with them sometime in the future . I try to ask for 10-15 minutes of their time and coming out of COVID I found that people do want to talk on the phone but it needs to fit within their schedule.

Dan Sadler

Senior Sales Manager

Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter

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Dan Sadler
Senior Sales Manager
Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp QuarterUnited States
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I am not a fan of cold calls. Generally when sourcing events we know where our attendees are looking to go year to year. If were interested in a location as a possible home for an event we will always reach out. Generally I feel like it ends up wasting everyone's time on these long calls about the benefits of this location when I know it won't work for our events because of location, size, distance from the airport, etc. 

And if we hadn't considered the location, I would much rather receive the information in an email anyways. This way I can review everything as needed, I have all of the information in front of me clearly presented and I can do it at a time that works better so I can carefully and fully review it, rather than being thrust into a conversation I wasn't fully prepared to have.

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Kim Tabor
Conference Systems Manager
GIE MediaUnited States
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I think maybe my previous post didn't go through, so trying again!

Don't call. I know people think it's more effective than email, but for me it's just an annoyance. I'm in meetings most of my day, and I don't want to be interrupted by a call I'm not expecting. 

The other thing is that I want to know you know something about the events we hold. Does your hotel have enough breakout rooms and guest rooms to host us? Is your main room big enough? Show that you've done some homework.

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Elena PEREZ
Communications Coordinator
SEIU - UHWUnited States
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Hi, 

It might be hard to find someone who likes cold calls but you could try other forms of communication. Maybe advertising within your network first or using the Cvent sourcing tool which has helped out some of my friends in the past! 

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Josue Estrada Murillo
Office Coordinator
Boettcher FoundationUnited States
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