November 4, 2014 Lead management

Outline The pain of lead volume today Overview of lead scoring Benefits of lead scoring How can lead scoring work? Demonstration of technology Q&A

Pain points we hear More unqualified lead volume than ever – where should we start first and how do we respond quickly? Evaluating leads and developing good options for a prospect is difficult and takes too long We want to spend more time selling and less time searching leads to determine which ones to respond to

How can lead management help? More time selling Optimize each lead Everyone working from the same data Lead scoring and quick profit evaluation allows for more time selling the best leads Quickly score multiple dates Faster decisions with common areas of comparison across all leads

TELL ME ABOUT LEAD SCORING

Leads and RFP’s Received By Hotel Lead scoring engine

General lead flow / process Rfp planner system Catering system Lead score Date scores Lead scoring engine Walk-in, call, etc. customer property Sales & Leads flow from sales system B C B C Rooms and function space inventory flow from S&C and PMS PMS C Other lead sources

BENEFITS OF LEAD SCORING

Response time is shorter Many leads are not won because prospects can’t wait for the time it takes hotels to respond The wrong leads often get worked first! Each lead evaluation takes too long Improve response times by: – Scoring leads immediately to enable focus on the best leads – Evaluating multiple date options quickly

Work the most valuable leads While quality lead volumes are usually not as high as a property would like, OVERALL lead volumes are often too high Managers must sift through leads where date and rate expectations are not a good fit for the property Through lead scoring, the property can focus on the leads that best fit key criteria, with a higher probability of winning

Evaluate more options for each lead Trying to fit groups into a hotel can often feel like a losing game of Tetris Systems make it difficult to evaluate multiple dates for availability, function space fit, rate closeness, catering targets, etc. Evaluate multiple dates / pattern options immediately to make it easier to guide prospects to “holes” in your vacancy

Compare leads across all profit streams Not all leads are created equal – even those who are requesting the same amount of rooms at the same room rate Catering, function space and out of room spend can cause very different profit profiles for two seemingly similar leads Score and compare catering-only leads with other leads Visualize and evaluate each lead and data across all profit streams to help hotels make better choices

Make decisions from common shared info Business review meetings – whether formal or informal – often suffer from each member bringing their own “facts” Technology can enable everyone to work from the same key data pieces – not just availability, but current pipeline quality, forecasted demand, profit views for each lead, etc. Paper-based lead tracking can make for inefficient processes Technology can make it easy to share Make decisions on taking business more objectively

Peak the peaks & Fill the valleys In many instances, the best opportunities for maximizing RevPAR result from choosing the best groups during high demand seasons It’s easier to squeeze more out of high demand periods then to create opportunities in lower demand periods Groups often are open to non-peak periods if you can identify the options readily Scoring multiple dates make it easy for the sales team to: – layer in groups with maximum efficiency in high demand periods – find alternate dates that will work well for the hotel

hire hunters & Closers, not order takers Manual processes today create the need for administrative paper pushing, manual entry into systems, and complicated processes to propose on leads Lead management can reduce time manually reviewing and researching leads Allow technology to help reduce the need for administrative tasks and costs, and enable more expensive resources to be focused on revenue generation

Fill in short term business quickly When high volumes of short–term business with an inherently short turn around come through, it’s often difficult to prioritize the best fits quickly Lead scoring can quickly identify the short- term gap fillers and enable you to respond and win the group

Find the profit in your pipeline Identifying the biggest leads in your pipeline based on room nights is one thing, identifying which leads are the most profitable is another Making profit estimations for multiple revenue streams can help to differentiate between groups that are similar in terms of room nights and even room rate Lead scoring can help you estimate and then focus on the most profitable leads in your pipeline

Spend more time selling Sales teams spend inordinate amounts of time retrieving data from a large number of systems and then manipulating it in Excel This takes valuable time away from finding and winning customers and also from optimizing existing customer relationships Give your sales team their time back to conduct valuable sales activities that increase conversion rates and ultimately RevPAR

HOW CAN LEAD SCORING WORK?

Lead Score Strategy Rooms Availability Margin on sleeping rooms Low occupancy Space-to- guestroom ratio (SGR) Group Pace Room nights Pattern Score components Availability Size profitability Hotel fit Score strategies can be weighted based on future Pace & Availability Large PRofitable Best Fit Size component weighted more heavily (e.g. when behind pace) Profit components weighted more heavily (e.g. when ahead of pace) Balanced Approach More equal weighting of score components Hotel fit component weighted more heavily (e.g. when on pace) Total revenue Function space Availability Custom Approach Weights set by property Margin on non-room Revenue

Each Strategy weights components differently large profitable Best fit Size component weighted more heavily Profit components weighted more heavily Balance More equal weighting of score components Hotel fit component weighted more heavily 1105 sizeprofit Hotel fit Custom Property sets weights

Differ strategy and set defaults based on pace

DEMO

Screenshots

Lead Screen – Additional Lead Score Indicators Flagged score ( ): score potentially requires update due to availability change, source system change, configuration change Availability: high level indication if space and/or rooms are open, limited or fully booked Arrival: represents the pattern with the highest score, will be preferred pattern is score equals other patterns Bold Account/Opportunity: bold denotes a “key” account that should be worked first Type: lead type can be Rooms and Space (R+S), Rooms Only (R), or Space Only (S) Completeness: indicates % of key data fields that have been completed in the S&C system

Differ strategy and set defaults based on pace

Drive pulls room block data from the CRM or C&S system, or sales can enter / edit as needed

Lead Score detail by Pattern Evaluation page shows leads scores for all potential patterns Detailed evaluation includes: – Lead Score – High level availability – Detailed availability – Revenue grid – Profit grid – Space maps – Space auto-assignment – Pattern history

Select function space, see what’s already available, what definite business might be able to move, etc.

Visuals assist in easily seeing availability, pattern fit, pace, etc.

EASY TO UNDERSTAND REPORTING ON FUTURE DEMAND

See how leads in the pipeline can fill pace problem areas

Lead Scoring Road Map Group Size of booking Account relationship Space-to- guestroom (SGR) Market Industry/ segment Repeat group (indicator) search Pattern flexibility % data provided (indicator) Pattern Fit / displacement Booking window availability Total profitability Date Flexibility (indicator) # of Markets Searched Pattern fit / displacement # Hotels searched Long term value Hotel market Seasonality Current market compression Low occupancy date Remaining demand Group Pace Need Dates Rate closeness Contractual expectations Probability of close Total expected value futurecurrent If available from property RMS

What should you be monitoring? Sales effectivene ss Time spent on quality leads Marketing $$ roi

Q&A