i need it yesterday…

Post by TMM guest blogger
Lauren Stout, DMCP, CTA, Director of Sales

One of the most prominent changes in the hospitality industry is the reduction in pre-planning time for a program.  Historically, DMC involvement in program planning would be requested 3-6 months in advance, or longer. Now, it is not uncommon for us to get requests for program site, planning and operation only 30-90 days out.  The shortened planning window may sound stressful, but it has given us the opportunity to adapt our systems.  Here are a few things that are allowing us to remain continually flexible:

• Proactive receipt of information: we don’t wait for vendors to advise us of their changing rates – our sales team is aggressive in requesting all pricing from vendors, venues and suppliers to have it on hand for a quick turn-around. 
• Modern Software: Adaptation of new modern software helps us prepare our proposals more quickly and efficiently to meet deadlines… time is a luxury these days!
• High Impact Electronic Media: The advances in our software development have expanded our proposal capabilities immensely. We are able to produce proposals that are sensory and include not only still shots, but video and sound clips embedded in them. This paints the picture for any event that is right around the corner, and perhaps there will not be time in the planning cycle to produce a table set. 
• Early Operational Involvement: When the planning window is so close to the operational window, we are required to involve operations immediately from the beginning of the sales process. This allows for the most thorough transfer of knowledge and comfort level between our clients and our operations team.
• Educating our Partners: We have an obligation to advise our partners in the hospitality industry of the shortened planning cycles that we are experiencing, and also let them know what type of information is most beneficial to us and what formats are most accessible for a quick turn-around.