June 23, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Our CFO was in town a couple of weeks ago…I can hear some of you cringing already! In the course of doing the Seminar, I’ve heard horror stories from some of you about your bookkeeper, manager, or CFO.   Actually, I like our CFO!  I was actually looking forward to sitting down with him.

I can hear you now…”are you nuts?”. Well, yes I am, but you already knew that! I am also a loose cannon, and I freely admit it. I have friends around me who’s job (along with simply being my friend) is to be my anchor. They keep me from floating off into the clouds on wings of an idea that won’t work. I highly recommend it for everyone who is an “idea person”. It’s so easy to get so wrapped up in the wonder of a concept that you lose hold of reality in the process. So I welcome the chance to sit down and make sure I’m not going way above and beyond reality.

Kevin asked me to do something that really got me thinking. He asked me to sit down and analyze every show, convention, marketplace, and outside event that I do throughout the course of a year. How much do we pay for dues, registrations, and ancillary costs? And, more importantly, to prioritize the shows by which shows are:

1. Critical/Mandatory/Indispensable [15%] (this activity is directly attributable to the Company’s future success, and it drives revenues in the group area)

2. Required/Obligatory [20%] (In order to continue in our business, this cost must be incorporated into the business plan)

3. Basic Activity/Necessary, but not Vital [30%]

4. Not critical but needed [20%]

5. Not a priority/discretionary/optional [15%]

But it goes a little deeper than that…he also assigned a percentage that each category must fit into (those are the numbers in brackets above). So I can’t just make “my favorite” shows all #1…it must break down against the flow of percentages he outlined. It took several tries at realigning the priorities (and that work will continue, I’m sure), but that’s where the real benefit came in. In order to get the right number, I really had to look at some shows and be brutally honest with myself. Yes, I dearly love the people and the show in X, but how much business comes from it? Would we suffer if we weren’t there?

In the old days, this theatre was EVERYWHERE! We used to joke about Joanie going to every show under the sun…in fact, we used to tell people who asked about any group show anywhere to “go ask Joanie…she’s been there already”. In this day and age of spiraling gas prices and decreasing motorcoach traffic, we just can’t afford to be EVERYWHERE any longer! We have to make certain that the money being spent is money well spent! Does this mean I may not get to go to a show in XX? It just might. But my job is not just to sell seats, but also to be responsible for my spending.

This is a task I would strongly encourage you to do as well! If you need a sample spreadsheet to get you started, let me know, and I’ll send you mine (of course, without my numbers in it!). Sit down and go through your expenses…as I say in the Seminar, if you’re doing a show because it’s in a town you always wanted to visit, you’re doing it for the wrong reason! If you’re doing a show because the ROI is good, you’re on track. But you aren’t going to know if you don’t do this kind of work every once in a while.

Sure, it took me over a week to get it done, since I was working on it between phone calls, seating groups, and other responsibilities, but it was really worth it. I can see re-doing this about every couple of years or so, just as a “mid-course adjustment” tool (of course, I may disagree with myself in three years!).

And imagine the look on your friendly neighborhood business manager’s face when you hand them this analysis…they might even smile at you (for the record, our business manager ALWAYS smiles at us…)!

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May 21, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

I received an email from a blog reader (thanks…always appreciate hearing comments, thoughts, and such!), asking about a phrase I frequently use here. When posting about an upcoming trade show, conference, or convention, I sometimes use the phrase “Back to work”. They asked what I do between shows, if going to shows is “back to work” for me.

It’s a valid question, and raises a short-coming I don’t mean to reflect here. I work every day, so going away is not back to work for me. Sure, I love the shows, and really blossom when I’m in that environment. But I work between the shows as well, so I need to stop using that phrase so much!

I work the phone (followup calls, cold calls, inbound calls from prospective customers), I work email very heavily (I have a number of our best customers who do nearly all their business via email these days), and I write letters, posts, faxes, articles, and anything else I can find to write. As you may be able to tell from this blog, I like to write, and do so as much as I can. For someone who spent many years in radio, you’d think I would prefer speaking…but I nearly always wrote things out when I had something major to say on the air, or at least outlined it, so writing has always been part of what I do.

Actually, I’ve had several people say I should write a book on Group Sales. The Seminar is completely scripted, word for word. I don’t always stick strictly to those exact words, but I wrote the entire thing out. I could easily convert that into a book format, but I wonder if it would hurt the seminar to make it available in book format as well. I like to write, but I LOVE to teach!

When it comes to working with customers, it all comes down to what they want! I teach in the seminar that one question that must be asked of every customer is “how do you want me to contact you?”. And I use that information constantly…if XYZ Tours wants to be contacted via email, that’s how I contact them. If there’s something extremely important or confusing, I will call them, but I take their request to heart, and use their preferred method as much as I can.

So please forgive any confusion…when I go to a trade show, I’m not going “back to work”, and I promise not to use that phrase any more.

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May 15, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Go to any Group Sales convention, trade show, association meeting, or any other gathering of Group Sales folk, and you’ll hear the same question…maybe different interpretations, but the core question is the same:

“Where will the next generation of groups come from?”

We all know that, sadly, the “blue-haired ladies”, and their spouses/friends/significant others are leaving us. It’s a natural attrition that has happened for years…as the older generation passes on, another generation takes their place. Unfortunately, the new generation coming onboard is my generation — Baby Boomers. While “The Greatest Generation” has had no qualms about traveling together on motorcoaches, our generation is not interested. We are the “but we’re still young” generation, and we don’t need buses to travel. We don’t need to be stuck on a bus for that long! We can still fly or drive wherever, and we have no problem with doing that.

So how do we reach them? How do we convince these self sufficient people to hop on a bus with 50 other people and travel together? There are several approaches that are starting to work…and, of course, the price of gas is helping as well. Now it’s getting cheaper to travel on a coach than to drive by yourself.

ABA’s “Save a Penguin” campaign will help…as the word spreads, I think we’ll see an increase of Boomers going by coach, since many of us are environmentally conscious (or at least pretend to be). The more we can help get that word out, the more it’s going to help increase motorcoach business.  Carbon Footprints didn’t even exist a couple of years ago, now more and more people are checking on theirs, and trying to minimize their impact on the environment.

Then there’s “Social Networking”, or Web 2.0 as some call it. Our generation, along with the GenX and GenY generations, are getting more and more active online, and sharing with each other. It used to be that MySpace and Facebook were “just for the kids”, but more and more Boomers are getting pages, and sharing their lives with others. So I’m out there too….I have pages on MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn, and I’m having a lot of fun with Twitter. I’m still learning how these things work, but if I can be out there in some form, I can tweak it as I find what people are looking to see. And if there’s a social site that I’m not on, post a comment below, and we’ll meet there!

Look for me out there in the Social Sphere, and let’s be friends, or follow each other, or whatever they call it. As my mother always said, “Listen…I couldn’t hurt!”.

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May 6, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Back to work…after a month without any tradeshows, it’s starting to warm up again. I have a Senior Expo tomorrow, then I’m doing the GLAMER (Group Leaders of America) shows in Baltimore and Philadelphia Thursday and Friday.

I don’t think I’ve found many things in the Group Sales World that seem to “polarize” people as much as GLAMER shows do. Either you love ‘em like crazy, or you absolutely despise them. I used to be on the other side of the fence…many years ago, I did the GLAMER show in Philadelphia (had a booth next to the Dutch Apple, actually…amazing how often things come around full circle). I thought the show was hideous, and swore I’d never do them again. Worse than a trick-or-treat show, it was just a mess. The group leaders who attended did not care about anything except what freebies we had, and actually walked away while I was trying to tell them about the Choo Choo Barn. Rude? Oh, yeah.

But Joan Payne, the Dutch Apple’s Group Sales Director at the time (and one of my mentors in the biz) loved GLAMER shows, and did upwards of 6-8 of them every year. She booked business, she made friends, and she did very well with the shows. She and I talked after the show in Philly, and she tried to explain how to work with people like that.

It was the first time I had ever encountered what’s now referred to in Marketingspeech as an “elevator pitch”. Can you sell your property in 30 seconds or less? The name, if you’ve never heard it before, refers to being able to pitch your property in the time it takes for the elevator to get to the ground floor of the hotel where you and your “target” are staying. A booth at GLAMER really required being fluent in your elevator pitch!

Fast forward several years…GLAMER has changed, and so have I. I’ve got a ton more experience, I have my elevator pitch down cold, and GLAMER isn’t a freebies show any longer. No booths, no pop-ups, no displays at all. You sit, and the group leaders have signature cards. In fact, they can’t win any goodies at lunch unless they speak with everyone there. I love signature cards…they guarantee you a “captive audience”. They walk up to your table, hand you their card, and they aren’t going anywhere until you give that card back! They have to listen to you, ’cause you’re holding them up with that card.

Now, don’t be abusive, and don’t hold them an excessive amount of time, but that card guarantees you have time to tell them about your property, and give them your information (not necessarily your swag…you can actually give them brochures, schedules, and other promotional information).

But GLAMER is home to another important Group Sales skill that many of us don’t like to talk about. That’s FOLLOWUP! GLAMER leaders are the type of people who must be “touched” at least 3 times before you can expect anything from them. It doesn’t necessarily have to be phone calls, but I always make that call my last “touch”, and it does work. I will send them out a followup letter about a month after the show (once the CD with all the leads arrives), then give them a call about a month after that. No pressure…”just wanted to see if you received the information I sent you about 2009, and see if I could answer any questions for you”.

So I do four GLAMER shows every year, and I really like them! Actually, I was just doing three, but last year, I missed the Baltimore date due to a personal conflict, so I did Washington, DC instead, and it was amazing! Lots of people who knew nothing about us, but wanted a new place to take their groups. So I’m going back there this August, along with Baltimore, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. And I’m going to think about adding a couple more next year, if these continue to work well.

If you’re not doing GLAMER, and you understand about how to work followup the right way, you might give GLAMER a try again. I know that the suppliers I talk to at the shows do speak very highly of it! Might be worth a shot to boost your traffic! Of course, as with everything in this business, YMMV! If you don’t know what that means, please hire me for the Group Sales Seminar, and I’ll teach you…

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April 17, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Someone said to me the other day, “So, how much does ABA pay you to be such a shill for them?”. They don’t pay me a penny, but I’m an idea person, so I tend to gravitate towards those with fresh ideas! Lately, it seems, all the good ideas are coming from ABA!

Like the next Marketplace in Charlotte…we received the first EMail Update from ABA a couple of days ago, and I spotted something (as did several people who emailed me to ask about it). This coming year, each category (DMOs, Hoteliers, Attractions, and Local Receptives) is going to get a meeting with their category, and their representative on the ABA Board. It’s a chance to talk “amongst ourselves” about ABA, the industry as a whole, and to see what new ideas, new strategies, and new concepts are floating in our world. They’ve offered it to DMOs for several years now, and other categories asked for a similar meeting.

It’s not a revolutionary idea (I’m already helping with similar meetings for suppliers at a couple of the state conventions), but it is another way to meet our needs. And that’s where this industry must keep going…to meet not just the Operators needs, but Suppliers needs as well. I think the days of “this organization is here for the Operators — we don’t care what the Suppliers think” (yes, that IS a real quote from an Operator!) are fading away, and both sides of the table realize that it’s a partnership working together to serve the real customer, the group leader and his/her followers.

You can bet I’ll be at the Attractions meeting, and I really encourage you not to miss the meeting for your category. If you do miss it, don’t plan to complain about anything for the next year. You had your chance, and dropped the ball!

Then there’s the staggering of registrations, with Operators and DMOs registering the first day, hoteliers registering the second day, and us lowly attractions <grin> having to wait until the third day to register. At first, I thought it was kind of irritating…but given the server issues ABA had last year with about 3,000 people trying to register at one time, staggering the registration makes sense! So, even though I’d love to try to register on Monday, I’ll curb my hacking and wait until Wednesday to register (but I’m still reserving my hotel room on Monday, so I don’t feel left out!). I’ll still be sitting there at 11:50 Wednesday morning, ready to go, but after being involved in all facets of running websites for many years, I can understand trying to spread out the activity on the web server.

So kudos once again to ABA, and I guess I’ll continue to be accused of being on your payroll! Keep the new ideas coming, gang, and I’ll keep on shilling for ya!

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April 9, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Pennsylvania Bus is now over…as always, I love the trip to Harrisburg (or York before that). I’ve done this show over ten years now, and I know a lot of the “regulars” by now, so we spend more time sharing stories than writing business. But I know that the business will follow.

The PBA Seminar went very well…I miss Marc, Jeanne and Connie, but the newbies on the faculty did a great job. Julie was great, Linda was equally great, and Jim Palmieri was his usual impressive self…very funny, very insightful, and he really did his homework! I may just have to borrow a few things from his presentation for the Crash Course program. He really dug in to the whole ROI question, and had some insights I’d never heard…which is the goal!

And then there’s the award banquet. I had heard rumors that I was in the running for Travel Supplier of the Year, but honestly, I thought Lois would get it. She’s worked very hard on the Marketplace committee for several years now, and has done a lot for PBA, and the industry as a whole. So, when Jeanne Vice wanted to go get some fresh air, I walked out with her. And that, as I heard later, started the firestorm! The PBA staff grabbed Rich Gilbert from Maryland, and sent him in search of us. He pulled Jeanne aside, and told her she had to get me back in the room.

We were already sitting with Amy Books (inside joke) and Debbie from Susquehanna, and their Driver of Distinction award winner, so we knew how rude it would have been to not be there for the awards ceremony. But it was funny after the fact seeing how many hoops people jumped through to make sure I would be there at the end!

Thanks very much to those who nominated me, voted for me, and supported me. The clock will sit on my desk for a long time to come. Winning in North Carolina and Virginia was a delight…to win something like this at home is amazing! I love this industry, and to be the first ever recipient of an award like this is a real thrill for me.

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March 26, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Received an email from a friend, who pointed out that it’s been more than a month since I posted something here. Sorry! I didn’t know you cared that much!

Actually, I’ve been enjoying the peace and quiet of a routine life. No travel, no trade shows, no marketplaces, no runs, no hits, no errors and nobody left on base! Not that I don’t love all those things…I do. I think you know that by now if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time! But it’s also nice to not have any of those things to “worry” about for a while!

This year will be much easier…the worst travel block is already passed in January and February. From here, the only other really busy time is August and September, and even those months are not back-to-back- to-back travel. Out a week, home a week, and so on. And no, not another rant about a common calendar for all the tradeshows (hint, hint, ABA!).

And the industry is quiet right now. OK, Lois gave in to the Dark Side, and is now working for THEM, but other than that, status quo reigns. What? Lois…oh, she’s the new Outside Sales Manager for Perkiomen Tours! So she’s an Operator now, and expecting to be treated as such (like that’s going to happen!). It’s great for her, and a great opportunity for her to use her sales skills and help open new opportunities for a great company. So Mazal Tov to her, and all the very best wishes!

And that’s the latest, apart from the story below…let it be a lesson to you, please, and learn from my mistakes. And I promise not to stay away for this long again!

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March 26, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

In the next week, I’m going to be quite busy…first, it’s Pennsylvania Bus in Harrisburg from Sunday evening through Wednesday evening. Then on Friday, it’s our annual “Discover The Excitement” event here at the Theatre. On my laptop is some handouts for Operators at PBA, Seminar scripts and notes for PBA, and the script and powerpoint presentation for DTE. Can you already guess where this is going?

I woke up Saturday morning, and fired up the computer to check email, and do some more work on the powerpoint. I usually walk away while the computer boots, and I did so here. I came back a few minutes later to find the computer still booting. OK…no cause for concern. We all have “those mornings” when we wake up a bit slower than usual. Walk away, and start the sink filling to wash dishes. Come back, still booting. Now the hairs on the back of my neck are slowly rising, and the concern is growing.

I’ll spare the gory details…the laptop that’s faithfully served for 2+ years was toast. Hard drive failure, or so the websites said (glad I had my Mac Mini to fall back on). But what do I do now? I can replace the box, but what about the files? WHAT ABOUT THE FILES??

Thankfully, I was able to pull the hard drive out of the old laptop, and got an enclosure that will allow me to hook the drive up to another computer. But it didn’t work with the new laptop, or the old desktop, or the very old laptop that barely works, or NOW I’M PANICKING! Again, Mac to the rescue…the drive was readable on the Mac Mini (for a while). So I pulled everything off that I needed (even though I found more files I need, and now it won’t connect to the Mac again!), and I’m setting everything up on the new computer.

And I’m going to find an online backup service that will automatically archive everything I need for future protection. Fool me once, shame on me…

So please let this be YOUR reminder to go run a backup of your files before you end up like me!

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February 22, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

So I’m sitting here today, on a snow day with nobody in their offices, looking for something to do. So I decided to go to snooping around, and found something I’ve been looking for!

It seems that the initial information for ABA 2009 in Charlotte is already online, including registration dates! Now I know everything is subject to change, but hey, it’s a key date to know. If you’re an ABA Maniac like me, and you don’t already know, when you register effects your appointment requests. The earlier you register, the better your chances of getting those appointments you want! I was teaching this in Orientation this year, and even some “old-timers” didn’t know that.

So I’ve already added July 14 at 12:00 noon to my calendar…no meetings that day! I’ll be sitting at the keyboard, hitting “refresh” on my web browser, and getting registered as fast as I can!

Oh…the Charlotte website? http://aba.teameventmanagement.com/2009/ There’s even a tentative schedule on there…my lodging friends aren’t going to be happy (all appointments the same day again this year, guys!). But it looks like we’ve got an evening event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (YES!), and I’m sure plenty more for us NASCAR nuts while we’re in town.

I completed my evaluation of 2008 this morning, and did submit my one request for Charlotte, and I’ll post it here, too. I already asked the Charlotte folks about this, and they say it’s not happening. But I know that “MAC Gives Back” has become a marching call, and we’ve been very generous to our host city for the last few years, helping out raising funds for local charities. One of the best charities I know of is right in Charlotte’s backyard, and I hope ABA will consider doing something to support it…it’s the Victory Junction Gang Camp, founded by Kyle and Patty Petty. They are doing outstanding things for children in need, and I’d love to see ABA do something for this very worthwhile cause while we’re in town.

See you there? I sure hope so!

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February 14, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

If you’re reading this, you’ve landed at the last post about the recently completed ABA Marketplace in Virginia Beach. The Wordpress blog software lists these messages in the order they are posted, so you’ll need to jump down the page if you want to read these in the intended order!

Scroll down to the posting named “So Much To Say, So Little Time”, then read back to this one. Or just read ‘em through backwards, if you don’t want to be bothered with all that jumping around. Some things might not make sense at first, but either way, you’ll experience the highs (and lows) of ABA.

And yes, I’ve still got ABA Fever… does anyone know what day registration for Charlotte, NC opens? I want to be online about 15 minutes before it opens, hitting refresh, so I can try to be first in line again!

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