Target and Convert New Agency/Account Business

By: Ryan Moran - Director, Product

With a new year, there is an initial sensation of optimism. Goals are fresh and all are able to be achieved with just the right portion of enthusiasm, will, and ingenuity. Strategies are impervious to the pitfalls of the unknown, and will most obviously work exactly as they should. Stockholders, owners, analysts and managers are all very anxious and confident based on initial returns. Things are promising. Bring on the new decade. Execution will most surely take care of itself - how could it not? 

Rather abruptly, this rush of glowing sentiment ends. Reality sets in. Circumstances change. The unknown becomes known, and compounds itself. Calm gets replaced by unease. The new strategies - the ones that were different - the ones that were supposed to push the needle - the ones that generated enthusiasm and passion; those are quickly swapped out for the tried and true. Business as usual. Pennies from a stone. No plan survives first contact. Do something about your rates. 

The trouble with all that is that everyone knows doing the same thing the same way in a different year isn’t going to make anything better. As you slip back into the same routines, it’s discomforting - you know the outcome. You know you need to break the pattern. 

Change doesn’t need to be seismic. It can be as simple as looking for the thing you always and still need, but finding it in a different place. You might find the new place has better stuff. It’s the same stuff - looks the same, works pretty much the same, it’s just better. 

The following are some examples of properties making changes, getting better using the Hummingbird Platform and Kalibri Labs Data via Third Party View to target and convert new agency/account businesses.

New Opportunity Targeted + Converted

Problem: Weak loyalty program

Property Type: Full service, major market

Issues: 1) Weak loyalty program; 2) Soft brand support

Resolution: 

• Identify: Using Kalibri Data via Hummingbird Platform’s Third Party View the property was able to apply loyalty filters over high and low demand periods to identify agencies/accounts that produced high volumes of non-loyalty business for their competition in different rate segments. 

• Target: From this initial list of agencies/accounts producing high volumes of non-loyalty business for the competition, the property was able to identify and rank agencies and accounts based on revenue opportunity + likelihood of conversion - basing these determinations on rate differences, DoW demand patterning, lead time, LOS and rate category (i.e. customer type).

• Convert: The property was able to deploy its sales team against this prioritized lead list, and armed with contact information and the appropriate business intelligence around rate, lead time, DoW patterning and LOS was able to negotiate new business increasing the agency demand  attribution up ~3-7% YoY each month, over the course of 3 months.  

Problem: Weak corporate business

Property Type: Select service, mid-major market, corporate travel hub

Issues: 1) Weak, dwindling corporate business relative to competition/market

Resolution:

• Target: Using Optimization View to determine true corporate opportunity and an accurate corporate rate category competitive set, the property was able to apply this custom competitive set in Third Party View to discover new accounts/agencies as well obtain new insights on existing account/agency performance when viewed with a different competitive lens. 

• Identify: The property realized it had a rate issue vs. competition. They were significantly overpriced vs. the majority of their competition, and this was causing them to lose substantial business. When comparing themselves versus their traditional comp set, this issue was not apparent. Using Third Party View and their custom corporate rate category competitive set to compare performance, the property was able to identify specific agencies/accounts they were losing to the competition. 

• Convert: The property created a much more aggressive corporate strategy for RFP season. In doing so, the property was able to go back to agencies/accounts that they had lost and win them back as well as identify new accounts to pursue. They were able to improve quarterly performance by 3%

Problem: Weak GDS performance

Property Type: Select service, mid-major market, downtown

Issues: Weak GDS performance

Resolution:

• Target: Using Optimization View, the property was able to determine true GDS opportunity based on seasonality and high demand period. Concurrently, the property was able to determine different and more competitive sets by rate category, which allowed them to more accurately and thoroughly gauge competitive performance vs. property. They realized they were losing out on significant GDS production during certain times of the year.

• Identify: Using Third Party View, applying seasonal insight and custom competitive sets from Optimization View, the property was able to make a cogent and winning business case to ownership in support of targeted GDS campaigns at certain critical times of the year.

• Convert: Through these targeted GDS campaigns the property was able to realize a ~3-5% performance increase in targeted time periods. 

Takeaway

Change doesn’t need to be scary. It doesn’t need to be seismic. Nor does it need to be an indictment of the past. It can be as simple as a different perspective or trying a different place for the same favorite meal.