Your Profile Sheet is your most important group sales tool. Here’s how hotels, attractions, restaurants, and DMOs can build one that converts.
Your research is done. The appointments are set. You’ve packed clean clothes. Your group sales superhero cape is pressed. Your out-of-office email is fully activated. You are locked and loaded, let’s hit the road.
Wait!
Whether you’re heading out on a sales mission or attending a travel marketplace, here’s how to be ready with your most important sales tool.
Having a Profile Sheet for your business is essential when venturing into the group market. Your iPad isn’t enough. If you’re prospecting for groups, you need a marketing piece that talks to the group planner and anticipates their needs and questions. Remember, if you don’t anticipate and answer the tour planners’ questions, your best hope is they’ll ask the questions.
This printed piece should be 8.5″ x 11″, four color with photographs and printed both sides. Your profile sheet should also be saved as a PDF for follow-up and responding to telephone and e-mail inquiries as well as pertinent follow-up to trade show appointments.
The Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) and supplier Profile Sheet have the same purpose, but will vary slightly. Keep in mind the DMO sells the destination. Suppliers are certainly promoting the destination, but their Profile Sheet is selling their business.
There are 6 components of a good Profile Sheet.
1. Who Are You?
For all suppliers a message from the owner/manager or executive director is a good way to show management’s commitment to your group program. Planners need to feel comfortable. One of the better messages I’ve seen is a restaurant owner’s message that shared his pledge to servicing groups.
2. What Are You?
Here’s your opportunity to tell planners what’s special about your destination, or property. Give serious thought to the group market(s) you’re targeting. All groups are of special interest, but often differ in their needs. How you highlight yourself to a traditional senior market, or religious travel group may differ from a student group, or outdoor group. Remember to address your Profile Sheet message to the type of groups you are targeting.
3. Where Are You?
Location information for the DMO’s Profile Sheet deals with how a group gets there. What are the distances from your popular points of origination? Showing a map, or mileage and drive times adds personalization. The larger the destination, the further your points of origination will be, maybe even in fly times from other gateway airports.
What Interstate highways, U.S. highways are servicing your destination? If you’re an hour off a major Interstate, assure the planner you’re “conveniently located, or just a scenic” hour drive from the interchange. Is Amtrak servicing your destination? What are the nearest airport(s) and airlines servicing your destination?
For small suppliers, location information is just as important. Terminology like, “Conveniently located near…” doesn’t work. Accommodations need to be specific with drive time and mileage to the area’s major attractions and shopping. However, on the hotelier’s Profile Sheet it’s permissible to state, “Within 20 minutes of a dozen group-friendly restaurants.”
For attractions and shopping suppliers, it’s perfectly acceptable to state, “Within 20 minutes of all areas, group-friendly hotels and restaurants.” Restaurants need to be as detailed as possible. Mileage and drive times from major attractions and shopping venues should be included on the Profile Sheet.
4. Why Would a Group Visit You? Cover Your Group Policy Here
Here’s where you cover the nuts and bolts of your group policy. What constitutes a group rate? 10, 25 guests / 15 or 20 rooms? What’s your complimentary (COMP) policy and at what numbers of paid guests/rooms do you COMP the escort, the driver and local guide? What are your deposit, refund and cancellation policies? Do you provide an on-coach welcome, or welcome reception and baggage service? Are you a member of a national, regional or state professional tour operator/motorcoach association?
Note: Rates are not part of your Profile Sheet. Remember tiered pricing and know where your prospect fits before offering prices. Let’s not leave money on the table.
5. When Are You Open?
This sounds pretty obvious, but your hours of operation need a home. An attraction opening at 10 a.m. doesn’t need a group on their doorstep at 9:30. If a restaurant that opens for dinner at 4 p.m. will do lunch at noon for groups of 25 or more, state that offer and time.
If your group sales hours differ from your hours of operation, spell it out. Your telephone number, e-mail address, website and social media links are must-haves. Consider a headshot of your group sales person. Planners like to do business with people they know and a seven-minute encounter with you across an eight-foot table is hardly something they’ll remember six months down the road.
6. Let Words Tell Your Group Sales Story
With all due respect to my art director friends, the information conveyed on a Profile Sheet takes precedence over design. Let’s get your copy together first and have the designer do his/her magic around the message. With that said, images do tell a story.
A destination’s iconic photographs should be part of the Profile Sheet. A hotel property’s concrete and steel exterior only works in a scenic setting. A restaurant’s image of its well-plated meal is well served. Attraction and shopping images that tell a story in dramatic fashion certainly support their message.
No two Profile Sheets will look and sound the same. The outline presented here is a good place to begin. The challenge that awaits you is blending the required business-to-business information with a creative selling message.
Keep reading: Discover how to partner and package for group travel success >>
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