Strategic Meetings Management

In my blog, I spend a lot of space writing about what companies are doing to create and improve strategic meetings management programs (SMMPs) and how their efforts are rewarded by tighter control over costs and greater bargaining power with hotels and other suppliers.

There's a great deal of work, planning and collaboration that meeting, travel and procurement managers must do to make an SMMP a reality -- especially on a global scale.
But let's look at things from outside the box for a minute. Sometimes meeting managers are so busy running around building their programs to run like clockwork and produce results on the corporate side -- for example, getting buy-in from senior executives, working with procurement and legal departments on setting up standard contract addendum, creating policy on using appropriate vendors and setting spending guidelines for event planners -- that they neglect to make sure their preferred suppliers can fully support their program strategies.

For example, if you want to deploy a global meeting card program, can your vendor provide the kind of aggregated global data you need in an easily accessible format that will help you analyze expenditures by spend type, vendor, and other categories -- information you can use to tighten control and boost purchasing leverage?  Can they deliver the data in a timely pre-agreed-upon delivery date?  Will you own your own data, or will your supplier need to carve out the data from their total client database?

Because so many companies are waking up to the promise of SMMPs, their vendors, too, are enthusiastic to do their part. But, how can you tell if your suppliers are ready to support your program strategies? If it isn’t already, your due diligence should include pointedly asking them to demonstrate their readiness. For example, consider:

- Asking hotel partners what their average response time is for e-RFPs, (and can all properties even answer electronically?)
- Requesting testimonials from current (and former) customers (You could get some revealing information and opinions from old clients!),
- Analyzing suppliers based not just on low price quotes, but also whether their business and service goals match your SMMP mission, objectives and strategies.

It's a beautiful thing to develop a well-built SMMP, including executive sponsorship, enterprise-wide support and controls, and solid strategies in place to save your company money and mitigate risk. But partnering with suppliers who aren't equipped or ready to support your program fully -- perhaps through lack of consistent service & functionalities or technologies that haven’t been tried and tested in a global environment -- will turn your SMMP dream into a living nightmare. Today the cost for choosing the wrong supplier is more costly than any cost savings you thought you'd be achieving.  The loss of credibility and program implementation momentum you will experience will be detrimental, not just to your programs and company but possibly your career. 

The decision to select suppliers who can best align with your strategies and those of your company are more important than ever; make your choices wisely.