Whenever I speak with companies about their travel and meetings programs I always ask about their future projects and initiatives. I also ask, "what’s the hold-up?"
The usual answers are lack of budget, no support from senior executives, lack of bandwidth and resources and inability to articulate ROI. These are all challenging situations and each have their own requisite due diligence and work attached. But I have to be candid and say that, in this current economic climate, if you are not taking advantage of the existing buyers’ marketplace, you may be losing an opportunity to help your company leapfrog its competition when the economy turns around. You will also miss a rapidly closing window of opportunity to leverage your buyer’s advantage, as all signs are pointing to the economy recovering mostly in 2010. Don’t believe me?
The latest news from the Airlines Reporting Corp is that corporate travel finally seems to be in recovery mode. A story in Management.travel reported that ARC transaction figures from the largest travel management companies in November improved 6% year-over-year, the first positive numbers from that group in more than a year. Also, the story said that most of the largest U.S. carriers reported year-over-year growth for system-wide traffic in November.
Even though this is just a measure of airline traffic, there are other signs out there that a business travel recovery is in the making. Take the BTN story on the latest American Express Business Travel Monitor. It notes that while hotel rates in the third quarter continued to fall on a yearly basis, the pace of decline quarter-over-quarter has slowed substantially. And, in October, the average domestic daily hotel rate registered its first monthly growth since the fourth quarter of 2008.
Don't you think it's time then to take full advantage of the still-existing buyer's market to push through deals for 2010 and beyond -- while the pendulum is still swinging in your favor?
Here are my top reasons to make haste:
1 - The most obvious is budgetary. If we're in a recovery, it's still nascent. Besides, your meetings budget has probably not received any great infusion of new funds, if you're like a lot of meeting managers I know. So, there are still plenty of opportunities out there with suppliers, for example, hotels, to lock in relatively low rates as the recovery strengthens. This will allow you to do more with your budget, whether it's more content, upgraded F&B or even more meetings. Another point: If you wanted to establish a standard addendum with the hotel chains, now is the right time -- when they are looking for ways to lock up customer loyalty and revenues.
2 - Perhaps your competitors won't miss this buying opportunity (a window that appears to be rapidly closing). That's something to think about as they – with their limited budgets -- are pushing ahead and negotiating more training sessions, internal meetings or conferences with customers. All those extra meetings they were able to buy could play a key role in producing smarter employees or better products, and your company could lose its competitive edge down the line.
As we seem to be turning the corner, it's more important than ever to examine your meetings sourcing and buying habits -- not only to make sure they're as efficient as possible, but also so that you can find the most competitive rates and best value out there. Time and again, e-sourcing has proven the best solution. In fact, research shows that companies that use automated sourcing can reduce strategic sourcing costs from 4.8% to up to 8% of their meetings outlay. To find out more about e-sourcing and its benefits, check out this StarCite whitepaper.
Don’t procrastinate! Your opportunity to drive through backburner initiatives and projects is NOW. When things are slower, suppliers are more open to new and different ways to do business, and your senior management is also looking for ways to be more efficient. If you miss this window, you will pay the price when the economy recovers. Remember, everything is cyclical and if you miss this cycle, who knows when the next buyer’s market will come around. You don’t want to be doing the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” routine when this cycle is over.
The usual answers are lack of budget, no support from senior executives, lack of bandwidth and resources and inability to articulate ROI. These are all challenging situations and each have their own requisite due diligence and work attached. But I have to be candid and say that, in this current economic climate, if you are not taking advantage of the existing buyers’ marketplace, you may be losing an opportunity to help your company leapfrog its competition when the economy turns around. You will also miss a rapidly closing window of opportunity to leverage your buyer’s advantage, as all signs are pointing to the economy recovering mostly in 2010. Don’t believe me?
The latest news from the Airlines Reporting Corp is that corporate travel finally seems to be in recovery mode. A story in Management.travel reported that ARC transaction figures from the largest travel management companies in November improved 6% year-over-year, the first positive numbers from that group in more than a year. Also, the story said that most of the largest U.S. carriers reported year-over-year growth for system-wide traffic in November.
Even though this is just a measure of airline traffic, there are other signs out there that a business travel recovery is in the making. Take the BTN story on the latest American Express Business Travel Monitor. It notes that while hotel rates in the third quarter continued to fall on a yearly basis, the pace of decline quarter-over-quarter has slowed substantially. And, in October, the average domestic daily hotel rate registered its first monthly growth since the fourth quarter of 2008.
Don't you think it's time then to take full advantage of the still-existing buyer's market to push through deals for 2010 and beyond -- while the pendulum is still swinging in your favor?
Here are my top reasons to make haste:
1 - The most obvious is budgetary. If we're in a recovery, it's still nascent. Besides, your meetings budget has probably not received any great infusion of new funds, if you're like a lot of meeting managers I know. So, there are still plenty of opportunities out there with suppliers, for example, hotels, to lock in relatively low rates as the recovery strengthens. This will allow you to do more with your budget, whether it's more content, upgraded F&B or even more meetings. Another point: If you wanted to establish a standard addendum with the hotel chains, now is the right time -- when they are looking for ways to lock up customer loyalty and revenues.
2 - Perhaps your competitors won't miss this buying opportunity (a window that appears to be rapidly closing). That's something to think about as they – with their limited budgets -- are pushing ahead and negotiating more training sessions, internal meetings or conferences with customers. All those extra meetings they were able to buy could play a key role in producing smarter employees or better products, and your company could lose its competitive edge down the line.
As we seem to be turning the corner, it's more important than ever to examine your meetings sourcing and buying habits -- not only to make sure they're as efficient as possible, but also so that you can find the most competitive rates and best value out there. Time and again, e-sourcing has proven the best solution. In fact, research shows that companies that use automated sourcing can reduce strategic sourcing costs from 4.8% to up to 8% of their meetings outlay. To find out more about e-sourcing and its benefits, check out this StarCite whitepaper.
Don’t procrastinate! Your opportunity to drive through backburner initiatives and projects is NOW. When things are slower, suppliers are more open to new and different ways to do business, and your senior management is also looking for ways to be more efficient. If you miss this window, you will pay the price when the economy recovers. Remember, everything is cyclical and if you miss this cycle, who knows when the next buyer’s market will come around. You don’t want to be doing the “shoulda, coulda, woulda” routine when this cycle is over.
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