Chipping Away at the Rock!
With the stores all decked out with holiday decorations and the chill in the air becoming more frequent, the next thing we know the holidays will be in full swing.
Is your center calendar full with holiday parties?
Are you marketing your holiday parties to your fellow Chamber of Commerce members?
Does your in center advertising mention holiday parties?
Is your center website showcasing holiday parties?
Do holiday parties have a presence on your Social Media channels?
Has your event coordinator already booked last year’s holiday party customers for this year?
If you are not actively marketing holiday parties, now is the time to start. Don’t stand back and wait for the business to come to you. Even though many centers do not have an outside sales staff, it is still possible to actively pursue holiday parties, or any parties for that matter. Challenge your event coordinator or other key employee to “touch” 20 prospective or past customers each week. Touches can include phone calls, emails, letters, or even stopping by their place of business to say hello. It’s all about building a relationship. A touch doesn’t have to be a high pressured sales pitch but rather just a gentle reminder that your center would love the opportunity to serve them.
This process should be adhered to all year long. It’s kind of like a sculptor chipping away at a piece of stone, week in and week out, then one day they step back and realize they have a beautiful statue. If the event coordinator becomes disciplined with having a minimum of 20 touches per week, even though there will be times they think they are making no progress, it is the nurturing of the relationship that will eventually pay off. Suddenly the Budweiser distributor that they have been “touching” for the past 2 years is in search of a new venue for their annual employee picnic that has a budget of $20,000 and the center is top of mind.
The key is discipline. Determine the number of touches that is feasible for your team and accept nothing less. It’s like disciplining yourself to save money. If you start out having $20.00 per week taken out of your paycheck for savings, it isn’t missed and doesn’t sound like it can amount too much. However, in 10 years without considering any interest that might have been accrued, you suddenly have a nest egg worth over $10,000.
Actively marketing your center to attract events, coupled with the unique experience BES X offers the customers, will provide a bright future for the center. You will be surprised what a little discipline can do to the bottom line.
If you haven’t started marketing holiday parties, start today. Click here for a holiday party Facebook Post and website banner. We have also provided you a Sales Call Sheet to keep track of those 20 weekly “touches”. Today is the day to start chipping away at your rock, so tomorrow you will have a beautiful statue.
“Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
~Jacob Riis
Additional great reads: Critical Importance of Having the Right People on Your Staff