“Surviving the Holidays” Business Strategies

The holidays are a funny time for Meeting and Conference Planners. The typical client does not want to plan any type of a business event (other than a Holiday Party!) between Veterans’ Day and New Year’s. Normally, this is a time for many meeting planners to wind up their fall events and start preparing for spring events. In the current economy, though, it is important to look at ways to keep clients coming to your business year-round. Here are a couple of ideas to consider:

One is to offer a ten percent (10%) discount on your services to anyone who, for example, books their 2010 event by the end of 2009. This may motivate those who know they need to have an event to move beyond the “thinking about it” stage and get a meeting planner on board to get things moving for them (site selection, etc.) so they can relax and enjoy the holidays.

Another strategy to keep clients thinking about your business is to offer holiday specials for any events they are planning during your slow periods. Even those planners who do not specialize in holiday parties can handle those types of events – and, if this is not currently a service you offer, you really should consider adding it!

Not every approach or strategy is right for every business. You need to take your own particular circumstances into account but, even if you only use these suggestions as seed ideas, you can generate strategies that are right for you.

Do you have a unique approach to motivating clients to use your services? If so, please share your thoughts and leave a comment. We’d love to hear how you “Survive the Holidays”.

Linda Begbie • Executive Director, RDL enterprises

As you may have guessed, both of the options presented are ones that we offer – not just to our current clients, but also to new clients. For more information about the 10% discount or our holiday specials, please email Linda Begbie with the subject line "Holiday Special". – ed.