To be or not to be a DMC Whom should you meet at trade shows?

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Everybody knows that we should meet “decision makers” but who are these decision makers? In most cases meeting a “President,” a “Vice President,” or a “Chairman” is helpful, but it does not mean that you met the real decision maker in your area. It all depends on the size of the company and its structure.

Many times titles do not really help you to find out who is the decision make. For example a “ Transportation Manager “ in a large incentive house is only responsible for negotiating the best air transportation to get the incentive to the destination but he does not propose the destination or select the DMC.

The best way to find out is to ask the: “Who is the responsible person for my area, who proposes the destinations, who chooses the DMC?” For the large Incentive Houses in general experienced DMC’s concentrate their efforts on meeting with:

Purchasing Managers
Travel Managers
Product Development Managers
Account Executives
Operations Managers

It is always helpful to know and meet the Presidents and VIP’s of a large company but it is more likely that when the opportunity will arise you will do business with one of the officers mentioned above.

For Incentive Travel Fulfilment companies and specialised Travel Agencies however, it all depends on the size of the company. You will find that for smaller companies the Operations Manager might be the person you need or that the President who is active in a small company is the only decision maker.

When talking to a prospective client the DMC should ask such relevant questions as:

Who are the decision makers
Their area of responsibility
Number of staff
Number of incentives or meetings handled per year
Average size of groups etc.
Industry specialisation

These questions will help you built up a reliable data base and target accordingly your future sales efforts. Using a standard sales report with all the questions you need to ask will help you not to forget any and to better qualify your contacts. You can download a sample of a sales report from this link.

At the next issue: Sales Trips

© Tasso Pappas CITE
Tasso Pappas is President of the SITE Greek Chapter and served as President of SITE Intl. in 2000. This article is an extract from his book “To be or not to be a DMC” which he wrote in 1996 as his thesis for the certification CITE (Certified Incentive Travel Executive). More information about Tasso Pappas you can find at https://sites.google.com/site/tassopappasconsultancy/
Contact: tassopappas@otenet.gr.