Bring in the Flocks…

…(and the $$$)!


A plan for business development at the Ottawa Marriott

— By Rosemary Vaughan


One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others — Lewis Carol




The Ottawa Marriott has an solid reputation within the Ottawa community and beyond.

Yelp — 3*, Urban Spoon — 71%, Trip Advisor — 3.5*

Coming from the hospitality & conference business, I have been exposed numerous times to the Ottawa Marriott for space & food. It has always been a favourable experience.

The job at hand is to raise the Ottawa Marriott’s profile as a desirable venue for corporate/association day meetings, holiday parties, social events, & weddings and as a provider of off-site catering. The goal is to substantially increase revenues outside of bedrooms.

There are many ways to bring this to fruition.

A) Face to face networking via local events — examples include:

  1. Industry associations (ie: CSAE, MPI, PCMA, CanSPEP)
  2. Corporate events (Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Ottawa Business Events, Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, WBN, Ladies Who Lunch, BNI, Ottawa Executives Association) — the list goes on…! Here are examples of networking events to attend…and networking events to book at the Ottawa Marriott! https://www.eventbrite.ca/d/canada--ottawa/networking/
  3. Consumer Shows — wedding/bridal shows, food shows, zoomer & 55+ shows. Here is a source for shows to attend and to book (smaller shows). http://10times.com/ottawa-ca/tradeshows
  4. I just joined the Ottawa Ambassador Program via Invest Ottawa ☺

B) Work existing friends, family and connections!

  1. I am Ottawa born and raised and have worked in hospitality & conference/events space for over 15 years. I know ALOT of people in this town!
  2. I currently have over 55 clients in Ottawa including associations & corporations. I also have a prospect pipeline of more than 250 Ottawa based event/conference clients. It would not be a bad idea to host a ‘welcome to the team’ cocktail reception and spring menu tasting? I know quite of few of my current clients are already clients of Tresa’s but the effort is collaborative and an excuse to gather! ☺
  3. My partner works as Sales Manager, major accounts at NewCap Radio — lots of networking opportunities and introductions available through him!
  4. Social networks…yes…let’s talk social selling!!


C) Social Selling!

I have more than 6000 connections via LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook with the large majority being LinkedIn & Twitter. More than 50% of those are based in Ottawa and about 25% of those are meeting & event planners. I have spent 5 years building my social networks and I am very adept at searching, tracking & engagement within alotted amount of time dedication. Typically 1 hour per day. Here are examples of opportunities that I uncovered in a total of 40 minutes (see sidebar notes):

ALL SORTS OF OPPORTUNITIES HERE! OFF-SITE CATERING AND GROUP EVENTS


ALISSA POSTED ON LINKEDIN AND I REMEMBERED THAT KINAXIS DOES PROMO EVENTS INCLUDING SOME IN OTTAWA!


PHOTOS POSTED FROM THE EVENTS LAST WEEK. OPP FOR 2016 AND POSSIBLY BEFORE IN PREPARATION FOR THE BIG EVENT
TWITTER POST WITH LINK TO THIS
WOULD BE FAB IN THE SUMMIT!

Last post led to this website — relationship & listing opportunity

I learned about Food.ee which is coming to Ottawa and is specific to catering delivery to group & offices. Worth looking into!

This came up as a group that some of my local Facebook friends are following. I am sure that occasionally someone posts looking for a wedding reception venue!

Found on Twitter…AQUAHacking/Ottawa River Summit

How about Pinterest Boards?

I HAVE USED PINTEREST TO CREATE BOARDS FOR POTENTIAL CLIENTS WITH IDEAS AND DESIGNS. IT IS A TERRIFIC VISUAL TOOL! SPEND $ HERE…BUT HERE ARE SOME TERRIFIC MONEY SAVING DECOR IDEAS


Social selling is a VERY powerful tool. It requires transparancy and listening! Did you know that there are more than 100 active Ottawa based LinkedIn groups? These are business driven with people looking for advice and also looking to drum up business.

Hot new social sales tool? Meerkat! I was able to get a terrific seat at several SXSW concerts and events via Meerkat streaming on Twitter. LOVE this tool!

Hot planner tool? The Pocket Planner App!

D) Existing Ottawa Marriott clients — bring them back again & again!

Take all of the above and convert to

E) Face to face exchanges via site tours, tastings and in-house promotion events

and then…

Follow up…follow up…follow up

…and close!