One of a meeting planner’s primary responsibilities is to manage the logistics of his or her meetings or events. To accomplish this, a planner must work with different suppliers that provide the products or services required to implement each logistical element of a program.
The way in which you interact with your suppliers can affect the delivery of the product or service to your attendees.
If you established a positive relationship with a supplier from the beginning, they’re more likely to jump through hoops to help you out at the last minute. If your attitude all along has been, "This is what I want or need—just make it happen," you may find the supplier less willing to help you solve your problem.
In contrast, if you’ve established a good rapport with a supplier, they’ll be more likely to work with you to come up with a solution that won’t affect the event, your attendees or your bottom line.
It’s important to remember that you are a representative of the company or organization where you work (or your client if you’re a third-party meeting provider). The way you perform your job and the way people perceive you doing your job are key communicators of your personal brand.
How your suppliers view you as a meeting professional is a critical element of your personal brand. Just as you might get references about the service or product a supplier provides to other meeting planners, suppliers do the same with regard to meeting planners.
Take a hotel, for example. Before negotiating a contract, a hotel wants to know more than just the history of a meeting planner’s past meetings, the number of room nights a group ended up using or how much food and beverage was generated. The sales manager wants to find out how easy it was to work with a meeting planner and how they interfaced with the hotel staff. Consider it like an interview.
The hotel wants to know if they’ll be working with someone who is a good team player or if the property may be dealing with a meeting planner who is difficult or inflexible. The hotel may determine that it’s not in their best interest to take on this piece of business and be less willing to offer the concessions the planner requests or negotiate the room rate to the planner’s satisfaction. It’s always easier to get people to agree to help you if you have a friendly attitude instead of a confrontational or combative one. Like the saying goes, "You can attract more flies with honey than vinegar."
Your personal brand is elevated every time a supplier perceives you as someone who is easy to work with. A supplier is less likely to tell others about a positive experience they’ve had working with you, while they’ll tell more people about a bad experience they’ve had.
In 1978, TARP Worldwide in Arlington, Va., quantified this theory. TARP performed a study for Coca-Cola that found that an unhappy customer tells 10 people about their negative experience while a happy customer may only tell one person.
If you want to enhance your personal brand, create a partnership with suppliers rather than an adversarial relationship. Let suppliers know that you value the service or product they’re providing you and your client. Remember, a supplier is not obligated to take your business, they’re choosing to accept it.
Maintain a positive standard with all your communications—written, verbal or non-verbal—as well as listening skills. While there may be situations where you need to be firm when negotiating with a supplier, do it in a manner that is diplomatic, respectful and courteous. It’s the same message that parents teach their children to "treat others like you wish to be treated."
Although the meetings industry is global in scope, it’s really a very close-knit community. It seems like the concept of six degrees of separation certainly applies to meeting professionals, because when you get planners and suppliers together for the first time they’re almost certain to find a connection—a person they know in common—and share their view of the individual’s personal brand.
Your personal brand travels throughout the meetings community on its own, so make certain that it always represents you in a positive way.
Sheryl Sookman Schelter, CMP, is principal of The MeetingConnection, a placement and recruiting company that helps corporations, associations and third-party meeting management companies nationwide fill full-time positions, short-term and on-site assignments for meeting planners. The MeetingConnection also offers career coaching and resume design services. Sookman Schelter is a sought-after speaker on career- and employment-related issues. Her book on career strategies and resume design, Who’s In Charge of Your Career? Creating a Strategy for Success, is available on www.amazon.com. You can reach her at 415.892.1394 or by e-mail at sheryl@themeetingconnection.com.
