Bottoms Up

The quickest way to embrace commercial strategy is to start from the bottom up. Let's agree that Commercial as a discipline combines marketing, sales, and revenue management. We know that at all phases of the "marketing funnel," all three disciplines are represented. So to start at the bottom and work up is the path of least resistance.

A commercial strategy takes each of the individual discipline's strategies and amplifies them by applying strategies from the other two disciplines. The lowest-hanging fruit to optimize commercially is at the conversion or revenue management level. These are already existing offerings and can easily be optimized by applying sales and marketing strategies to them. Participation in the next Yield Meeting could be the first step in embracing Commercial Strategy in your organization.

Consider a case study from the bottom up:

For this example, let’s use packages. Packages tend to be a thorn in the side of revenue management; they take time to build and are the lowest-selling segment of the sales strategy. When left for Revenue Management to manage on their own, we see the following:

• The pricing often lacks value as they are frequently priced by adding up the retail value of the package elements as a means to determine the price. At best, the packages will have a small amount shaved off the top to show value.?
• The package elements are effortless, choosing items under the hotel's roof. The true value of a package is to create an experience curated for the guest.
• The packages are not published anywhere outside of the booking site, along the booking path; if they are booked, it is out of luck that the customer found them.

If we apply commercial strategy against our packages, this is how they change even without starting over, but simply by optimizing through commercial strategy.

First, we look to see what packages we are offering today. Auditing these and building them out is the lowest-hanging fruit.

• What is the name of the package? Does it inspire the guest to book by describing the experience they can expect if they buy? Bed and Breakfast vs. Fresh Start
• What are the package elements? Is it a breakfast voucher given at check-in vs. a prix fixe breakfast delivered to your room, offering a tray full of color and a note of inspiration to start the guest's day? One is a process, and the other is an experience.

Where are the packages published?

• Inevitably they are in the sales strategy on the booking site. However, have we shared them with the brand's "deals" landing pages to get additional awareness?
• Have we considered sharing the package with the CVB for their site? Or other 3rd parties that promote similar packages? Have we shared with our Sales teams to give to their clients booking experiential travel for consideration?

How are the packages marketed? Beyond where they “live,” are they actively marketed??

• The best place to start to get mileage from your packages is with your PR agency. Ask what packages are getting media inquiries, and build those!
• Promote on all of your social media channels through targeting and asking for promotion with your partners; brand, CVB, local pubs, local event calendars, etc.

In this case study, we flip the funnel over to take what already exists to amplify through awareness and consideration to optimize conversion. Starting from the bottom up, review the segmentation to determine; what segments are not selling, and apply commercial strategies through marketing and sales. Analyzing the growth of these segments should be tangible, considering the previous performance of these segments and providing the benchmark.

Bottoms Up, Friends! Cheers!!

Lori Kiel