Money Talks

As planners like Cashill and Eickhoff successfully source more and more meetings, they gain the data on savings, efficiencies, and risk avoidance they need to make the case for a company-mandated meeting policy. Preparing to launch her SMMP at Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., Donna Patrick, CMP, CMM, manager, group meetings, events, and travel, created a slide presentation for executives in late 2007. The first big impression she made on them: Her approximation of the company's total meeting spend. “It's always more than you think,” she notes. Her presentation continued with an explanation of how Medtronic Meeting Solutions would mitigate those costs, leverage the company's spend, and identify areas of cost avoidance.

The executives were politely attentive at first, she recalls. But “the light bulb went on” when she told them about two Medtronic divisions meeting at the same time at the same hotel with two different planners, two contracts, two sets of terms. They understood that lost opportunity. She didn't get them to approve a companywide mandate, but they asked her to continue to collect data, which they promised to review.

One year later, she met with them again, showing the significant savings that were realized when meeting sponsors went through her department. Perhaps more compelling to the competitive division heads, she showed usage comparisons among divisions, and which divisions had logged the most cost savings.

The result? In late 2008, executives announced that use of Patrick's department for sourcing and contracting is now mandatory.

Bring in the Big Guns

If your executives haven't laid down the law, there's another group that can reinforce your message: procurement. A strategic meetings management program is all about consistency and control — two goals close to the heart of any procurement department. Not surprisingly, procurement often works hand in hand with meeting services on RFPs, contracts, and preferred vendor agreements.

Microsoft's Eickhoff has found that procurement representatives can play a useful role as enforcers. “In some situations, we may want to bring our procurement lead to a meeting to discuss RFPs and policies around hiring approved vendors,” she says. “If it's a challenging meeting, this can be helpful, as procurement can really put the stake in the ground regarding policies and the risks for not complying.”

Both Eickhoff and Sharon Marsh, CMP, CMM, meetings group manager at Medtronic Cardiovascular in Santa Rosa, Calif., champion the benefits of holding annual preferred-vendor events to allow meeting sponsors to get to know these suppliers.

“Our team hosts an annual event managed by our senior vendor account manager called Vendor Briefing Day,” Eickhoff explains. “All of our core vendors attend, and we offer a day of training, insight into our team's direction for the year, networking, and an opportunity to learn from the experts. We always have a session around policies and our procurement lead comes to speak and answer the questions. I think it's a unique opportunity for our team and vendors to have this direct access to procurement and see the ‘person behind the curtain.’”

In a previous position at a technology company, Marsh worked as a meeting manager within the procurement department, which planned an annual vendor fair. It included tabletop exhibits, along with lunch, and any employee could stop by to meet vendors, such as American Express, car rental companies, hotels, and cell-phone providers. “The primary purpose was to get employees to see which vendors they should be using,” Marsh says.

She suggests giving meeting sponsors a behind-the-scenes look at how preferred vendors are chosen. “When we contract with preferred vendors, we will include some of these users in the process,” she says. “By allowing them to see the parameters we use when going out to bid and the high standards to which we are going to hold the vendors, they buy in to what we are doing. Some will always resist, but if we show them sound business reasons behind the decision, it is hard for them to fight it. They will not look very corporate-minded in front of their peers if they choose to waste money by using non-compliant vendors.”

Today's Twist

No one wants to be seen wasting money these days — which makes the case for SMMP compliance all the more compelling. “We are in the midst of a significant global cost-savings initiative,” says Patrick at Medtronic, which has brought the benefits of using her department into sharper focus.

At Toyota, Cashill is getting the chance to meet some occasional planners when they find themselves needing to cancel or postpone a program for which a contract has been signed. “I'll get the phone calls for help when it's a contract they may have negotiated on their own,” she says. “It's been an opportunity for us to reach out and educate people. They may have to pay a cancellation fee, but we explain how we might have been able to negotiate better terms.”

Patrick has also fielded such calls from planners who may have “signed contracts with no rebooking clause and with an agreement to pay full penalty even if they cancel one year out.” Now they're wondering how to get out of paying tens of thousands of dollars in penalties. “I try to work with the hotel on their behalf, which has helped reduce costs,” she says. “However there have been a few occasions where the hotel pretty much said, ‘The contract does not have a rebooking clause so you are on the hook.’ I always politely remind the planner to go though my process moving forward. I get no arguments!”