E-mails also don't do much to build the rapport that is so important in the meetings business. “You can't base a relationship on, ‘I was typing to you,'” Sheff says, adding that she likes to include a social aspect to her e-mail communications, even with someone she has not met. That extends to understanding what keeps people at their computers late at night. For example, she knows that when there is a snow day for the children of someone with whom she is working, that person will likely be working at night. “A lot of people work virtually now, so their lives are intertwined with their work and other things they need to get done,” she says.

Global Access' Powell is a fan of relationship-building in e-mail. “Because e-mail correspondence is becoming more and more casual in tone, I believe that you can still establish a great rapport with another person, even if you have never had an actual phone conversation with him or her,” she says. “You can throw in a joking statement or two using appropriate symbols to show that your comments are good-natured, or add a few exclamation points.”

It also helps to contact people the way they prefer to be contacted — which might not be e-mail at all.

Powell, 30, has found that the preference often breaks down along generational lines. “Older folks want to use the phone,” she says, “because I think they are afraid that their tone might be misconstrued or because they believe that there is a more human connection if you have [spoken] dialogue.”

Awareness of those generational differences has never been more important, Nierenberg says, because this is perhaps the first time in the history of work that four generations are in the workplace. “Every group can learn from each other,” she says, adding, “Each generation brings different ways to communicate. I have some clients who only want to text message. So you'd better be up on texting, especially for really young people.”

Leaks In The Hotel Pipeline

Just like a brief text message, e-RFPs can be a stumbling block to good communication. “Using different online tools and RFP submission tools has decreased some of the face-to-face or telephone conversations,” says Jennifer Seaborn, director of sales at SunStream Hotels & Resorts, Fort Meyers Beach, Fla., adding that the one-size-fits-all nature of e-RFPs can leave out critical meeting details. “Some meetings are outside the box, and some planners are looking for things that are different and innovative. Sometimes, those details are left out.”

Eli Gorin, CMP, an independent planner with gMeetings Inc., Aventura, Fla., says that telephone follow-up is critical when it comes to hotels outside the U.S. “I do find that many e-mails and RFPs for my international meetings must be followed up with a phone call, because there is no guarantee that they were even received. Also, for me, phone communication is key because you can then gauge better who you are working with. That, and you can show more interest.”

As many hotel chains centralize incoming inquiries, planners are unwillingly shunted to regional or national sales offices. While Global Knowledge's Powell has an established relationship with the sales team at a hotel less than a mile from one of her company's training centers in Cary, N.C., if she is looking for an overflow meeting room there, the hotel generally tells her to contact a regional sales office in Maryland. “While the sales team in Cary is very familiar with our setup needs, I sometimes have to start from scratch explaining those needs to whoever picks up the phone at the regional office,” she says. “In my experience, having more people involved and more distance in between them leaves you open to a sort of telephone game … the kind you played in elementary school where the last person always has a completely different idea of the details than the first. And who wants that to happen to their meeting?”

Hotels have also segmented their sales organizations so much that just finding the right person to speak with can take days. As one planner lamented, “Some hotels have 15 different people assigned to different group sizes. This person takes up to 50, this person takes up to 150. … I can't keep up with it. I don't know their systems any more.”

Another place where planners routinely find a disconnect is at the handoff between sales and catering. Like many planners, Powell sends a detailed brief to the salesperson at the time of booking, assuming it will be passed on to the catering department. But more often than not, that information never gets sent on. “It all gets lost in the shuffle, almost universally,” she says.