Guidelines For Pricing Team Meetings

Without regular inventory management meetings, the flow of important pricing information will be delayed or worse, critical decisions will not be made at all. Proper internal structures ensure that strategic issues are addressed effectively and on a timely basis.

Attendees should include: DOS; GSM; LSM; NSM. Other participants as follows: Traffic Mgr. for first 10 minutes to discuss flow of orders from sales; a different member of the sales staff each week; GM can monitor any meeting.

• The goal of the Pricing Meeting is to determine how much inventory will be sold at what prices. The information called for in the Pricing Meeting Worksheet is essential. You may want to complete the following worksheet prior to the meeting.
• If weekly Pricing Meetings regularly run longer than 45 minutes something is wrong or issues beyond the scope of a Pricing Meeting are involved. It’s easy to get off on a tangent and then perceive that Pricing Meetings take too long. Many stations incorporate the Pricing Meeting with an existing meeting of Sales Managers. That’s fine, but stick to the agenda when it’s time for the Pricing Meeting portion of the meeting.

Suggested weekly agenda:

• Print out rates, demand levels, and avails reports from the individual weeks tab.
• What’s going on in traffic? Orders being moved? Last minute changes, cancellations?
• Review booked and pending business and pacing compared to the goal.
• Is there enough inventory left to make budget? Compare %Budget vs. %Sellout.
• Discuss revenue projections.
• Are we turning business away? If so, why? Perhaps it’s not an issue of rate.

On a monthly basis:

• Sellout and/or Spoilage? Is it an issue of Seasonality? New Rate Class needed? How are we managing discounts? Look for premium opportunities.
• Discuss actions of competitors.
• Review current Rate Classes along with associated Terms & Conditions.
• Discuss success stories or problems sales staff may be having with client “buy-in”.
• Is RevPad growing? How are we managing our entire inventory?
• What percent of Sales Proposals are being pitched with 3 options?