Lobbying for business

After a "relaxing" day in the office on Monday (well, it was meant to be...), I was back on the road on Tuesday. First stop was Warwick, to meet up with a couple of newish PSA members, who are setting up in business together. Since I was on my way North anyway, I said I'd drop in and offer them some advice. The initial rendezvous was the lobby of the Warwick Hilton Hotel, just off the M40. I arrived first, and sat down at a table to check my emails. As I glanced around the vast space, I noticed that there were at least thirty other tables, all occupied by one, two or three business people, with groups engaged in what were audibly (the closest ones anyway) productive business meetings. The foyer clearly acts as a hub and meeting place.

The business hubbub in the lobby gave me an idea, which I passed on to the people I met, and I pass on to you now. If you see a group of people who are your potential clients (as these clearly were for the people I met), how do you get your message to them? I suggested to my pal that he should find out the name of the hotel manager (which he did by asking the coffee waiter, of course), and contact them, offering to come in and train their senior staff for free for a couple of hours one morning. (Obviously, you need to offer them something valuable, such as improved productivity or better customer relations). In return, ask the hotel to place your marketing material on every table in the foyer for, say, a month. Since you use the place regularly, you can check. I noticed that people often arrived early for meetings, and looked round for something to read, even grabbing the hotel brochures from the lobby displays. How much better (for you) if they could browse your marketing material for a few minutes over a coffee.

As you probably know, there are plenty of other ways to use hotels in your marketing strategy. I'll mention a few more another time. After a very pleasant meeting, and a fine bistro lunch (thanks Dave and Bernie), I was back on the road to Manchester, to speak at our North-West PSA Chapter meeting.