Everywhere... provided you are in the right place at the right time, you keep your ears open, and your mind alert. Direct mailings, advertising, sales trips, newsletters, familiarisation trips, trade shows and referrals will generate a number of leads and requests for you.

It is well known that it takes several years of effort and persistence before you see the results and you should never get discouraged after a couple of sales calls with limited success. This is an industry where strong bonds and relationships exist between clients and DMC’s, and loyalty between them plays a key role for the success of the programmes. Therefore prospective clients do not jump to change suppliers because a new one presents a better brochure or offers better rates.

A DMC should always keep its “face” in front of the prospective client year after year, try to develop a friendly relationship, and wait for the magic moment the client will call for his services. This can happen for several reasons:

• The services of the previous DMC are no longer what they used to be.
• His rates have become too expensive.
• The chemistry between the buyer and the past DMC do not work any more.
• The previous DMC became too big and no longer maintains a personalised service, etc. etc.

These are the moments of your chance, provided you have prepared the ground correctly and you are present at that critical time. It is essential that you prepare yourself and study about the countries from which you would like to attract business. The reading of trade magazines, study of articles, statistics and fact books (i.e. SITE INCENTIVE TRAVEL BACT BOOK) will give you an inside view of the travelling habits and prevailing destination trends of several countries.

Knowing which destinations Americans, Germans or Japanese prefer and what are their budgets will allow you to better target your markets and invest your money more wisely.

Trade statistics and studies should always be taken into consideration when you are planning a promotion campaign, trade-shows or sales trips.

The Foundation of Site Global publishes some very interesting studies of the market. The recent Site Index Study: Focus on the Economy will give you some vey useful predictions for the near future. You can download this report by clicking at this link.

Another useful report related to the last weeks article and the promotion is the Site Index study on technology. You can download it from this link

At the next issue: First promote the destination

© Tasso Pappas CITE
Tasso Pappas is President of the SITE Greek Chapter and served as President of SITE Intl. in 2000. This article is an extract from his book “To be or not to be a DMC” which he wrote in 1996 as his thesis for the certification CITE (Certified Incentive Travel Executive). More information about Tasso Pappas you can find at http://sites.google.com/site/tassopappasconsultancy/
Contact: tassopappas@otenet.gr