HEI Properties Identify Over $150k in Group Business Opportunities for 2021 and 2022 After Two Weeks of Using Knowland
Knowland, a provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, announced the completion of a project with HEI Hotels & Resorts designed specifically to help select properties reinvigorate sales teams and prepare them for the next phase of recovery. Using the Knowland platform, HEI properties in Boston and Atlanta collectively identified $165k in opportunities during COVID in just two weeks of prospecting.
Karl Murphy, chief commercial officer, HEI Hotels & Resorts, said: “HEI is committed to supporting our hotels as they work to regain revenue and profitability. We believe that Knowland is a necessary tool to help us identify new business and streamline our efforts to rebuild our meeting and event revenue.”
Advantages of the Knowland program:
- Consulting, training, and implementation – Over a four-week period, Knowland worked with two HEI properties to provide prospecting training, access to meeting and event data plus sales engagement tools to improve the efficiency of the proactive sales outreach. In conjunction with Master Connection Associates, Knowland implemented a sales refresher program and best-practices training. Teams received engagement tools such as email templates, sample LinkedIn messages, and email subject lines to improve the efficiency and success of their outreach.
- Proactive prospecting changes outcomes – HEI sales teams were spending significant time on one-off inbound RFPs. By allocating some of that time to proactive sales outreach, sales pipelines are less “lumpy” and have multiple opportunities per account with relationships that will extend beyond the wedding and leisure travel surge.
- Tangible results in a short couple of weeks – By incorporating Knowland’s AI-powered insights and historical data into their outreach efforts, a small staff of two (reduced from a staff of 12 during the pandemic) at the Westin Waltham, Boston, quickly sourced new business opportunities with the help of Knowland data. They were also able to refresh their sales prospect list by identifying 46 contacts across several target accounts. The Whitley in Atlanta identified two hidden gem opportunities that resulted in group event opportunities in 2022 in the higher education and healthcare industries.
Patricia Shea, vice president, sales and customer success, Knowland, said: “Group business is key to the hotel industry’s return to health and profitability. The HEI team knew it would be essential to provide its teams with innovative data solutions to help them rebuild and elevate its group sales teams’ performance. By partnering with Knowland and leveraging our experienced support team, they were not only able to identify new opportunities, but also leverage market and account insights to conduct meaningful outreach when it was needed most.”
Case studies for HEI and two properties supported by the program are available here: