HOW TO BUILD A BETTER BUSINESS CASE FOR YOUR NEXT MEETING

Budget conversations have always been part of a planner's job, but what used to convince senior stakeholders to greenlight a meeting or event may not work anymore. The appetite for in-person meetings has arguably never been higher, and organizations have come to see gatherings not just as operational necessities but as culture-building moments. The catch is, despite higher expectations for events, economic uncertainty puts planners in the tricky position of having to do more—often with less.

“People today are looking for a much more complete budget than they would have 10 years ago,” says Amanda Cox, Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Marriott Bonvoy® Convention & Resort Network for Marriott International. “The primary building blocks of a budget used to be hotel rooms, event space, food and beverage, and audiovisual. If you could outline those four big buckets, that used to be sufficient.”

While 68% of planners report increasing pressure from stakeholders to prove the business impact of meetings and incentive programs, many of them say they don’t have the tools, or that they lack the words, to convincingly sell the value of their events.

We asked Cox to share how she coaches planners to show up for a budget meeting, so that they walk out with a yes.

Come Armed With What Executives Actually Want to See

Today’s C-suite wants a more complete picture of what a budget will entail, Cox says. “Some CEOs and CFOs are looking for year-over-year comparables, or how the event will meet sustainability objectives. Overall, they want to know more about the whole procurement process.”

Planning horizons have also stretched considerably, Cox says. In fact, she is currently working with a client on a meeting slated for 2036. “It’s hard to anticipate what a total line budget will be in 2036,” she says. “Still, we need to plan further out to secure the things we need and align everyone’s calendars.” Sometimes that may mean looking at historical data and adjusting for inflation to arrive at a ballpark solution.

It’s not just about tangible metrics. “Leaders also want to know about return on experience,” Cox says. That is, how will the event impact employee engagement or retention. “Research shows that an employee will recognize the investment made in them to be on the trip with the company, and the return on loyalty to the organization will be much higher,” she says, pointing out that experiences can be currency.

Start With the Why

In a scenario where you have five minutes to sell a C-suite audience on the value of your event, where would you start? As simple as it may sound, Cox says to start with your why. “The number one thing on that piece of paper should be the purpose of the meeting. Don’t assume the ‘why’ is known,” Cox says. Too often, she says, she sees planners walk into a meeting to sell their event and position it as “someone told me we need to have this meeting.” Instead, start with the meeting’s goal. Is it to train, inspire, increase retention, encourage the adoption of an initiative? Without a clear objective, there’s no way to even begin to measure success.

From there, mechanics are important—rates, dates, and space. It’s also good to share at least three wins you’ve already scored. For example: “I agreed to shift the meeting by a day and the hotel came down on its rate by $20 per night.”

C-suite executives also like to see the if/then of your event. For example: “If we do this event, then we’ll encourage retention.”

“When we encase the rates, dates, and space in why we’re gathering and what the ROI is, it lands totally differently,” Cox says.

Present a Case That Will Support Success

Above all, it’s your task to keep everyone focused on what they hope to achieve with an event. For instance, often when budgets tighten, the instinct is to shrink the meeting rather than cancel it, Cox says. But she’s seen that scenario play out in ways that ended up costing more than the savings generated. “If you’re planning a large meeting and cut down the invite list to 50% of your workforce, the other 50% will often end up doing its own thing, and then it becomes a lot of mini gatherings instead of one big meeting, and your messaging becomes bifurcated,” Cox says. “When we don’t have the meeting or event, something is lost.”

How do you work in a cost-conscious environment? Make sure that your briefing documents include the primary objectives, so that as budget trims—or meeting cancellations—are suggested, you can bring everyone back to those goals.

Find a Partner Who Can Help

Cox says that Marriott sees its role as extending well beyond providing space. “We’re focused not just on the sourcing, but on the strategy of meetings,” she says. That means staying on the cutting edge of trends, surfacing best practices, and helping planners solve problems they might not have even known they had. That includes practical tools, too, such as Marriott’s Meeting Impact Report, which provides sustainability impact metrics. Cox also hints at more tools to come. “We’re continuing to explore tools and resources that help planners apply learnings from one event to the next,” she says.

In the end, the planners who get to yes aren’t always the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones who can tell the clearest story about why the event matters, and are backed by a partner who helps them prove it.