Latest / GAIN Momentum / On the Road: HITEC 2023 - Cutting Through the Digital Noise
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- GAIN Momentum episode #6 - | On the Road: HITEC 2023 - Cutting Through the Digital Noise === Jason Emanis: Welcome to the special edition of the Gain Momentum Podcast on the road in Toronto at High Tech 2023, focusing on timeless lessons from global industry leaders about how to grow and scale a business in hospitality, travel, food service, and technology. Adam Mogelonsky: So our episode today is a special one, is focusing on how to sell. Hospitality technology and the world of hotel tech is complicated. There are lots of different vendors out there trying to sell their products into hotels, and the problem or a problem is that because there's so many different vendors, there's so many different marketing messages, which makes it harder for hotels to decide. Which ones to choose and hoteliers are being bombarded with so many different messages from various companies that they're, they're, a lot of them are just tuning out. They're overwhelmed. So we wanted to know from the vendors at High Tech, how they're cutting through this digital noise, how they're breaking through and differentiating their marketing message to sell their product and to stand out. Adelle Rodriguez: So to cut through the digital marketing noise right now, my personal marketing expertise, um, I would say it's really being hyper-focused. So, you know, instead of spraying pray, it's the sniper versus shotgun. It's really finding who you're talking to and delivering them a message that actually provides value, um, and being hyper specific. So really going after who your target is, um, is going to be your best bet because kind of spreading that message wide and, and broad is, Only gonna get some trickles. But if you really, really wanna cut through the noise and get to who you're talking to, you wanna be focused, you wanna be specific, you wanna be doing those ABM tactics, um, and going after your core audience, So, uh, uh, we work very closely together with our customers and, uh, we, uh, co uh, create the software as we go and we listen to the customers, uh, significantly. We also have. Switch the support thinking. So we have proactive support and we actually call our customers before they even know that they, uh, need us, and then we show them new functionality or things that they don't, uh, use yet in, in our system. So the idea would be to how do you get your first thousand believers who are going to be your ambassador, speaking to other people about what you're working on? About the kind of pain problem, pain points that you're trying to solve, right? So once you get the first thousand people to believe in you or to trust in you, they're going to be talking about, uh, exactly what you're doing to the kind of people. It becomes 5,000, it becomes 10,000, and that kind of a word of mouth amplification kind of explodes when it comes to digital media and social media, and that's the channel that is first choice for us as a technology company. At abco, we've always been very focused on the marketing. We know that we need to listen to our customers and see what they're looking for. So one of the things that we do is we want to be able to reduce the, the noise that they have, right? So they have. Operational efficiency problems. They have check-in problems, they have labor problems. We want to deliver on that promise and market to them. That promise that we're talking about. We wanna be able to deliver the promise and we want to be able to market that promise. Adam, it's great to see you. Thank you for having me today, uh, about your curiosity as to cutting through the digital noise. I will say the answer is partially just behind you. We have been making major investments in helping our hotel use to retail their products and services in the digital space in a much easier way in fashion. Our retail studio product, which was launched last year, is just one example for that. And if you guys on the other side of this, uh, camera are curious to learn more about it, well just hit me up on LinkedIn and I'll tell you all about it. So, Adam, thank you very much. Appreciate it and it's good to see you. actable stands out in, in this space because we have brought in four best in class solutions that have done very well in their own spaces. So profit, so it in, uh, budgeting and forecasting, hotel effectiveness in labor management, labor optimization, Alice in hotel operations, and transiting asset management. And our goal over the next, uh, season is to put those products together into one platform that can better serve the Hotelier. One Hotelier can reach out to one product for support, one product for connectivity that boosts profits and boosts collaboration within the hotel. The best way to cut through digital marketing noise from our perspective is to just perform. So what we are really focusing on is installing our technology and that the virtual hotel agent in as many hotels as possible, documenting the performance and then providing that information the people are interested in what's what, what the tool can do. So the best way to cut through digital marketing noise. Is the way it's always been performed and show that, uh, the product that you've got does what you say it'll do. Hey, this is Jordan from Bamb Bria. Happy to obviously have this video here to talk about how we differentiated in the market for us. You're at Bamb, Bria. All we're trying to do is stay on message. We're helping people evaluate different products and services within their product category, show you, show 'em how we're different, but most importantly, come out to these industry trade shows and actually make real connections with brands. Leverage our partner Matt Lynch: network, leverage integrations, Adelle Rodriguez: anything we could do to basically tell that message concisely and be very, very approachable as a company, that's where we heavily invest in high tech and we heavily invest in our partner, uh, partner net network and ecosystem within the company So when I think about how can we be really successful, In our marketing and making sure that we Revinate with our, our prospects and our existing customers. I wanna make sure that we're putting out high quality content and not just worry about the amount of content we're putting out. You wanna Revinate with the buyer. And also make sure that we're talking to them in a voice that makes sense to them. More importantly, if we can get a customer talking about the problems that we solve for them, that's even better because I think the best sale is a reference sale. And I think our existing customers really do a great job because they trust our solutions. Leonel Domingues: In non use, uh, we've always been very simple in our communication. We talk about features. We try to make, uh, um, technology transparent to the client. Clients want to actually know, function, know about functionality, about value. Yeah, we've always been very clear about the value that we're, uh, able to provide also, but we also guarantee a great, uh, long longevity of the, of the products that we sell. Um, we that, I think we got a good mix on, uh, uh, the way. To communicate to these markets. And we've been able to get the clients to, uh, to understand that and also to be ambassadors, promoters of what is our brand, what is our service and the solutions that we provide to the market. Adelle Rodriguez: Okay. So vertical booking and Zuc, actually Zuchetti, um, we are concentrating on, uh, Giving the hotels a, a one, one entry point to get to multiple systems, lower cost, uh, lower support, um, requirements, and, uh, lower stress. So it's, it's just an easy one, uh, one stop shop here at sanetti, including PMs systems. Uh, CRS Systems. OS systems. We've got everything The hotel needs can buy it all at one time or buy it as you need it. Matt Lynch: you know, first of all, you know, obviously our marketing team works hard at kind of cutting through that noise channel, but our sales team and our customers are probably our number one kind of area to cut through that right word of mouth within the industry. It's a big small industry, like, like many out there. And so I think what we've done plays well and that gets communicated out through that industry. Um, but from a business point of view, we look at it as. You know, doing the critical things that you need to be successful in business helps cut through that noise, right? So we position ourselves and we've been able to maintain a leadership position that I think, um, competitors as well as customers look at us as being, um, the visionaries and the market leaders and setting what the future is going to be. And I think that helps us get out and above some of the noise. Um, you know, there's other strategies within our marketing team and within our company that I think really contribute to bolster that as well. We're constantly doing outreach. Um, within the industry at the shows to make sure that we're always front and center, uh, and making those new points valid. Um, jumping on some of the new trends of technology, certainly like the pace is, is kind of really, really, uh, uh, quickening right now. Um, obviously AI is the hot topic at this show, um, but we've always got like a point of view on those emerging technologies and I think that's always an really good entry point for people to kind of become aware of. The brand is looking for what the, what the perspective is on new technology. Adelle Rodriguez: Adam. I'd love to share a little bit about how I'm cutting through the digital noise and really we're all being hit in so many ways right now. So what I do is really prioritize who I listen to. So for instance, the hotel mogul, that's where I get my key thought leadership pieces and and truly I say that in the sense that there's a number of people in the industry that I really respect. So I prioritize what they have to say about issues, and then I frame that with my own pieces. And then I try to also share as much as I can with those trusted advisors and other people to really understand what's truly happening and what is just digital noise and detail that's out there. Thank you. So the best way to cut through digital marketing, marketing noise, I believe is through technology. Whatever your area is, technology can often provide a way to make it easier to focus on the right things. What we do specifically at OTA savings is help reconcile that difference between what is happening at the OTA level and then what is happening at the hotel level, and doing it through technology. Can it, it, it makes life easier for everybody and it allows you to. Focus on the guest experience or making more money or increasing your top line. Whatever your goal may be, Pick up the phone and talk with people. That's how you cut digitalized. Here at Book for time, we're cutting through the digital noise of the industry by making our content available to everyone. We have found that education is the key to getting consumers and potential and buy potential buyers engaged in our solution. You know, one of the ways we cut through the digital noise is really we try to have, uh, Meaningful thought leadership. And we do that with our blog posts and our stories and articles that we publish. Uh, and we really try to relate to hoteliers, understand what their problems are, uh, talk to them about their labor challenges, their, how they're trying to improve the guest experience. And then we certainly try to touch on the robot and how the robot can help with those, those issues. But, but we think that resonates with, uh, with hoteliers to, to have real stories about, um, what the challenges that they're facing every day. So before Covid we had a whole new tech stack we're putting in. Covid obviously blew up everything, so we are looking for a whole new tech stack. So that's obviously PMs, uh, P os, accounting, uh, CRM, and the lot. So that's number one. Number two is I'm very interested in the impact that chat g PT is gonna have on our industry globally. It's already having a massive impact on our business and a very favorable impact, and we just wanna see what everyone else is doing with it. The next thing is I believe Chat, G P T type products are gonna be able to read our legacy systems and make them much more powerful. And then lastly, I think in three to five years we'll all be talking about AI FIRST systems, and we probably won't even have PMSs and things. We'll have just one system that runs our Hotel Maestro's focus with our customer success. Really comes down to the way we treat our customers, the way we behave with our customers when we help them with their solutions. We're, we're not a transactional business. We are a family business, and as such, we treat our customers as family. We're interested in their success. We're interested in what they're trying to produce and what their outcomes, uh, are. And so rather than just giving them a solution, we like to work with them closely, understand their needs, really focus and hone in. On what they're trying to accomplish, and that's why we've had good success helping our customers with their technological needs. We're cutting through the digital noise because we are offering SMART R F I D enabled linen for hotels, offering them a free service. In contrast to the SaaS model, they buy the linen through us and they get a free TE acknowledgement. Unbelievable. Make your linen smart, smart linen. So I would say by having a tight integration with Arco Hospitality Opera, we are able to provide the level of customization that our hotel clients need in order to provide a better guest experience and. Uplift conversion rate and increased direct revenue. So first of all, Matt Lynch: uh, what we need to do, we need to Adelle Rodriguez: educate people on process automation, right? And hoteliers. They have struggles right now with, um, they don't have enough people to do the manual tasks. So they're looking for a solution and the first thing that's gonna pop up is process automation, because that's gonna solve their problems. We also come from the ho hospitality, uh, industry. Everybody comes from the hotel, so we understand the language and once they start engaging with us, they, they understand that automating their processes with robot size means is going to be seamless. It's going to be quick, and, uh, we're gonna deliver exactly what they. we focus really heavily on content, and that's, uh, partly my role. And when you talk about content, you talk about everything from white papers to webinars, to blogs, to video, um, and that's what we're doing here today at at High Tech in Toronto. Uh, we brought Cam with us and he's shooting some, um, client videos for us and some prospect videos and just some thought leaders. We're trying to get, get them into the booth, get them in front of the camera, ask them trending topics, what's going on at High tech, what are they seeing that's important. Um, and we're gonna go back and we're gonna edit those and we're gonna put 'em on our website and share 'em with the media and put 'em all Matt Lynch: the good places that you need to go. There's nothing more Adelle Rodriguez: important than having a face to your content. Being able to share content that's got familiar faces or maybe unfamiliar faces that. Really can, can hit with your viewer or hit with your future client or your future customer. It just really is much more impactful in a lot of ways to have that video content as a lead to your business.