UVAMC 2023
General Session Speakers
Keynote Session: Why Should I Choose You?
Presented by Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic™
The venue marketplace is more competitive—and more challenging—than ever before. How do you stand out among the competition? And how do you persuade a buyer to choose you over them?
In this practical, insightful session, you’ll discover:
- The single biggest sales and marketing mistake most venues make
- Why being great isn’t good enough
- How to differentiate your venue—so you stand out from the crowd
- The two critical questions you need to answer
- How buyer expectations have changed—and what that means for you
- What you’re really selling (it’s not what you think)
- How to craft a marketing message that resonates with your prospects
- The keys to boosting your bookings—even when you’re selling the exact same type of venue
- And much more!
You’re Unique, But So Is Everyone Else
Presented by Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic™
Being unique isn’t enough. To boost your bookings, you need to market that uniqueness. What does that mean? It means you need to create marketing pieces that intrigue and inspire, entertain and educate, position and persuade.
In this session, Don will share with you how to do exactly that. Along with:
- The key to grabbing people’s attention
- How to make potential clients want to learn more
- The #1, most important word in marketing
- A simple 5-step process for creating any marketing piece
- How an imaginary friend can help you book more events
Hacking the Sales Process – The Cheat Code for Boosting Your Sales
Presented by Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic™
Booking more events is easier than you think. Because sales is not as hard as you think. At least not when you know the secrets that top professionals use to sell more in less time. In this sales masterclass, you’ll discover:
- The two most important sales skills and how to master them
- What your competitors are doing wrong and how you can profit from it
- How to completely lower your prospect’s defenses
- The three different types of prospects and how to deal with each of them
How to increase your perceived credibility and professionalism
Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic™
Named one of the “Top 30 Social Salespeople in the World” by Forbes, Don Cooper helps salespeople, business owners, and professionals dramatically increase their sales. His clients include Yamaha, Johnson & Johnson, Bloomberg Media, Costco, Nissan Canada, and Hot Spring Spas. A frequent guest on television and radio, Don has written regular columns for five different business publications, has co-authored three books, and is currently working on two more.
You can reach Don at 303-885-1182 or [email protected]. Find loads of sales tips on The Sales Heretic™ Blog at DonCooper.com and on Twitter at @DonCooper.
Keynote Session: I Want THAT! – Five Keys to Making Your Venue Irresistible
Presented by Carolyn Strauss
As a premier clothing designer on the Home Shopping Network, Carolyn Strauss sold more than $160 million worth of merchandise to people who never actually expressed interest in buying anything! In this dynamic program, Carolyn will share with you the secrets that enabled her to move viewers from a state of apathy, to desperately wanting the items she was selling. And you’ll learn how to apply these five secrets to your venue to create the same passionate desire in the minds of your prospects!
In this session, Carolyn will share:
- How to create incredible rapport
- The competitive advantage you didn’t even know you have
- How to turn your venue’s weaknesses into strengths
- Multiple ways to leverage your client testimonials
- How to make marketing and selling WAY easier
- Why your prospects’ fears are as important as their desires
- How to tap into the part of the brain that makes decisions
- The simple way to move your prospects to ACTION
I’ll Take It! – How to Make Closing Quick and Easy
Presented by Carolyn Strauss
The #1 challenge most people in sales have is closing the deal. But it doesn’t have to be difficult or daunting! In this illuminating session, Carolyn will not only lay out an easy-to-navigate path to the sale, she will also share with you: In this session, Carolyn will share:
- The seven biggest mistakes most salespeople make
- How to make sure objections don’t derail the sale
- Eight myths that are holding you back from sales success
- The emotions you want your prospect to feel while they’re talking with you
- The exact words to say to make closing fast and painless
Carolyn Strauss
Carolyn Strauss is a sales and persuasion expert who spent 18 years on camera on the Home Shopping Network where she personally sold over a $160 million dollars of her clothing line the Carolyn Strauss Collection™. During that time, she developed her Dollars Per Minute™ sales and relationship management strategy to train salespeople and executive teams across all industries and in 14 countries. She has appeared on PBS, ABC, NBC, Food Network and Lifetime television network. She is an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and is the author of 4 books. She is a Certified Speaking Professional who has over 30 years of experience communicating with audiences on camera and from the front of the room. She is the host of the long running podcast “Another Day Above Ground” and believes a good day contains chocolate.
You can reach Carolyn at 303.578.2362 or [email protected].
Louisiana Hot Seats
Presented by Carolyn Strauss and Don Cooper
Is your unique venue facing a unique challenge? Do you have a frustrating situation you’ve been struggling with for a while? Do you have a specific problem you’d like a specific solution for?
Join Don and Carolyn for a session of “hot seats,” where audience members have the opportunity to share their challenges and get instant ideas and advice from not one, but TWO brilliant sales and marketing minds. This rapid-fire, no-holds-barred, hyphen-filled session gives you direct access to Don and Carolyn, so you leave the conference with one last great idea!
Educational Session Presenters
Let’s Obsess About Marketing for 2024
Chuck Salem, President & CEO of AMARC, Inc.
Whether we like it or not, 2024 is just around the corner. Now’s the time to take inventory of your marketing and sales tools and commit to obsessing about the most critical areas to help you grow revenue in 2024. In this session, participants will go through an inventory of important marketing and sales components that each venue needs to be the most competitive possible. This presentation will be interactive and provide attendees the opportunity to assess and obsess for the new year!
Developing a Personal Brand
Joel Hauff, Director of Research, Education & Consulting, Unique Venues
What is your personal brand? Do you have one? Is it the one that you want? Even in an increasingly transactional world, people are drawn to others that share the values, ideals, characteristics, and ethics that are important to them. A strong personal brand that is carefully curated and actively promoted can translate into more sales, faster promotions, higher salaries, quicker job searches, and long-term success. If you have never dedicated time to building your personal brand, there is no better time to do so.
Join us as we discuss the framework for building a personal brand, examine the various strategies for promoting it, and begin the initial work to create your own, distinct, personal brand.
Developing the Right Digital Assets
Joel Hauff, Director of Research, Education & Consulting, Unique Venues
More than ever, success in attracting a planner’s attention, cultivating their interest, and closing a sale is dependent on a mix of digital assets used to stand out from the crowd of potential venues and paint a compelling picture of what an attendee’s experience will be. This masterclass session will walk you through the range of digital assets available in a sales toolkit, review best practices for developing them for use in the hospitality industry, and provide tips and tricks to use them effectively. Participants will utilize a inventory worksheet during the presentation to assess their current capabilities, identify opportunities, and develop an initial plan for developing the right digital assets for use at their venue.
Setting the Stage for UVAMC 2023
Dr. Michael Brown, DMB Coaching
Most human beings spend 95% of their lives focusing on something other than the present moment. Life is too short, sacred, and significant to live in any other moment than right now. At Unique Venues, we are committed to your professional and personal development at UVAMC, and commit to being fully present for you. Will you make the same commitment to yourself? With Dr. Michael Brown’s help, all of us can commit to being fully present in the moment and presence of one another, soaking in new ideas and fresh perspectives, maximizing our learning and networking with colleagues, and making the most of this unique opportunity.
Choosing (not finding) Work-Life Harmony (not balance)
Dr. Michael Brown, DMB Coaching
You are more than your job. Read that previous sentence again. It’s true. You are a dynamic human being, not just a mere human doing. However, sadly, most people spend the first sixty years of their lives neglecting their most important relationships, personal passions, and emotional/physical health to advance their careers and make money. Then they invest the final years of their lives spending all of their money in a futile attempt to win back their relationships, passion, and health. Work-life harmony is not only possible, but is absolutely essential to being fully alive! This Master Class will provide both the bold perspective and best practices to assist you in making significant progress towards becoming your best self in all twelve dimensions of life.
How to Hire Top Talent to Earn a 5-Star Reputation for Your Venue
Amy Leyden, Marketing & Communications Director, McNamara Alumni Center
Employees who are considered top talent in any industry have a combination of education, experience, attitude, industry skills, and soft skills that help them excel in specific roles. Yet, these attributes can be subtle and very difficult to recognize, unless you ask the right questions in an interview. At the McNamara Alumni Center, an award-winning event venue on the University of Minnesota campus, we have been hiring top talent for more than two decades. In this session, attendees will discover the strategic and, some might say, unusual questions asked during the interview process for McNamara’s various event positions that help reveal candidates who make a great event professional. Attendees will also learn about McNamara’s robust training program for all new venue operations and sales staff, a vital investment to ensure the success of new hires.
Learning Objectives:
· Questions to ask in interviews that help reveal a person’s work ethic and customer service standards
· The value of reference checks
· How to develop a robust training program for new hires
Active Threats: Is Your Venue Ready to Respond?
Amy Leyden, Marketing & Communications Director, McNamara Alumni Center
An active threat is a dynamic, quickly evolving situation involving an individual (or individuals) using deadly physical force, such as firearms, an explosive device, bladed weapons, chemicals, or a vehicle. In April 2023, the McNamara Alumni Center, a busy University of Minnesota events venue and office building, was notified of an active threat targeted at a 500-person event to be held at the Center the next day. The following 24 hours were spent developing and managing a crisis communications plan while moving the six events that were scheduled to take place. As the individual responsible for leading the McNamara events team, it was the Director’s responsibility to quickly assign tasks and respond to evolving information that effectively helped avoid any crisis. While what was implemented was far from perfect, this session will share what was learned through this crisis and the ways McNamara intends to be better prepared should an emergency like this occur again.
Learning Objectives:
· A timeline of tasks implemented in moving in 6 events in 24 hours
· The language that was very carefully crafted for our team to use when speaking to clients, building tenants, and the media
· With the benefit of hindsight, what we got right, what we got wrong, and how we are better prepared now
Sales Tips for the Reluctant Seller
Christopher Sikora, Director of Sales, MITAGS-Maritime Conference Center
Many venue managers find themselves balancing two sets of conflicting responsibilities – the need to conduct outreach and sell their venue to interested meeting planners and individuals, and the need to service the booked business at their venue daily. The layoffs and reorganizations during the pandemic only accentuated this issue, as many dedicated sales professionals were let go or found other employment. A lot of venue managers today find themselves short-staffed and attempting to function in a sales position, in addition to their roles as operations manager, event manager, facility manager, etc. They may also not have a sales background and are challenged to think strategically about the sales process. This often leads to fear and trepidation for the seller, and avoidance of this critical sales role. If you are a reluctant seller, or even an experienced salesperson who still stresses out over the sales process, this session will provide valuable tips, tricks, and context to think strategically, minimize anxiety, and help you become the best salesperson you can be.
Learning Objectives:
· How the sales role can be rewarding for the individual, organization, and yes, even the client
· Sales is not about deception, tricks, or secrets, it is about building trust and relationships and focusing on the clients’ needs
· How to talk to your colleagues to get buy-in that everyone is in sales!
Stop Letting Yourself Get In Your Own Way: Leveraging Your Authenticity to Close New Opportunities
Mark Williams, Operations Director, Event Guru Software/Registration Guru Software
Norma J. White, Deputy Director, Conferences and Events, Vanderbilt University
Dave McCandless, General Manager, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
When you eat, sleep, and breathe events, you can start to lose track of what makes your venue special and attractive to its core audience. The saying that you “can’t see the forest through the trees” is the perfect description of what many venue professionals struggle with when it comes to improving their operations. We are all guilty of being distracted by the latest trends and find, at times, especially after losing business, that we are missing the big picture.
During this interactive session we will take a deep dive to see where we can “flip the script” by turning your perceived weaknesses into strengths that can we added to your toolbox, making your venue more competitive. Is parking limited at your venue? What can you do to turn this pain point into a positive experience? Meeting planners are looking for authenticity and memorable experiences, so this session will examine specific situations and provide examples of creative solutions for overcoming challenges. After this session, attendees will be able to put themselves in their customers’ shoes and answer the million-dollar question – why should a planner hold their meeting, reception, workshop, dinner, or conference at your venue?
Learning Objectives:
· Applying techniques that will take perceived weaknesses and position them into strengths
· Understanding the importance of knowing your customers’ eccentricities and interests
· Investigating new techniques and tools to enhance your brand identity
