Op-Ed: Know Who's On Your Side When It's RFP Time
Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., was a great experience and taught me many things. Some of the key lessons had to do with interacting with all kinds ofdiverse backgrounds, honoring someone's word until proven otherwise and general survival, while trying to make the most out of the current situation. At the top of the list of lessons for survival is to know and understand who is on your side.
Whether the situation is a pick-up game in the street or a fight, you better know who's on your side. As I relate this to our business today, it begs some questions: Does a request for proposals really go beyond price and get to all the services a company needs? Once selected, do you feel proud to be in each other's portfolio? Do you have the right players on your side?
With so much speed and change in the travel industry, you have to stop at some point and ask those questions. Depending on whom you ask and how you ask it, you may find several conflicting answers or at least some confusion.
Issues that come to mind within the travel industry that could provoke debate might be which airlines to follow or even include in an RFP. Within that group are the traditional U.S. carriers, low-cost carriers, look-alike low-cost carriers who have possibly become more similar in cost and structure in their operations to traditional carriers, but not in their sales and marketing programs, as well as foreign-flag carriers. Within the mix are those that go direct only to the travelers and bypass the corporate and agency programs and efforts. Also in play are hotels of the same brand acting very differently in each city based on such variables as the number of beds in a city or the brands they own and sell. There are technology providers who may own the technology with no ownership of the inventory or the price, but charge for the technology. You also have the car companies that are losing inventory allotments from the manufacturing plants that make the cars. TMCs may be owned by many or are in merger/acquisition modes. Is the solution an online TMC with price offers but no account coverage, or others who are just looking to sell the shop and cash out, but have the best price? More confusion is coming from government. Tax increases continue. We all pay more. From 1991 to 2005, taxes on an airline ticket are up from 9 percent to over 25 percent. These taxes are more than the "sin taxes" on alcohol and tobacco. When you add the form of payment utilities that have the suppliers paying the fees and not the end users, you may really get confused. Finally, there are consultantswho aggregate information of which none is theirs and ask for payment for a different view of the numbers or even just for the process of collecting the information.
While RFPs take time and money, they do ask the question through a very formal process to secure the answer of who's on your side and who ought to be. I wonder often if during the RFP process, we lose some of the focus. Do we care about the soft or halo effect of emotional and human capital that is ripped out of the process? You all know of what I am speaking. Travel is personal, and when a crisis hits or something goes wrong, you'd better know who is on your side. You need to reach out to someone, not go to page 33 of the RFP response and see if the solution is there. Most educational programs and studies will tell you that people make decisions on their EQ (emotional) versus IQ. A good mix of each may get you more value. If you ask what it is you need to get done from the top down, it may be very different than what it is you have to do once Monday comes around. Perhaps you have an executive traveler issue or need support that has nothing to do with page 33 of the RFP, yet you are asked just to fix it. At that point, you better have a name and a number of someone you can call who you trust.
Within ownership of data, form of payment, inventory, profiles, product, who really is your most important asset? Who has worked hard to stay aligned with your company's needs for a global reach and has supported a managed travel program? Who has a salesforce that is well-prepared and dedicated to working with you through all of your corporate mergers and other demands? Some suppliers actually work against the interests of corporate travel executives and their agency partners.
In the world of managed travel, you win if your side understands your critical success factors. You reward suppliers for that every day, by allowing them to be picked to be on yourteam. They may not always get it right, but they do know whose side they're on and it's YOURS!
Continue to reward those who have a business plan that includes your efforts, and who have people to back it up. Pick them to be on your side whether for the proverbial pick-up game or even a fight.
American Airlines Vice President Of Global Sales Frank Morogiello.