Recognizing that fewer attendees meant fewer room nights and fewer convention dollars, local officials began looking for ways to help show managers boost sagging attendance figures. To satisfy budgetary constraints and still provide their services to a maximum number of shows. To qualify an exposition must have 2,300 rooms on peak night, and 5,000 attendees. From there, the Chicago team takes over with an impressive 13.5 percent average increase in attendance for participating shows. To date, the program has provided telemarketing services to 14 shows in the past 12 months.
Customers seem more than satisfied with the results and the bureau plans to continue the operation.
The NRA hiring formula Andy Wrobleski, Director of Convention Sales and Operations at the National Restaurant Association, has devised the following formula to help calculate how many telemarketers he must hire to reach every prospect on his booth sales list within a given time period. The formula is based on research which determined that 30 percent of all NRA calls result in a contact, and that it takes an average of four calls to get a decision from each prospect. Because he knows his list size, and history has proven that 30 percent of his calls will result in a contact, Wrobleski can calculate that it will take 667 actual phone calls to reach his 200 prospects. Although it will take 667 phone calls to reach each prospect initially, Wrobleski has determined that, on average, three more calls must be made to each prospect before he gets a definite answer. A total of 1,267 phone calls will be placed to get exhibiting decisions from his 200 prospects.