Elevating your DMO sales strategy: Communicating what event planners value most

As destination marketing organization (DMO) sales professionals, you are the bridge between meeting planners and the unparalleled offerings of your destination. Recent insights from the 2024 Future Partners State of the Meetings Industry survey and the Cvent 2025 Planner Sourcing report shed light on key priorities for planners — and it’s clear that DMO sales professionals are uniquely suited to meet these needs.

Let’s explore how you can refine your communication strategies and elevate your sales messaging to connect with planners effectively. Here are 10 things meeting planners want and how the DMO salesperson can deliver.

1. Site Experiences vs. Site Inspections

Planners value your ability to execute site experiences that showcase hotels, venues, and spaces tailored to their specific event needs. Work with your partners to make sure that everyone a planner meets is prepared to:

• Highlight how each space accommodates their requirements.
• Provide creative visualizations for usage and layouts.
• Leverage their deep knowledge of their property and the destination to bring the site visit to life.

2. Tapping into Local Expertise

Your connections to local vendors, services, venues, and experiences make you indispensable. Planners need:

• Smooth access to trusted local partners.
• Recommendations for venues and experiences aligned with their vision.
• Confidence in you and your destination partners abilities.

3. Enhancing Attendee Satisfaction

Planners see attendee satisfaction as their top priority — including attendee engagement, return on investment (ROI), and positive attendee feedback. Tailor your messaging to show:

• How the destination can deliver authentic, enriching experiences.
• Unique opportunities for attendees to connect with the destination’s culture.
• Your ability to create seamless attendee experiences that leave a lasting impression and make them want to return to next year’s meeting and your destination.

4. Streamlining Proposals

Planners value customized, thorough proposals that make the sourcing process efficient. Be the go-to expert by:

• Aggregating competitive bids from multiple hotels and venues.
• Personalizing proposals based on planners’ goals and priorities — include all requests outlined in the request for proposal (RFP).
• Ensuring timely responses from partners and following up with necessary communications.

5. Elevating Your Communication to Express Value

As a DMO sales professional, you can stand out by refining your communication to combine your destination expertise with an attendee centric approach.

6. Understand Planner Goals

Listen carefully to their priorities — be it attendee satisfaction, budget constraints, or unique requests. Tailor your communication to demonstrate how your destination aligns with their needs.

7. Anticipate Needs

Go beyond offering standard options. Showcase specific solutions and ideas they might not have considered, positioning yourself as a proactive problem-solver.

8. Focus on the Destination’s Value Proposition

Emphasize your unique role in unlocking the destination’s full potential. Share stories, case studies, or examples that highlight successful collaborations with planners in like industries or with similar events.

9. Be Visual and Specific

Use destination imagery, layouts, and creative concepts to help planners envision their event in your destination. Provide detailed specs and capacities for venues to ease their decision-making process.

10. Showcase Your Reliability

Build trust by presenting yourself as a dependable partner — from the initial inquiry to post-event follow-ups and everywhere in between. Planners appreciate DMO sales professionals who bring new ideas and approaches to every interaction.

Your ability to express your value proposition by connecting planners with the destination's best assets is paramount. You can elevate your role as a trusted partner and secure more business for the destination by focusing on what planners truly value and communicating your unique strengths.