Today I welcome Mark Perl to my blog.  One of the most effective relationship builders, offline, is to hold a corporate event. It may seem like a huge expense to the uninitiated, so Mark walks us through the reasons to host a corporate event. Over to you Mark…

High quality client contact is expensive and to ensure it delivers the return on investment that it promises, the management and executives who act as the Hosts at corporate events need to be proficient. Perhaps it is only when organisations consider the wider value that corporate hospitality brings to the business that they will recognise that the skills of their event Hosts would benefit from considered attention.

1. The offer of hospitality to another is recognised throughout the history of human society as an influential currency. Corporate hospitality remains a trusted method for building relationships and maintaining existing, or stimulating new, business revenues.
2. Invitations to events stimulates obligation or reciprocity.  If someone does us a favour we feel obligated to the future repayment of favours, gifts, invitations, introductions and the like.
3. Reciprocal obligations do not fade quickly, like a promotion. They can reach long and powerfully into the future. Organisations who regularly offer corporate hospitality to their clients and prospects derive a truly significant competitive advantage.
4. People do business with people they know, like and trust. Events of all types, large or small, are the vehicle of choice to entrench existing and build new business relationships, wherever you find yourself in the world.
5. Hospitality events deliver return on investment benefits on several commercial fronts. Done well, they can yield financial ROI; reputational ROI; customer acquisition; customer retention; revenue generation; referrals to prospective clients.
6. Hospitality events deliver return on investment benefits on two emotional fronts. Guests leave your events feeling both valued and respected. This binds the relationship between you which helps with dispute resolution (as and when it arises) and with customer retention. Research on customer retention conducted by The Rockerfeller Institute shows that 68% of clients stay with suppliers because of the service they receive.
7. Events build customer loyalty and brand awareness. To guests, hospitality events symbolise the importance you place on a future relationship, an existing partnership and a continued association with them. Far beyond the intrinsic cost of an event is its ability to imbue the feeling of being valued.

 For any organisation who wishes to see improved revenues as a result of events then changing Host behaviour, to optimise the above results is the only way forward.

 Mark Perl – Author, speaker, trainer and expert in the skills of Hosting events professionally