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well hey uh guys uh happy Friday thank you happy Friday to you we have Jill and Andy from ideal Hospitality Partners appreciate you guys uh sparing a few minutes on on the end of the day here excited to chat with you guys we are too we appreciate you having us thank you Insider secrets to becoming a vendor for hotels I couldn't think of anybody better that you too would you guys uh could you quick intro for yourself uh Tulsa who a little bit about who you are sure Andy I'll let you go first since your name begins with a I'm Andy Haynes I'm the vice president of strategic growth for ideal the whole idea is driving revenue for hotel years and finding the suppliers that are going to help do that hmm I'm Jewel Dean Rigsby I'm the CEO and founder of Ideal Hospitality Partners group and I met Andy while working for the same GPO group that we did I was there for 16 years he was there for 10. that they collectively we have 80 years experience in hospitality and we felt like there was a really a missing niche in um finding ways to bring suppliers into the hospitality ecosystem those that can solve problems and provide sustainable and wellness type Solutions and to help them you know learn about Hospitality we found that that was something that needed to be addressed and that's the reason we exist wonderful and I can't to support that obviously I found you guys because of our renowned passion of working on the B2B side of hospitality did some use the good old Google search uh realized there's not a lot of people out there doing exactly what you guys do so I thought that this would be a fantastic conversation um because there's so many layers to this admittedly I'm not a hotelier not I'm not I haven't worked at a hotel so some of these are been eye-opening enlightening uh elements to this so one of it has been the entire process of how becoming a vendor in hotels why is the process for becoming a vendor so complex well I I think when you most people think about retail and becoming a supplier for retail they see a very simple ecostruxure there you've got an owner of a building that's gonna that houses the store that owner is basically a landlord the brand of that store is the manager the purchasing the operator of the store so if you're going to sell to stores you're going to go to that brand hospitality is just the opposite there are actually five different stakeholders in the hospitality industry owners management companies Brands uh group purchasing organizations and then the individual property itself so if you're trying to find an easy way to find a broker who can go in and talk to one person that does not exist in hospitality you've got to know which one of those stakeholders you need to get to and is the right fit for your product and then go talk to them if you go to the wrong one you're going to get bounced around trying to figure out who the right person is and you're wasting a lot of valuable time that's a really really good point um because oftentimes the person that you're seeking right isn't even in the hotel exactly right yeah the you know it's so much depends on the product itself you know that's going to drive who the decision maker is going to be and there's all these different groups of stakeholders all these stakeholder groups and so owners um you know typically are going to make decisions about capital expenditure type products but more and more today they are making decisions about operating supplies or at least they have the interest in looking at something that's going to have a financial reward for them and so they become the primary decision maker more often than not now so it just depends on what the product is and then you kind of have to drill down to to each department you know within the stakeholder groups there's food and beverage engineering rooms admins Spa you know there's all these different departments I like to think of hotels like several different businesses under 1 roof and then also hotels are just big pieces of real estate you know that are bought and sold every day so it's a it's a complex world and as Andy mentioned you know traditionally in retail manufactures reps and Brokers do pretty well that's that's typically for sales that's who these companies will hire but in Hospitality that really does not exist um and it doesn't exist because it's very complex so somebody has to really specialize you know in Hospitality yeah that's a really great illustration I will stack on top of that our beloved industry and the reluctance reluctiveness to change right yeah finding the right person is one thing which is a challenge in itself but having them take a look at something that may be new to them our industry obviously is not big on making revolutionary changes it's always follow the leader and no one wants to a lot of people don't necessarily want to make so how that's another element of complexity that right they're not there are not a lot of early adopters within the hospitality industry so you've really got to start to think if if you've got a new brand concept who who are those brands that are going to want to be the Pioneer want to come come in and say I'm willing to do something different um go after the the long time established brands those are big aircraft carriers you're trying to turn and that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort yeah I'd like to add to that too that um you know on the flip side there you know we we've been through some trying times in the last three years and there's been some forced changes that have had to had to come about and I think that many owners and management companies are now trying to solve labor problems for example and supply chain issues forever um you know not just during covid so they're trying to put together their plans and and goals and operating procedures that are going to be in place that won't uh so they don't feel like they're caught you know with the with a quick way to try to figure something out so although they may be reluctant to try new products I think they're eager to try those products that will solve problems for them and it's really what we focus on you know with what we do you know we're not going to take on a product with work that we do that's not going you know if it's going to cause a more labor to utilize that product or service or if there's 10 other things like that or it competes with a brand standard then yeah most hoteliers are going to be like no you know it's okay and that's a very heavy lift but I think that changes on the horizon uh and initiatives around wellness and sustainability are uh more at the hopefully people are going to start doing something about it now I think we've talked about it a lot and I hope 2023 will be the year that we we see a lot of change around that wonderful yeah you had a really good point there um solving specific pain points and challenges versus the nice to have right right which is a great segue into my next question of what is the best way to Market your product or service to a hotel so it sounds like a trick question you're asking um because uh you know there there really is no single best way you know so think about you know you have 10 000 products out there there is probably seven thousand different ways to Market those products because it depends on you know who the what the product is how it fits within the ecosystem um what the customer facing materials and your talking points are going to look like when you're talking to an owner versus when you're talking to a general manager very different very different you have to be prepared for that um so they're you know there's there's some key principles that we find uh that we advise anyone to do and we we put this out there regularly so first of all be hospitable you know we're in the hospitality business be nice you know be hospitable be welcoming um Hotel employees are are trained to be friendly and it's not something that you can really actually train somebody to be you either you know if you're in the if you're in the hotel business you're probably a pretty good person you know you're hospitable so be the supplier that walks that walk and be hospitable and then this is very important be proactive and not reactive in your follow-up in your commitments uh in in checking in you know to make sure that your product or service is doing well see how things are doing don't bug them you know people don't have time constantly but uh always better to be proactive than to be reactive and um you know it's it's easier to uh if if there is a problem it's easier to fix it if you know about it before it's run up the chain all the way to the owner who's going to squash it you know so it's uh those are those are a couple of things and Indiana and you've got some things in mind too you know building on that I always say the greatest living philosopher um today is Mel Brooks in his uh second movie The theme song was called hope for the best expect the worst um and and that that's exactly that Bill's point about being proactive we want to go in you want your product to be working well but think about what could happen check with the hotels see what their experience is with it make sure they're happy more than likely when you're selling to an individual Hotel what you're being is a proof point or others Dave you know other management companies other hotels are going to want to look at an example of how your product is doing a hotel within a management company may be the test property for the entire management company make sure that the water is smooth everybody's happy because everybody's going to be looking at it and your future sales are going to be dependent on you delivering on a good experience for the hotel that's a great point and um I'll add a little bit to that as as well as as um we always try to emphasize the importance of building social proof and getting back to the comment I had mentioned many hoteliers don't want to take the leap of faith of trying something brand new so our Our advice when we're going to Market are so many other uh clients have been working is is develop a proof of concept in multiples of three having three solid experiences even if it was even if if you test it out with a client for free you're able to replicate that show case study testimonials around that and be able to show that to a hotelier hopefully that it's impacting the bottom line because that's always that is always a universal term that transcends the GM and especially ownership right right yeah at the bottom line yeah it's very important especially for a new product a new supplier out there expect to have a pilot you know if you're you won't just go right in we we manage a lot of pilots and customer focus groups as well and um it really is the only way but what we also advise is is very important is that when you are working with a management company or an owner or a hotel a brand a GPO whoever it is know your audience do your research understand what their goals are around sustainability uh their mission statements look at their portfolios don't just look at the list dive into the pictures look at the hotel you know look on look on LinkedIn you know kind of kind of see if you you know have have some connections there do your homework you know one size never fits all and uh your bill you're really out there this is a relationship business and you're building a relationship if you have a product that you're trying to sell so uh you know and be respectful of the of the uh of their time you know hoteliers today you know general managers are cleaning toilets we we say that phrase all the time around here and um so you know use their time wisely so you really gotta hit the point you know when once you do have their attention on something make sure you you are prepared as prepared as you can be and just be a problem solver find a way to demonstrate that your product or service is solving some kind of problem and it has an Roi it's it's not going to um you know break the bank you know understand if it's a rooms product they have to build that into the cost of the room it's very you know it's a different pro forma type so you know those are some those are some good tips just um you know be nice know who they are and uh uh be proactive and not reactive or you made an interesting point that I really like when you talked about pilots and you said three and you know everybody gets nervous because the larger your pilot the more likely something is to go wrong at one of them but when they stop and think about it you'd like to see of those three do go perfectly smoothly no issues at all but it'd be okay for one of them to have a problem because it shows you know how to handle when something goes wrong and that responsiveness that follow-up that's always a good part of a proof point because nobody expects everything that runs law looks like that's getting getting back to that's that exact example of people don't would never trust a Trip Advisor score of all fives yeah and that there's got to be a few in there that's in it exactly is that when something does go wrong to show the staff has in a very logical and inhospitable manner has been able to solve the problem acknowledge fault listen to what went wrong and show that you're able to work through a problem because yes absolutely especially with technology right guys the yeah it's not a matter of if but when something's going to go wrong so very good point Andy absolutely wonderful red tape bureaucracy we all I just it's not something I really get excited about it but I'm sure can only imagine that that along with certifications and things are part of the are part of the plan here so what are some special things that there's considerations that you would need to be aware of it's a great Point um so it kind of ties back to the stakeholders you know it depends on you know who is part of your decision pool you know that you're that you're looking for so Brands you know for example are certainly setting the specifications you know if you want to be XYZ Hotel you have to meet these brand standards so uh be aware you know of of how that goes and um and the image you know that they're trying to portray in the brand and then owners you know they expect a financial pro forma analysis uh most don't don't do those but uh you know an owner is is is the one providing the money they're they're the credit worthiness portion of the hotel they're they're paying the bills um and they they want to look at the bottom line they're looking for the noi and so if you if you have a product be prepared to uh to understand how to put that together you know this isn't a a a PowerPoint presentation that says how wonderful everything is this is these are the numbers and this is the plan for deploying it and this is what it looks like on an annual basis um gpos will you know if you if you get a GPO deal you know that's you know you're doing great you know if you get a group purchasing organization contract um be prepared to offer up allowances you know based on your Revenue to have that GPO contract and then they're going to require um liability insurance uh perhaps in a greater amount than than you're accustomed to and uh you know they want to they want to make sure that all of their customers have minimized risk so those are those are some things oh Andy on you I've got it I've got a new year we just started up his cars so yeah exactly what we talked about earlier um in my GPO days when we would talk with people about indemnification you know we would compare a large Professional Organization versus a smaller supplier in landscaping we would talk about two trucks and a Truck and their role was to no blow and go and we said why is identification important for everybody because if that that guy who's mowing the lawn hits a rock it goes through the window and hurts somebody yeah what are you gonna do are you protected you want to make sure that you make that simple for the hotelier to know there's not going to be an issue you are covered you are protected and the suppliers got you taken care of for that it's a it's a critical selling point and thinking about service providers they are going to be looking for any professional certification that's necessary particularly if you're a trades person because they're going to have the building codes they have to be up to par they're going to be inspected the the those inspectors are looking for certified plumbers certified electricians so think about how you can add value through that certification process um and then of course it's it's always great if you've got a sustainability policy if you've got any kind of a diverse profile to your business those are things that the hotel industry more and more are looking for from their suppliers yeah they're measuring they're measuring that now they're measuring their uh you know create their goals against sustainability and and measuring how they're doing against that and reporting that back out to the public uh you know lots and lots of guests especially today Drive their decisions about where to stay in hotels based on sustainability policies so that's very important and um you know they're there's there's so much eco-friendliness but the the uh you know if you're a certified women-owned business like I am for example you know they get some points for that you know these are things that you know our industry is caring about things that we want them to care about now so if you're a supplier and you can provide uh all of those all of those things then you're in pretty good shape and in fact you don't personally your organization doesn't have to be the diverse if you're working with other companies that have a diversity profile um it may be manufacturers of components for the product or whatever that might be those associations are just as valuable because it just talks through the whole supply chain process that's wonderful add definitely um and obviously I might not be such a bad idea to include some of those sustainabilities and diversification in your marketing that can also be help get that conversation started as well yes you had mentioned noi and I saw that on your website I I haven't I've yet to hear that somebody used that term regularly could you expand a little bit more on that sure it's net operating income so a lot of times everybody's measuring the top line and they're measuring the very bottom bottom line it's that line kind of in between when you've got a lot of your basic expenses taken out of your top line revenue and um it helps owners to better understand what kind of return we get on every expense that they incur and for that reason you either want to be able to demonstrate that you're reducing the expense line in order to make noi larger or you are increasing the revenue line larger than the investment in your product or service um I've often found it kind of interesting in that a lot of people base a lot of their expenses or their commissions on just purely Top Line and that's been known at times to hurt the noi I can see why yeah and so owners especially right now they've come out of covid where they saw their top line revenue drop they're moving into a period of inflation and increasing interest rates they they didn't have a lot of money to start with now they're paying extra money than they normally would have two three years ago to do the exact same work so there's a huge amount of pressure on owners to get that noi back in uh in line with where it used to be you know the other thing too along those lines is during covid when covid started um you know they're uh regular industry uh work that's done it's called Pips you know property Improvement plans and um those those kind of fell off to the Wayside um you know during during covid and you'll put off um and this is the year 2023 that they are getting it done and catching up for the last three years so the budgets that have been approved in many cases now a lot of that money is being allocated to Pips and um you know the the QA is starting back up with the brands you know they're coming back in to make sure everyone is in compliance you know with the brand standards and so forth and building inspections are are happening and all of the things that require Capital you know to to operate these big pieces of real estate um you know we we had not seen that either in the industry where there was a three-year period where not a lot of Pips were being done but um that's a sign that's going to be a significant um uh uh thing we're going to see in 2023 great good stuff guys um one last question for you what is some what is one of the biggest misconceptions or secrets about selling to a hotel well I'll start with the biggest misconception and that is I've got a great product so I can walk into the hotel have a conversation with the general manager and boom I'm in um the reality is you've you've got to know who the right person is to talk to whether it's the director of engineering at a hotel or it's the the director of food and beverage at a management company or a brand manager at one of the brands if if you go in and you you try to hit the the wrong person with a great idea it's not going to go anywhere so you've got to make sure that you're in the right place talking to the right person yeah and then you know once you are in the right place talking to the right person you know oftentimes that's the management company right right and although you may have been a supplier like you know I'm going to go into that hotel and make this happen and if you end up at the management company where you should be anyway right then all of a sudden your future sales and potential just grew by you know however many properties they have if it's 50 hotels so understand those synergies you know where you can make sure that you're working with the right team um you know that's that's an important part of the whole process of the ecosystem so um you know and even getting to them it's not easy right that's why that that material and your talking points and the way that you're reaching out to them is very important and has to be specific to that particular stakeholder um we just can't stress that enough however you talk to you know your general manager is going to be very different than the way you're talking to an owner um so be prepared and it takes some practice you know it's uh it's it's not something you can generally do off the cuff I mean I've got 40 years experience it's probably taken me that long in order to be able to uh feel comfortable where where I where I can do that but yeah to kind of uh expand on that a little bit again from somebody that didn't start my career in hotels um it's taken me so long to figure out all those different Dynamics I can't imagine how frustrating it would be for somebody that Andy as you mentioned it's got a great idea got this this product's Gonna Save the the the hotel industry how could anybody resist what I have to sell them and being so frustrated and stonewalled by if they only knew how great this product was I'm gonna be looking pretty right going through that whole process and just being declined because ultimately you know people are overwhelmed at the hotel quite honestly there's not a lot of vested interest for them to see how great your product is and to get past all of that to a person that may say wow there might be something here I can only imagine how frustrated that would be so you guys head on some really really great points um well I think that frustration comes from you know your product you know how great it is you've seen it in action you're walking up to somebody who's got 57 other things on their mind right now and you're if you're not talking to them the way they're used to talking to people they're hearing a completely foreign language they don't really understand why you're here so many of the points that that we've made you know Jill talking about have that solution now all of a sudden when they hear my product is great because it solves this for you now now they're perking up they're starting to hear the language they're familiar with and that's what's going to lock them in yeah we we have a we have a sheet of 172 Hospitality acronyms ah yes and uh it really is a foreign language you know and that's that's an important part too is you got got to know the lingo you know in oi you know that we just talked about ADR occupancy you know what do all those things mean and um then that that when you understand all that you'll you'll more quickly and effectively understand how your product will solve something you know so um yeah it's it's cut it's kind of like rushing for a fraternity sorority using the uh the terms and in terminology and being able to get in with the In Crowd because you're absolutely right if you're not dropping the ADR and some of the other terminologies um you're looking at like an outsider it's like uh you're not one of us right yeah yeah right you know and you're really you know at the end of the day we we go back to this house you know being hospitable and and being nice and you're really as a supplier you want to get out there and make friends you know you want you're building a relationship people in Hospitality especially want to do business with people they know and trust absolutely and as a supplier your ultimate goal is to be a trusted advisor exactly and once you're in two or three as you mentioned you know kind of this pilot it's a it's a huge business it's a large business in Hospitality but it's also very small and they they will talk you know to their colleagues and go to conferences and mention you and and you want all of that to be favorable and once that train starts rolling in that way you're you're in a very good position to get a brand specification or get a group purchasing organization contract and you know the things that are gonna that are gonna keep you growing um you know outside of one hotel at a time you know you'll get you'll get bigger and bigger you know it's funny Joe you talk about how the industry is constantly moving too um the bad news is you're pitching the hotel to a general manager and the next time you come in that general manager is gone somebody is taking their person's Place good news is that Advocate that you build is somewhere else and if you establish a good relationship now you get the chance to get two sales out of out of that one person so that the other reason for being that trusted partner that is acting hospitable to the person they're talking to when they move and they like you they will carry your message forward that's a really good point and what one thing we try to emphasize our clients is making them the hero and not yourself because that's right they move on from it's either their lifers at a hotel or their they've moved in 10 positions in the last year it seems like in in my in my world so you're absolutely right if you're in you've made that relationship you've made their his property look fantastically amazing he's going to be tripping out or he or she is going to be tripping over themselves to bring you along for the ride because it's going to make them look great yes yeah yeah and remember there's an average of 10.3 openings per hotel in the United States now that's right American Hotel uh Lodging Association yeah that's incredible um so this is why it's also it's important as a supplier to know those statistics know your industry news you know be aware of what's happening and get your wheels turning you know are you solving that problem you know are you coming in to say I have this technology that's going to help you with uh your your labor issue that will get their attention definitely yeah and then you have to be able to prove it you know but it's it's incredible what our industry has been through and and how resilient we really are really good point guys I consider and talk with you for the next couple hours as we talked about trying to make these a little bit pithy not only that I won't be able to have something additionally that we can have a follow-up conversation um thank you both so much for spending a few minutes with me on a Friday thank you so much for having us we really appreciate it foreign [Music]