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| Developing Strong Ties |
| MDI's David Wagner creates relationships first, marketing programs second |
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By Randy Guidry
Editor
The Resort Trades
They say that the key to developing a solid business in today's market is to create solid partnerships with your clients. This philosophy is dear to the heart of David Wagner, President of Marketing Decisions Inc., one of the vacation ownership industry's premier providers of telemarketing and premium solutions.
For over two decades, Wagner has been collecting partners across the U.S. and Canada and around the world. His vast arsenal of relationships and partners allows him a unique flexibility in the types of products and services that his company is able to provide for resort and travel club clients.
With dozens of telemarketing centers and direct mail houses as associates, Wagner and Marketing Decisions Inc., can provide their clients across the country with quick response marketing solutions that have their clients begging for more.
At Home in New York
Born and raised in the West Seneca suburbs of Buffalo, New York, Wagner was brought up in a third-generation construction family boasting a rich history of construction in Western New York State.
Wagner's ambitions took him elsewhere, however, to the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he graduated in 1979 with a BA degree in Communications, Advertising, and Public Relations.
After college, Wagner tried his hand at managing a few marketing companies in western New York State, in both Albany and Buffalo.
Also during this time, Wagner became associated with the Barbizon School of Modeling as a telephone sales representative. Due to his success in this program, he became the youngest person ever promoted to the position of Executive director of sales out of 80 schools across the country.
"My big break came in the early 1980's when I was offered a position with the Hyatt Hotels Corporation," explains Wagner.
Working for Hyatt
At Hyatt, Wagner was involved in the Rooms Division and developed programs that were implemented across the country on a corporate level.
"Eventually, I was transferred to Incline Village, NV, to the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe," says Wagner. "Little did I know that Tahoe would become a permanent home for me."
"Working at Hyatt showed me the workings of a corporate hospitality company. The training that we received was absolutely phenomenal," says Wagner. "I was in a position where I had 100-150 employees directly under me. Hyatt showed me how to set my standards high in customer service, employee relations, and product quality. Hyatt focused on training the Hyatt way, a corporate philosophy that has stuck with me through the years. The Hyatt philosophy that pervaded was that from the highest corporate office, through the office managers, to the line employees, every employee had the feeling that they were vitally important to the success of the company. All employees had a tremendous pride in the success of the company, and wanted to have a part in that success. I've really tried to incorporate that philosophy into Marketing Decisions Inc., using 'we' instead of 'me,' allowing everyone to share in the success and pride of the company."
According to Wagner, this philosophy is one that he has kept with him ever since. "To this day, I still try to make sure that every employee feels that way about my company," says Wagner. "I like to do a lot of one-on-one informal meetings with my staff. We work on small issues all week long, and then meet once a week in our staff meeting to do a complete weekly update on all of our clients, so that everyone is on the same page and understands all of the issues that are going on in aspects of our business."
"I stayed with Hyatt until 1987, and at that point left Hyatt and was asked by a company called OPC International to do some telemarketing seminars for them," explains Wagner. "Through my experience with Barbizon, I had developed some solid telemarketing training programs, and the owner at OPC International asked me to be the Marketing Director for their operation."
Although Wagner only stayed with OPC International for a short time, he grew the business tremendously.
"When I started at OPC, the company only employed six people," says Wagner. "We took that number up to 25 telemarketers in 9 months and we created $1.2 million in mini vacation promotional packages for four different resorts in Lake Tahoe - two on the north shore of the lake, and two on the south shore."
Grant Wolf, Inc.
Soon after leaving OPC International, Wagner was approached by Peter Grant and Richard Wolf of Grant Wolf and Associates, one of the most respected marketing firms in the United States.
"I was asked to run their marketing program in the Lake Tahoe Area," says Wagner. "I worked to guide the marketing for The Tahoe Edgelake Beach Club, The Olympic Village Inn, The Red Wolf Lakeside Lodge and World Class Resorts International. We also worked to open an offsite sales center in Anaheim, CA. During that 8 year period, we had telemarketing operations in Sparks, NV, Eagle's Nest, and another group of stations in Myers, on the south shore of Lake Tahoe. At one time, we were running three outbound telemarketing centers simultaneously as well as an entire direct mail campaign."
"Through my association with Grant Wolf, I learned the basics of direct mail programs, Referral programs, and OPC programs," explains Wagner. "We ran OPC operations, we did in-house marketing, and I started my association with outbound telemarketing centers. We were hiring outbound centers to augment and add to our existing telemarketing programs that we were running though Grant Wolf. When I left Grant Wolf to start Marketing Decisions Inc., I used many of these contacts that I had developed working with Grant Wolf." Wagner stayed with Grant Wolf until January of 1997, when he made the decision to start his own firm, Marketing Decisions Inc.
On His Own - MDI
Armed with a huge Rolodex of contacts throughout the industry, Wagner started Marketing Decisions Inc. from the extra bedroom of his house in 1997.
"At first, I only worked to provide outbound telemarketing services for my clients," explains Wagner. "My very first client was The Cliff Club at Snowbird Ski Resort. Some associates of mine were running the sales center and knew that I could help them find a telemarketing firm that could increase their sales, so they contracted with me to help them out."
MDI offers its clients a unique mix of services, but, more importantly, Wagner and his team offer the knowledge of what works and what doesn't work in the marketing industry.
"The way that Marketing Decisions works is this - we do not own an outbound telemarketing center. The niche that I have found in the industry is that developers want to deal with one company. So, the benefit for developers is that they can contact me and I can put up to 5 telemarketing centers on their program almost immediately. They only have to deal with one company when talking about changes to their program, getting the results of their programs, disputes, changing premiums, etc.," says Wagner.
"The benefit to the telemarketing centers is that they are guaranteed to be paid, which is unfortunately the cold truth problem for independent telemarketing centers. Our claim to fame is that every Thursday, we Federal Express out or wire transfer payments to the telemarketing companies even before we are paid on an account. Then the telemarketing centers feel secure that they will be compensated regardless of the status of payment from the resort company. We can also help them out by providing the startup needs for the programs. In many occasions, we have even pre-purchased leads for the resort. We do the disputes for them, and we basically try to help offset most of the dangers that the telemarketing company would have if they were dealing directly with the resort. And the fact that we might have multiple telemarketing companies working on a single resort account gives us a strength and diversity that we can provide to a single resort sales center that a single telemarketing company working for that resort might not have access to."
Often, Wagner suggests that his clients create a combination program that involves both direct mail campaigning and outbound telemarketing, making for a very strong presence for that client to his audience.
"Customers like to deal with us, because we are open seven days a week, and we have a very proficient staff that is available for customer service," says Wagner, "Every company tries to claim their company is all about customer service, but at Marketing Decisions Inc., we try to live that credo. Our customers know that they can call any day of the week and get a live answer on the telephone."
At Marketing Decisions, Wagner and his associates have developed some unconventional policies that testify to their dedication to customer service. For example, Wagner refuses to rely on voice mail systems for their clients to contact them. "We think that the American public is burned out on voice mail," explains Wagner. "Instead, we take pride in our policy of returning any and all phone calls, no matter how inconvenient."
As every business owner knows, the number of telephone calls, messages, voice mail, e-mails, and faxes that the average executive receives all day long continues to grow, and it is often difficult to be sure that each one is responded to appropriately. Wagner's approach to one-on-one "personalized" customer service is a refreshing change.
"We take great pride in getting back with all of our calls in a timely manner, usually within an hour," says Wagner. I have been lucky in building a very fine team of employees that have tremendous pride in the success of MDI and are dedicated to serving all of our clients. Every employee on our staff is a vital part of our high level of customer service and contributes individually to the design and implementation of new and existing marketing campaigns. An old Rooms Executive at the Hyatt once told me 'to surround yourself with excellence and glide.' I have been fortunate to surround myself with such excellence."
Providing the Tools
Wagner and MDI specialize in providing value-added tools for their clients to help them run their sales operations more effectively and efficiently, including providing sales centers with comprehensive projections that compile all of the gross bookings for that sales center, broken down by day and tour time for the next seven days. That way, they can see how the pipeline for their center is filling in for the near future and be assured that their program is working and that MDI is working for them.
Potential customers can also spend time on Marketing Decisions' website - www.marketingdecisions.com - where customers can look at the different marketing products that MDI offers, as well as examples of direct mail campaigns that they have put together for clients, plus get a comprehensive overview of MDI staff, policies, and products and services offered. Visitors can also look at day tour campaigns, mini vacation campaigns, and even actual certificates and financial proposals for campaigns.
"We are one of the few companies out there that, in certain instances, will offer a direct mail campaign for a sales center on a per tour cost," says Wagner. "The associated cost of a direct mail campaign can average $25-$30,000 and up. We will often take a $5 -$10,000 deposit on the campaign and then charge on a per qualified tour agreement."
Developing Partnerships
"One of the biggest questions that we are asked is 'why do you need a security deposit to start the project?'" says Wagner. "When you are doing a direct mail campaign, there are a tremendous amount of setup costs. We have to purchase the list, do the design work, pay for the printing, etc. The amount of the security deposits that we get helps to offset these setup costs, but the deposit helps to form a sort of partnership between us and the client. We want to have a sense that they are interested as much as we are in the vested partnership, so we require that that bond be formed before any work is done, and that has helped us tremendously in our customer relations and retention. That is something unique that we bring to the industry."
On the Cutting Edge
Marketing Decisions Inc. continues to stay on the cutting edge of the promotions industry, offering the latest in digital technology and the most popular premiums in the business.
"Over the last two years, we have brought only the highest quality technology to the industry," explains Wagner. "WebZone TV, for example, has been very popular over the last few years. From there, we have seen that the digital camera continues to flourish as a premium, and the newest premium that we are offering is the DVD certificate, which looks to become the hottest premium on the market."
In a time in which travel-related premiums are fluctuating dramatically, the new DVD certificate is creating quite a storm in the resort industry.
"The DVD-player product appeals to the type of client that resort sales centers are interested in seeing," says Wagner. "The DVD certificate gives great retail value, it's easy to store, and it appeals to high-end clients that are generally very affluent and cutting edge."
According to the response that Wagner and MDI have received on the DVD-player certificate so far, it sounds like a dream come true for struggling sales centers across the country.
"We were originally going to release this product at the Fall ARDA convention, but the tragedies of September 11 led to the cancellation of that event," explains Wagner. "Instead, we chose to do an industry-wide mailing of the release of the new product, and the response on a day-to-day basis has been outstanding. Resort marketers are very interested in learning more about this product and are ready to take their premium offerings to this level. Right now, we are the only U.S. firm offering the DVD player certificate at all, and we anticipate that the response for the product will be phenomenal."
The DVD Certificate provides a one-time purchase fee of $39.99 for the end-user, instead of a long-term monthly fee program like some other programs that leave consumers unhappy. The program is a result of months of planning and preliminary work on the part of Wagner and Marketing Decisions, and the results so far have been very positive.
"The people who are going to benefit the most are the people who contact us first, because we are going to establish this program, just as we do all of our other programs, in such a way that we won't be competing with ourselves in one particular market," says Wagner.
"If someone calls me from a certain city requesting a telemarketing program, and we already have another client in that drive-to area offering that same program, we can't set ourselves up to be in direct competition with ourselves in that area. We would instead offer that second client either a direct mail campaign or a different premium package that would provide similar results."
Other hot digital products that MDI is currently offering include a number of digital camera products.
"The digital camera products continue to be very popular right now," says Wagner. "We are getting orders for 500 at a time. People are interested in being on the cutting edge of technology. They are interested in the digital craze right now, including cameras and now the DVD players."
After doing a test mailing on the DVD player certificate, Wagner received a tremendous amount of feedback about possible changes that clients and industry professionals wanted to see on the promotions. "We wanted to get this feedback so that we could provide the absolute best product that we could to the end users," says Wagner "As a result, we've made a number of changes to the final certificates that reflect the most commonly requested changes."
Direct Mail Offerings
In his first year operating Marketing Decisions Inc., Wagner only offered outbound telemarketing services to his clients, but in his second year, he began incorporating direct mail into MDI's services.
"The direct mail programs that I represent are all produced with a company called Total Marketing Group, Inc. owned by Daryl Kampa," says Wagner.
"Daryl and I came together to form a partnership to co-own the American Call Center, which came about as a necessity because many resorts are not set up to handle their own inbound calls from direct mail campaigns. Because of my telemarketing experience, we determined that owning our own inbound call center would provide better handling of inbound calls, better reporting, improved confirmation, and hopefully a better show ratio than if we were outsourcing." The American Call Center also takes calls for any customer needing inbound call services.
As a partnership, Kampa and Wagner work together often to share and co-sponsor new programs and ideas.
The Complete Package
Wagner holds pride in the fact that he has grown Marketing Decisions to be an all-inclusive marketing services company.
"When someone calls Marketing Decisions, Inc, they have access to three different companies," says Wagner. "We have a full blown direct mail house, we have outbound telemarketing, and we have a full catalog of premiums and certificates for any resort or travel club. Although many of our services are outsourced, we serve as the one phone call that the client needs to make in order to achieve his or her goal."
"Granted, we're not the most inexpensive operation out there, but we try to offer the most complete marketing solution for clients all around. We have the contacts and the experience to give our clients the information and services that they need to better their business."
According to statistics recorded by Wagner and his associates, only about 60 percent of the potential clients who inquire about the services offered by Marketing Decisions actually become clients.
"We focus on doing outbound telemarketing for either onsite or offsite resorts or travel clubs that have a pretty general view of their clientele," explains Wagner. "We're looking for customers that are looking for a minimum of 50 qualified tours or more per week, that accept singles, that have income requirements of around $40,000, and that have nighttime tours available, and those with a reasonable budget for their per tour costs and premiums budget. If a client is not willing to adjust their gift budget, they may not be able to increase their sales to the level that they could. Sadly, we may not be able to help that client."
The types of campaigns that MDI continues to specialize in are day tour, drive-to campaigns. These types of services provide immediate gratification for telemarketing companies, and they are the types of tours that both telemarketers and most sales centers prefer.
"We do have the services needed to provide mini vacation telemarketing programs but we prefer to address that market with direct mail campaigns," says Wagner.
Specializing in Vacation Ownership
Although Wagner often gets requests from businesses outside the industry to provide marketing services, he refuses to venture too far out of his territory of expertise.
"We're not interested in doing business outside the industry through MDI," explains Wagner. "I have relationships with people all across the country who can help with that. MDI is interested in specialized programs for vacation ownership resorts, vacation travel clubs, and the hospitality industry only. We work on the understanding that a successful business should be interested in doing one thing, and doing it well - and I believe that we have accomplished that quite well."
Understanding the Telemarketing Industry
Although the telemarketing industry is commonly used in the resort industry, few people are aware of the complicated nature of telemarketing companies.
"I am blessed to have so many quality telemarketing centers, that I have long term relationships with that are so willing to work with me," says Wagner.
"Sadly, there are some real horror stories in the telemarketing industry on tour payments. We've all seen that a number of high profile clients have filed for bankruptcy recently and have gone out of business, owing a great deal of money to a lot of telemarketing companies. It's a sad but true fact but this is just part of this industry."
As a precaution, MDI requires that every new client that signs on provide a one-week security deposit to ensure against potential financial problems.
"In the whole history of MDI, there hasn't been one company that hasn't received their deposit back at the end of our relationship," explains Wagner. "If a company balks at the idea of the security deposit, that's a real red flag for us and shows that either the company is having financial problems or the company is not interested in forming a partnership with us for a long-term relationship. Our entire business is based on trust, and we need to establish that relationship up front from the start."
What the Future Holds
Marketing Decisions has just completed an extensive administrative expansion in anticipation of continued business growth. We have been experiencing an average 35% growth in gross sales every year since 1997 and a phenomenal 70% growth in gross sales this year. It's really an exciting time for the company!
"We've seen in this industry that in the course of a couple months, you can become incredibly overwhelmed with new clients and new business," says Wagner. "We needed some additional help. We were able to do the basics everyday, but expansion would have been a problem. And now we're in a position where we can bring in new business without being concerned with overburdening our employees."
"Now we have a very orderly induction of new clients, including extensive paperwork and forms to make the process cleaner. The reason for that is because we want our employees to have an understanding of every client," says Wagner.
"We are very excited about the new growth. We want to work to continue to specialize in the industries that we are in and continue to learn more about how we can adequately service our clients and learn to serve them better. We're on a continuous quest for knowledge."
"Because I had the opportunity to be a Director of Marketing for Grant Wolf for 8 years in the Nevada and California Markets, I've spent a lot of time on the front lines and learning what to expect and anticipate in the resort marketing industry. I think that our clients receive as much value from the free advice that we provide as they do from the clients that we generate."
Internet Marketing
With new advances in internet marketing, the executives at Marketing Decisions are beginning to gather research on new offerings in this emerging field of marketing.
"We have two staff members who are currently gathering email addresses for all of our clients so that we can begin providing more information by email to our clients and potential clients," says Wagner.
"Additionally, our website is extremely informative. We can direct premium questions and credibility questions to our website. On our site, clients can see my picture so that they know whom they are talking to. We still like to maintain the one-to-one interaction that is necessary in this line of business. We take the feedback from our clients to heart."
Outside the Office
Wagner and his wife Heather, have four children, including two in college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in their sophomore year. My daughter is in the senior dance company of Atlanta and our youngest son is in the marching band of our local high school. "We are very devoted to our children," says Wagner.
"We do like to travel. Since my wife does get to work with me as Vice President of Sales at MDI, we try to take as many small trips together as we can. We like to go to the islands and snorkel. When we're not doing that, we like to hike, take walks, and participate in cross-country skiing. When the children are home, we like to go camping together."
One of the Wagner's' favorite vacation spots is Tahiti, where they stayed in a timeshare bungalow over the water at the Bali Hai Resort for their honeymoon. "It's probably the only timeshare in the world with a thatched grass roof," says Wagner.
David Wagner
President
Marketing Decisions Inc.
774 Mays Boulevard, Suite 9
Incline Village, NV 89451
(775) 831-9732
Fax: (775) 831-5785
www.marketingdecisionsinc.com
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