In advance of ‘Revenue Management 3.0-Where Next?’ we caught up with David Taylor, Chief Commercial Officer at GLH Hotels who has lead transformational changes within the revenue management function. We spoke to him to get some insight into how he sees the revenue management function evolving.
What to you is Revenue Management 3.0?
At the moment, Revenue Management tends to be a two-dimensional approach – taking what we know in terms of historical demand, and applying this to the system.
Revenue Management 3.0 will see the development of the function into far more of a demand management role. So much is changing. There is so much more data. The requirement moving forward will be to use that data to begin to understand the opportunities and gaps in the future. Revenue managers need to be thinking about how to create the right type of demand to fill those gaps and influence sales and marketing activity to drive that demand. The function needs to adopt a far more forward facing view and be instrumental in shaping the commercial strategy.
Also, the perception of revenue management needs to change. Revenue managers should not be seen as putting hurdles in the way of bringing business in. They need to be viewed as demand managers, driving the commercial functions to create the right demand and the right time at the right price. We need to see the role elevated to one of far more strategic significance moving forward.
What skills will revenue managers need to support this increased strategic focus?
Firstly, it’s an ability to read the market, the ability to act almost as a broker and plug in the appropriate resource to achieve the required results. This requires both a strategic view but also a wider understanding of all the commercial levers in the business and the impact of these.
In addition, there will be a requirement to communicate in a more strategic way both upwards and downwards. Revenue managers need to be really confident in presenting business challenges and solutions that they have not typically had to before. Their conversation needs to be far less technical and immersed in revenue management speak, and more related to the wider business -identifying the business problem and appropriate solution. A whole new way of communicating
David will be joining us on the 13th February at ‘Revenue Management 3.0-Where Next?’ where he will give greater insight into his thoughts relating to the future of revenue management. To find out more, visit www.opportunity2018.co.uk.
