I recently had the honor of closing out HSMAI ROC’s lightning round presentations. The lightning rounds are a fun challenge – you have just 20 slides and 20 seconds for each one to tell your story. This year, I examined whether or not I am turning into my mother – or rather, whether or not we are all turning into our parents – and how that old-school mentality might be impacting our approach to revenue management.
While reading this, I challenge you to ask yourself: Is the old way really the best way? Or is the discipline of revenue management due for a shakeup?
My mom:
Modern tech:
Are you being forced to manually execute processes that an RMS should be doing for you? It’s not sustainable – and there is a better way.
Book a demo of N2Pricing™ RMS today to see smart automation in action and take back your valuable time.
My mom:
Modern tech:
Our systems are cluttered with colorful calendars and metrics all over the place. They’re so overcrowded, you can’t actually take a quick look and understand what’s going on. Instead of dealing with everything in chronological order, we need to focus on where we have the biggest bang for our buck – whenever that is.
Modern tech:
Our industry talks a lot about profit – but what are we actually doing about it? Most systems that boast “profit optimization” are really just taking turn cost into account. Instead, we should be leading with profit – putting that data into our systems and using profit as the metric that we drive our business towards.
The right system should optimize profit and automate decisions based on that optimization.
My mom:
Modern tech:
We waste a TON of time in training, spending days at a time to learn how to get into a system that is too complicated to understand. Then, we’re expected to turn around and teach others how to use it. Don’t get me wrong, training is still essential, but the way that we train people needs to change. We need to meet people where they are, and offer accessible, easy, quick training for our systems.
N2Pricing™ RMS is super intuitive and offers easy in-app training. Google Maps didn’t require a day-long training session, right? Neither should your RMS.
My mom:
Modern tech:
If we’re not careful, we’re going to fall into the trap of doing things the same way we’ve always done them. “Back in my day” doesn’t cut it anymore. Back in my day, there was a DORM at every property, and you had to pull reports to validate decisions before manually pushing a button to make a price change – but the setting we work in and the systems we have are evolving.
It’s time to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable and reimagine the way we work.
So, the jury is out on whether or not I, personally, am turning into my mother – but there are clear indicators that revenue management is stuck in the past. My mother is amazing, but I don’t think our industry should be taking any technological cues from her. The old way isn’t always the best way.
The next time you’re managing your pricing, I want you to ask yourself these two questions:
If you’re still being forced to look at 5 different data sources before pulling the trigger on next Tuesday’s price update, it’s time for a change.
And I get it: change is hard. The decision to change the way we’ve always done things and invest in new technology doesn’t fall to one person.
From the top down, you must lead by example. Be a visionary and reimagine the way work gets done for your team.
From the bottom up, speak up. Don’t accept the button pushing. Ask for better tools and automation. Be the commercial leader that your team needs you to be.
If that rebellious teenager inside of you is ready to take action, book your demo of N2Pricing RMS today and see what a game changer modern revenue management technology can be.
(And go hug your mom.)