Golden Nugget Leverages Knowland to Prospect for New Business

The Challenge

When 2020 kicked off, many of us in the industry looked to the “roaring ‘20s” with excitement as the hospitality industry continued its upward trajectory. Unfortunately, no one could imagine the extent of the fallout of the greatest downturn in history and the affect it would have on the hospitality and travel industry. Luckily for the Golden Nugget, Allen Oakley, the National Sales Manager, knew that he had an ace in his pocket. He had implemented Knowland at the Golden Nugget but as business came to a halt, he knew that the property’s sales strategy was going to have to change, and change quickly, to meet this challenge head on. After the initial phase of closures in Las Vegas, Allen and his team began stepping up their usage of the Knowland platform, the only prospecting solution in the market that is focused on group, digging deeply into the data to identify new business and begin conducting soft outreach to meeting planners and local businesses.

The Solution

What do you do when the phones stop ringing and the RFPs stop coming in? With nearly 15 years of hospitality experience under his belt, Allen recognized the need to re-orient his sales staff to become “hunters” instead of “fishers.” By using the depth of the event data, and the platform’s powerful search capabilities, Allen and his team worked together to identify group opportunities that not only fit the Golden Nugget’s 37,000 sq. ft of meeting space, but also to search beyond their geographic boundaries to identify new potential customers.

“We began to look for patterns by dialing in those areas that may have booked in nearby states, such as Arizona, New Mexico and other parts of Nevada. The key is you have to dive into the data and take advantage of the reports the platform provides. Doing so helps us run our sales efforts more efficiently.” Allen relies on the daily dashboard in addi-tion to the usage report to determine that his sales team is using the product correctly.

“90% of our prospecting efforts are done through Knowland,” Allen said. He appreciates Knowland’s Smart Search tool as it helps him dial down segments and identify patterns such as what quarter or weekday business vs. weekend business is currently active to help him to fill in open need periods.

This is the best prospecting tool on the market. If you don’t have Knowland, I’m not sure what tool you would be using to prospect.

ALLEN OAKLEY, GOLDEN NUGGET NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

The Results

The property’s Vice President of Sales, Michael Toney, has been in the hotel business for more than 20 years. Allen noted that Toney understands the sales process and the fact that, especially in Vegas, you have to go out and prospect for business. Toney and Allen work together to determine daily, weekly and monthly plans of action for the team. Reports are run from Knowland to communicate ongoing efforts with the leadership team. “The Knowland Dashboard and its other reporting functionality is important not only for identifying new business and converting it into profitability, but also to help us demonstrate the results of our efforts,” Allen said.

By using a data-driven, pro-active group sales strategy, his staff is able to reach meeting planners they would never have thought to, or had access to, without Knowland. “This is a critical and invaluable tool. If we didn’t have Knowland, I don’t know what tool we would use to prospect. We can’t rely on others to send us new business. I can say that using the platform has directly impacted our road to profitability, even before the downturn. Today, we continue to see the results we need to keep us on track as we move towards a new tomorrow.”