A destination management company can only be as useful as the brief allows. "We are looking at Thailand in Q4 for around 100 people" is enough to start a conversation but not enough to produce anything you can put in front of a budget holder. Six things change that.
1. A budget, even a rough one
The most common omission and the most costly. Without it, every DMC guesses, and you receive three proposals pitched at three different levels that cannot be compared. A per-head range is fine. So is "under this number or it does not happen."
2. Dates, and how firm they are
"Late October" and "21-25 October, fixed" produce very different sourcing strategies. Flexibility is worth real money in peak season; if you have it, say so, and we will tell you what it is worth.
3. Who is travelling
Seniority, nationality mix, age spread and whether partners are included. A programme for eighty regional sales winners in their thirties looks nothing like one for eighty distributors and their spouses.
4. What has to happen versus what would be nice
Separate the non-negotiables - the awards dinner, the two-hour board session, the CSR morning the CEO has already announced - from the flexible content. It lets us protect the right things when the budget gets tight.
5. What went wrong last time
The single most useful paragraph in any brief. If last year's coaches ran late, the dinner overran or the wi-fi failed during the keynote, tell us. We will design around it explicitly.
6. How you will decide
Whether this is a competitive pitch, how many DMCs are involved, who signs, and what the timeline for a decision is. It is not a trick question, and knowing the answer means we invest appropriately rather than guessing.
What you should expect back
A first response within two working days, a feasibility view that includes destinations you did not ask about if we think they fit better, and a budget broken into net cost and management fee so you can see what you are paying us for.
Planning a programme in Indonesia or Thailand?
Send a brief and we will come back within two working days with a feasibility view.