Hotel sales and marketing professionals demonstrate knowledge of leading channel for group business

Tysons Corner, Va., Cvent (NYSE: CVT), a leading cloud-based enterprise event management platform, today announced that it has launched a Supplier Professional Certification program for hotel sales and marketing professionals to demonstrate their knowledge of the Cvent Supplier Network. This program will ultimately help these professionals save time during the eRFP response process and convert more group business for their properties.

"The supplier certification program allows hotel sales and marketing professionals to gain a deeper understanding of how to utilize the Cvent tools efficiently," said Bharet Malhotra, senior vice president of sales at Cvent. "We want to help these professionals better understand the RFP process from a planner’s perspective, which will ultimately lead to a more effective use of their time and create better ROI for their property to win more group business."

The Cvent supplier professional certification helps suppliers:

• Develop an understanding of the planner perspective
• Increase venue’s exposure to planners
• Decrease their lead response time
• Set up their account for maximum efficiency
• Define the role of venue administrators, lead catchers and users
• Run relevant reports to help supplement their team goals
• Leverage Cvent special features and gain additional tips

Cvent began rolling out this certification program at its first annual Group Business Forum held in April. Approximately 70 suppliers were certified during that session and the company was urged to expand the program’s reach. Most recently, sales representatives from various Washington, D.C. –based Starwood properties participated in a day of onsite training and testing. Additionally, Starwood was the first hospitality company to have a team complete training and become fully certified.

"It’s very important to ensure when planners send a RFP through Cvent’s Supplier Network, the responses they receive from our teams will be the most complete and accurate," said Christopher Kelly, Area director of sales & marketing – Mid-Atlantic Region, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “This will ultimately save all parties involved time and lead to more group business for our properties."

Interested in getting Cvent certified? Please visit our website for a detailed cost breakdown and information on additional options for certification here.