Many of us are simply not too thrilled about Return on Investment. It seems slippery, hard to come to, difficult to measure. Some things are simply not measurable. There is not, to my knowledge anyway, an actual happy-meter that measures the happiness of your attendees with a meeting; though a ballroom full of smiles is certainly a good indication. There is also not a clear cut way to find if your attendees are more or less intelligent before or after a meeting.
When it comes right down to it, when a VP is asking about Return on Investment, what they really want to know is, “Did we profit from this meeting?” Even though they loved the venue, the food was beyond memorable and what-a-band! In the end, the real indicator of a meeting’s success, for many a VP out there, is show-me-the-money.
Here is an amazing formula for calculating your ROI:
I know what you’re thinking, OMG this ROI is making me LOL! I hope you know I am totally kidding! You do not need anything so elaborate as this. A recent article posted by Successful Meetings pretty much sums it up nicely. According to Tim Brown, CEO at Meeting Sites Resource you take “ the total gain from the meeting and subtract the total cost of the meeting. Divide that by total cost, then multiply that by 100. The resulting percentage is your ROI. For instance, if your meeting cost $1,000 and your profit was $2,000, your ROI would be 100 percent.”
Now that an equation we can all live with and use!
Jill, this is fabulous information and so pertinent when we are working with planners to understand ROI and how we can make sure that we can satisfy all of their needs including ROI.
I appreciate your blogs for the insightful information. I have saved the ROI formula so I can be better prepared when dealing with customers’ needs.
Thank you for a great blog. You are the best.
Regards,
Vita