As a skier since I was 5 and a snowboarder-only since I was 50-the beginning of the snow season continues to bring immediate positive emotions and a few practicalities to the forefront especially at this time of year. I've been involved in the ski & snowboard industry as a board member, as an entrepreneur and as a manager off and on for decades. Very exciting and rewarding times, and for those of you who may think that working in the industry would be a wonderful opportunity to be out on the hill, the reality is just the opposite since from Thanksgiving through mid-February, you're working every day, all the time.  

Stratton began snowmaking last week. Stratton is one of-if not the best in the East-at the business of snowmaking and grooming. Marketing that announcement last week was this picture, which gets the juices moving for any serious skier or rider.  I've lived at Stratton both part and full time for decades and have had the privilege of working with the Stratton management many of whom are among the best managers I've worked with in my career. 

Managing one of the top resorts in the country is an extraordinarily complex job!  From balancing the hiring and training of hundreds of part time customer-facing employees to managing the operations of pumping millions of gallons of water along with nightly snow grooming down to the exacting execution of daily marketing campaigns in highly competitive markets.  This is omnichannel marketing at its best!  

• Killington opened last week under their well-known marketing banner of "First-to-Open, Last-to Close". Very low-ticket costs, free burritos and free Killington-logo hats...and, of course, the opportunity to buy season-tickets at promotional pre-Thanksgiving pricing.
• One of the baseline pillars of any marketing program is pricing.  At any major resort, depending on the day in the week, the week in the season, the big holidays, the age of the person, the new or repeat buyer, and whether that person is single or has a family and is a resort homeowner...and then the weekly outlook for the weather, it's very common to have 40+ different pricing packages at any time during any month.  I always think of ski resort pricing when one of our tech customers tells me that their four different gradations of software pricing is hard to market.  
• And then there's the massive competition all of whom are looking for exactly the same thing: people on the hill, hot dogs and drinks in the base lodge, room nights in the hotels and the opportunity to sell real estate in a compressed period of time of a 100 day season.     

Success for your 2025 revenue plan is all about building and executing on your marketing plan.  Most probably you're working through the planning of your 2025 marketing plan right now.  If you want to think through a few ideas, connect with me.  

Enjoy the rest of the week!  Hopefully see you on the hill!
  

working on your 2025 Marketing & Sales plans!

For a few ideas on your own sales and marketing planning for 2025, click here for our "Writing the Winning Sales Plan, and Writing the Winning Marketing Plan, outlining ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best. 

Give me a call and let's discuss having us facilitate your 2025 planning process. This picture comes from one of our planning sessions for our customers we held at Stratton. Nothing like a quick call to talk through your current thinking for your 2025 plannng .