14 May Coffee Van delivers the most successful Marriott tour

As we embarked on our 4th year of supporting Marriott with their sales initiatives, we were feeling a bit apprehensive. We had a brand new coffee van and it had to work hard. Travelling from York to Torquay, covering pretty much every county in the UK< we had a lot of miles to cover – and nearly 30 years old, this van had already led a busy and tiring life. But we were also excited.

We  had sourced this van for the purpose and we knew once finished it would look great and perform brilliantly! With brand new bodywork and some fresh paint, it was original, quirky, eye-catching and fun. And it comes with complete with an event WiFi solution, so that the sales team can capture data on the road.

A perfect talking point, with a larger service area and a brand new pop-up bar which would be an excellent display for all of the Marriott goods. You see, after 4 years of working with the Marriott group, following their sales team around the country and visiting their customers to promote their services, we felt confident that we had got it right.

Yet we had to prove that our Mark 3 coffee van would perform. In addition to looking the part, it had to make up to 6 meetings a day, it had to keep up with the tight timescales, and it had to serve coffee to 150 odd employees in an hour – not an easy task. Our diary was as follows:

• Day 1 – 4 visits around York, Leeds and Bradford serving 240 coffees
• Day 2 – 5 visits around Manchester and Salford serving 310 coffees
• Day 3 – 5 visits around Stockport, Bolton and Manchester serving 240 coffees
• Day 4 – 4 visits around Nottingham and Derby serving 160 coffees
• Day 5 – 5 visits around Birmingham and Walsall serving 170 coffees
• Day 6 – 3 visits around Bristol, Taunton and Gloucester serving 160 coffees
• Day 7 – 3 visits around High Wycombe, Tadworth and London serving 60 coffees
• Day 8 – 5 visits around Swindon, Surrey and New Malden serving 180 coffees
• Day 9 – 6 visits around Peterborough, Cambridge and Spalding serving 200 coffees
• Day 10 – 3 visits in Kent serving 220 coffees

A jam packed schedule with no breaks, no room for contingency, and certainly no room for error – this was pressure on! And we rose to the challenge. After some initial reservations, the Marriott team all said that this is the best van out of the 3 that have been on tour with them.

They loved the set-up, the serving bar and the speed and efficiency of it all, which all contributed towards their sales team getting in front of the maximum numbers of customers. You see, we were visiting a lot of events agencies who book hotels, conferences and events at Marriott venues, so there were multiple customers within each of the 45 companies we visited. The reach was far, with each employee booking for many customers and they all thought this was a lovely idea, embracing the opportunity to have a coffee and cake, with a catch up from their Marriott representatives.

The whole team worked hard, and there was a buzz of excitement with every venue. The Marriott team wanted to be out on the road with the mobile coffee unit, engaging with customers and building closer relationships with them. It paid off – they received a number of enquiries whilst out on the road, and closed some deals at the same time. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?