Rainmaker Group Names Chris Clement Director, Hospitality Sales

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. January 23, 2014

ATLANTA, GA - January 23, 2014 - The Rainmaker Group, a world leader in automated profit optimization software and services for the gaming/hospitality industry, is pleased to announce the addition of veteran executive Chris Clement as Director, Hospitality Sales. In his new position, he will spearhead sales initiatives of GroupREV® - Rainmaker's sophisticated, yet to simple-to-use sales empowerment tool for group forecasting and pricing - a product Clement maintains is one of the industry's "hidden gems."

In 2005, Clement was promoted to senior sales manager with Marriott International, eventually helping lead the global sales efforts where he managed six of the hospitality conglomerate's largest accounts. Two of his 13 years with Marriott International were in revenue management where he was an active participant in the rollout of Marriott's forecasting and group-pricing tool, which it developed on its own.

Clement's career also includes a two-year stint with Cvent, Inc., a publicly held software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, among the largest in the meetings technology industry. While with Cvent, his primary role was selling marketing solutions to help better position hotels in front of meeting planners looking to book conventions and other major events.

"When I sat down with Bruce and Tammy, read the Rainmaker website, learned about its culture, and then when I overlaid my background, both on the sales side as well as in revenue management using a tool very much like GroupREV, it just seemed to be a great fit," Clement said, citing reasons he joined Rainmaker. "The other day I joked with my wife that this position was almost created for me."

Of 2014, John Wallace, Rainmaker President, Gaming/Hospitality, said, "We believe this will be the year GroupREV truly makes its mark in the industry. The economic recovery in the hotel sector has been driven by transient revenue growth. Group business has lagged behind transient, and in many markets has continued year-over-year declines. The latest data, however, shows group room night increases due to resurgence in short-term group activity. Across the U.S., group rooms committed are now up 8.8% compared to the same time last year. Now that group business is coming back, the need to manage and price group business demands greater focus and we're seeing a greater emphasis on that segment."