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Marketing Ideas for the Global Travel Agent Community
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GOING FOR GROUPSCorporate Opportunities
PLUS The O&M
The EDGE The Frontline
The BDM
A N
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OP
EN
EN
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ST
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The COMIC-ALL Training Tool
SOMETHING TO LEARN ON EVERY PAGE
Who loves groups? Yeah… everyone! That’s a good thing as there are so many groups to be had – actually more like so many groups to be created. So make sure you read that article and get busy asking everyone about which associations they belong to, church, hobbies… dig for those groups! In this issue we’ll look at another closing technique, review the latest open ended question plus take a hard look at sixteen revenue generating opportunities found in each corporate account. What else? Ah yes, I’ve included a page titled: Something to Learn on Every Page and the focus is to point out the variety of fonts and colour schemes I use in Selling Travel. The concept is to show you these various combinations – some work some don’t and that’s the point. Don’t forget, if you need help with anything you see in Selling Travel I am as close as your email or Skype button.
Best regards, Steve Crowhurst, CTM Publisher www.smptraining.com [email protected] Skype: smptraining1 T: 250‐752‐0106 CHECK FOR WEBINARS HERE
Selling Travel is owned and published by Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All Rights Reserved. Protected by International Copyright Law. Selling Travel can be shared, forwarded, cut and pasted but not sold, resold or in anyway monetized. Using any images or content from Selling Travel must be sourced as follows: “Copyright SMP Training Co. www.smptraining.com” SMP Training Co. 568 Country Club Drive, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada V9K 1G1
AUGUST 2011
SOMETHING TO LEARN ON EVERY PAGE
THE O&M – Salary to Revenue
THE FRONTLINE – Work Space Management
THE EDGE – The Deep Ancestry Niche
CLOSING THE SALE 2 – The Either or Close .
THE EXTREME BDM – Fam trip ROI
CORPORATE OPPORTUNITIES ‐ 16 To Be Exact
GOING FOR GROUPS – Big, small, create them all!
BE THE SALE ‐ by Steve Gillick, CTM.
FROM THE BOOK – Skype Sales & Service
THE COMIC‐ALL TRAINING TOOL – Using Graphic Novels
MANGA MANAGEMENT – Communicating With Students
THE QUICK REPLY CODE – And Where To Stick It
W5 + 1 – A New Open Ended Question
PRODUCTS & SERVICES – SMP support resources.
BACKPAGE COMMENT – Something to think about.
In this issue
SOMETHING TO
LEARN ON EVERY
PAGE
You may have noticed that each page in SELLING TRAVEL is different from the next. The heading font, style, size etc., is not constant as you find in most magazines. The reason for this is to show you graphically as many fonts, styles and colour combinations as possible.
Some of the layout ideas you’ll look away from and shudder (!), others you will like, and others you will think “I can use that if I changed it here… and here…” and go on to create your own graphic, image or header, kick started from what you saw here in Selling Travel. That’s the idea anyway. In this issue I have started to record the font style and listed it under each title – this will shorten the time it takes for you to source it in WordArt, Word or PowerPoint. The font used for all content or most of it is Calibri.
The same thing applies to the graphics and images I use to support the written information. Once again, hopefully you can learn from what you see and apply it, change it, delete it, own it and use it your way. My graphics range from clipart, to comics, to line art, photos and also there are graphics that I create myself using The Logo Creator, Photoshop, Snagit and a few other software programs.
Title Font: Blackoak Std
The creativity comes in knowing what to crop, to study the sight lines in an image, to look at the perspective of an image or graphic and crop as the mood takes you. This comes a little easier to me as I have been an artist and photographer for many years. If you have any artistic talents then of course they will help you change whatever you see in SELLING TRAVEL into something more suitable for your marketing activities.
A STUDY BY CRAYOLA
PROVED THAT THIS COLOUR, DARK
BLUE, IS THE COLOUR MOST PEOPLE SEEMED
TO LIKED BEST.
Check to see if such a colour survey has been conducted
in your country.
We, that would be us humans, tend to let colour influence our purchases by
as much as 60%.
After reading the survey I changed the colour of my email text to dark blue.
The chart below was created by Joe Hallock after an extensive research project with the goal of discovering cultural similarities (and differences) based on color association, preference, and internet activities. The survey is fascinating despite 79% of responses coming from the USA and the balance worldwide. Make sure you read the colour by male & female preferences, also by age. Click on the chart to see the survey.
As and when you do use any of the layout ideas you see here – be sure to let me know so I can pass them along to other readers of SELLING TRAVEL.
Use any and all artistic talents in your travel marketing – hang your art in your agency. Start a conversation. Talk about Art Tours of The World…
create a new niche perhaps!
The issue about getting a return on your salary investment and the salary to revenue %...
Wouldn’t it be great just to manage the agency with no thoughts about anything else like HR and salaries? Well that’s not going to happen so best to get this issue sorted quickly.
I recall when I was an agency owner I had a member of the team who consistently asked what his motivation was to produce more revenue. Of course I went through the usual “nice guy” chats until finally the light went on and I realized I was not responsible for this person’s lot in life. So the next time we had to meet my answer was “Your job. That’s your motivation. If you don’t want it, can’t handle it I can show you a document coloured pink!” Today of course you cannot say such things. Shame! The thing was and still is, when someone accepts a job with your agency, they are signing on to help you solve the ‘profit problem’ – they have agreed, by accepting the job, to work hard, prospect for business, close sales, ask for referrals and to make sure every client is fully covered and protected through travel insurance. Of course each of these “you shall” statements should be on the employment contract, or agreement and signed into effect. After this, there can be no discussion – the job is to produce and produce well. But by how much? The Salary To Revenue Ratio This formula is not restricted to the travel trade – it lives in all businesses and all industries and it’s a calculation that should be in all start‐up business plans. First you determine the operational costs to run your agency. Next you add your owner’s salary, then you add staff salaries and if that’s the lot you total it. Now you divide it by the number of selling staff.
The result is what each member of the team that’s selling is to produce – at minimum. Produce that figure and the company is breaking even. Next step then is to add the profit you need and want. You need that profit to grow, to market, to increase salaries and so on. You decide whether you need to profit by $100,000 or $300,000 – now add together your operational costs and the profit you want. Take that grand total and divide it by the number of sales people once again. The result is the revenue figure each person should, produce for their salary. The X 3 Ratio Most industries work on a X3 to X4 rate of return on their salary investment. If you are paying a consultant $30,000 then you expect $90,000 in revenue commission (not sales). If you are paying someone, your top counsellor $50,000 then you expect $150,000 in revenue commission. Some travel agencies offer salary, bonuses, overrides and so on and to the point where the counsellor is earning way more than they produce in revenue. It’s not the counsellors fault of course. The Go Commission Option It’s amazing how many high revenue generating counsellors cannot move to being independent and live off their talents by going straight commission with their agency. It’s a confidence thing. For you the owner, it’s another option to put before your sales team so that everyone earns what’s due to them. Other options you can present would be:
Rent a desk and pay as you go use of services
Work from home as a tethered agent
Become a home‐based independent contractor
Offer incentives at various revenue levels
Allow suppliers incentives to be earned independently
Pay a % of travel insurance revenues over target
Logo Font: Mandingo
The FRONTLINE! Where it all happens. Where the sales are made. Where the excitement is. Where WORK SPACE MANAGEMENT is the name of the game!
Work space management is something you might want to explore as it can and does lead to more sales. The answer to more sales lies in the efficiency and output capability of the area designated as ‘your space’. In a 21st century travel agency your work area includes the real estate on which your desk sits, where you sit, where your clients sit, the top of the desk, the run‐off and what’s behind that computer screen. So let’s explore how you can increase your sales through a work space management plan.
The Desk This piece of furniture is what a mechanic would call a bench. It’s where the tools of the trade are – they typically surround the bench so that they are in easy reach and once used they are put back in place. The tools are cleaned, corrected, sharpened and replaced before they become too old, obsolete and do any damage. Thinking about your desk as a mechanic would think about their bench, what tools of your trade can you see? Some obvious tools would be your computer (hard drive, monitor, keyboard, mouse…) pens, notepads, brochures, take‐one brochure stands, files… anything else? The Desk Draws If you were to fall into any one of your desk draws how long would you be in there before finding your way out? Are they jammed with ‘stuff’ or are they tidy? Can you find what you need in an instant? The Floor Under The Desk In a travel agency this area is usually used as a filing cabinet. This is where you drop things from brochures to hotel manuals, cruise manuals to whatever it is you don’t want on your desk. It’s common in the trade – the art of work space management however is this: can the client see the mess?
There’s your measurement of whether or not this pile is working for you or against you as some people connect messy with poor service.
THE WSM PLAN 1. Remove any and all fuzzy things from
your computer and desk… look like a travel professional.
2. Set up an customer A‐Z, or monthly filing system.
3. Use MS Outlook calendar, tasks and reminders or a similar system to keep yourself on schedule.
4. Open and minimize the websites you use and refer to most often.
5. Have files you are working on today stacked or stored on your desk.
6. Open a folder in your computer and name it Filing Cabinet. This is your electronic filing cabinet where you copy and past ‘everything’ in separate and clearly named folders. For instance you find a pricing chart for a supplier – you open a folder named ABC Pricing Chart. Now it’s easy to locate and view anytime.
Overall, tidy your work space so you can find things quickly, react quickly, respond quickly and process the booking quickly. These simple actions will help you better manage your workspace and your sales.
Frontline Font: PlazaPUit
AS YOU ARE FREE TO DECIDE YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET – HOW ABOUT GOING INTO THE BUSINESS OF GENEAOLOGY, ANCESTRY AND DEEP ANCESTY? THE HUNT FOR ANCESTORS IS WORLD WIDE WHICH MEANS LONG HAUL TRIPS.
I’m looking for real‐time challenges that stop you from being the best you can be. Be sure to include your email and website links. Thanks!
I have to admit I love the challenge of searching for those long lost rellies. Mine are now scattered from Australia to the UK to Ireland , Canada and one old fella holding his burial plot in Borneo. My paternal grandfather’s brother George and former band leader of the police band there. Well that’s the story anyway. All this and more came with a price tag over time of $3,000 as I hired a genealogist to track down my maternal grandfather who left the UK in 1910 to homestead in Canada – returning in 1914 and WW1. We had family in workhouses, we found the church and some original family members headstones, found out my mother’s family name was a name recorded in the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral as being on the first boatload of Huguenots leaving France. Our surnames traced back to the 11th century too. Not necessarily our branch of those surnames – but still, fascinating to find out. And that is what will help you enter this very lucrative niche market. It’s fascinating!
So why is this niche a good one? Well it’s all about timing and the time in many peoples lives, especially those mid and late Baby Boomers who, like so many people reaching mid fifties and sixties suddenly want to know their family history. This is a world wide situation from Japan to Australia to Central Europe – no matter where you live, this niche can work for you. To truly understand the fascination and excitement you may want to start the search for your own ancestors and then, I guarantee, your tour ideas and groups will form.
Here’s how you can get this ball rolling: You can open an account at any of the ancestry websites and even explore the online documents that the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City make available for free. They have 4 Billion records from around the world on file. Here’s the link to their site: www.familylink.com Okay, assuming that you have found your lost Aunt… you can now start to prepare your tour to where she is located. She could be buried within your own country or she could be overseas somewhere. Tracing back further and further, chances are your relatives came from Europe if you live in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa… then again, going back to when the migrations started, you’d be back ‘home’ in Africa and this means you need to start reading up on what is now called ‘Deep Ancestry’. Back to your tour. Let’s say your ancestors came from Italy. You can now start to advertise that YOU are going to Italy to trace your relatives. You may even keep the tour reserved for people with your last name… or you may open it to anyone seeking ancestors in Italy. You could hire in the services of a genealogist who is knowledgeable about tracing people in Italy and include this cost in the overall tour price. This not a cheap tour by the way. Collect all your costs and add a hefty commission for you.
The Edge Font: Baby Kruffy
At this stage you have your own ancestors to trace, you have chosen an area or two in and around Italy to tour, you have a genealogist on your team and you would have by now arranged tours of certain museums and historic sites. Now don’t forget to include areas of cities and towns that perhaps haven’t changed in centuries. This will add to your clients tour as they step back in time and almost experience how their ancestors lived. They could even touch a wall that their ancestors touched, sit on the same steps and walk the same pathway. This is powerful stuff.
There is also a way to sell the services of your genealogist and have some revenue flow to you. A typical fee might be $25 ‐ $50 per hour… so mark it up accordingly. This pre tour activity can help build the excitement for booking on your tour. You might consider hosting lessons on how to search for one’s ancestors… these ideas simply put your name out there plus you have a chance to close anyone who attends your workshops, to take your tour. You can lead your own tours or you can promote the fact that your niche market is Ancestry Tours and book your clients to wherever they want to go hunting for their lost Aunt. These arrangements would be an FIT of course and no doubt heading off in all directions. DEEP ANCESTRY This is more than fascinating. Not sure if there is a word to cover this off actually… you just have to experience it. I am talking about the National Geographic project called Genographic. To participate you purchase a kit from the NG store and that will cost you $100 USD. You’ll submit two DNA samples (swabs inside your mouth) and then you wait for a few weeks as your DNA and markers are analyzed. The outcome is the journey your ancestors took out of Africa to get to where you now live. Now if you emigrated from where you were born then your journey will end there. Now let’s explore what there is to sell here. How about a tour to Africa and then working your clients ‘out of Africa’ tour back to where they were born. If you are wondering if this can be done – it’s already on the books. One American chap, had his Genographic journey map and then set off to find the peoples and cultures that his gene markers say he belonged to. One African tribe welcomed him “home”.
In the USA, looking for ancestors is the second most popular hobby. Gardening is first. Looking for ancestors online is the
second highest search activity. Source: NG
How many of your clients would like to ‘go deep’ and have you arrange their personal ‘out of Africa’ tour? Hard to say – and well worth checking into. Check the map on the previous page. That’s the route my ancestors took. Seems my DNA and my genetic markers took me to Central Asia, then for some reason turned left! So off “we” went to Europe, France, Spain and finally to the UK. FIRST NATIONS JOURNEYS If you happen to be a person of Aboriginal ancestry then imagine the journey you will piece together for your clients. DECISION TIME So what do you think about this niche? Could you get excited about it? Could you sell it? It will take some work and obvious research – and it won’t come easy. However there is probably not one agency selling this type of travel in your area. That’s for you to check out. CHOOSING YOUR SUPPLIER Yes there are suppliers already offering ‘Out of Africa’ tours. Check your preferred supplier list and make the call. If nothing there – go online and research.
Here’s the link to the National Geographic website.
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
A good place to start your research would be right here… read this book and many others you can find online. Remember, each migration route is a new tour for you to plan. REPORT BACK IF YOU MANAGE TO TURN THIS NICHE IDEA INTO SOME SERIOUS ANCESTRAL COIN!
THE EITHER OR CLOSE We carry on with our series of closing techniques and this month we’ll explore the EITHER / OR close. Parents use this closing technique every day with their kids and more than likely, you had it used on you too when you where growing up. The Either / Or close has many uses that range from setting and securing an appointment to using it as intended, to close the sale and generate that new business we keep talking about. So let’s go.
The Either / Or Close is based on your ability to ask, “this… or this?” Not “this, this or that…” Just “this or this”. The Either / Or close is also known as The Alternative Close and the key is to control your desire to lay every possible travel combination on the table. There is a slight difference between the Either / Or Close and the Alternative Close and that is one additional item. The Either / Or Close works when you present two offers, and the Alternative Close works when you have two to three offers on the table. The Technique Behind the Either / Or Close: The technique is very simple and it works. The key once again is to curb your enthusiasm to showcase all your products. By questioning your client properly and defining their needs, you should be able to qualify and identify the best product for the vacation they want. This or This: It’s this simple! “Would you prefer the cruise departing on the Saturday or the Monday?” “Which dinner sitting is best for you, the first or second?” “Okay you have two choices on the hotel room, ocean front or ocean view…?” It’s simple because you keep the offers down to two. Let’s explore how else you can use this close.
The Principal Behind The Technique
The Either Or close works by offering more than one, but not more than two clearly defined alternatives to your customer.
The number of choices you put before a customer in any selling situation should be a maximum of three. Beyond that you will confuse your client and set yourself for an “I’ll think about it…” response as they now face a more complex decision – choosing from multiple options.
An extra technique that can be effective is to add a slight nod when offering the preferred choice. This can be accompanied by subtle verbal emphasis on the words.
More Examples
Did you prefer the outbound or the reverse itinerary?
Which insurance coverage best suits your needs, package A or B?
How will you be paying, cheque or credit card?
How it works
Each time you ask the question, “this or this” the customer is choosing from two options – eventually settling on one.
Now you practice until you can use this technique and apply it in all situations.
The Either / Or Close can be used very efficiently when arranging to meet your clients. It works person to person, over the telephone and in text via email. Here’s how it might sound over the telephone: “Hi Mrs. Gottago… thanks for your voice mail… yes I know, that cruise sounds wonderful… now, when can we meet… I’m checking my calendar (it’s empty by the way…) well I think I can fit you in on Tuesday or Wednesday, which day (Either/Or) works for you? Tuesday, terrific, now let’s set a time, morning or afternoon which do you prefer, afternoon, good so how about 2 or 3 pm, which works best for you… 3pm, done, I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday next at 3pm. I’ll send you a follow up email and I’ll confirm with you the day before. Great, see you then. Bye.” Don’t forget what was mentioned in the July issue of SELLING TRAVEL when we explored the Assumptive Close. On the telephone – it is the tone of your voice and then the words as to what the customer is responding to. So when you “this or this?” to your customer, make sure your tone of voice is up beat, inviting and sounding interested in ‘seeing you soon’.
This or this? This or that?
But what if there ARE more options?
THE EITHER OR CLOSE FOR MORE THAN TWO OPTIONS
Yes you are right, many times there are more than two choices, it’s true, but then again you must be careful not to let the choice go beyond three and here’s why. Believe it or not, we as in you and I have been somewhat brainwashed over the years to think in 3’s. Long ago we learned our ABCs. In sports we always wanted to be first out the first, second, third options, we know we could win gold out of the three options of gold, silver, bronze. The Three Musketeers, Three Blind Mice… are you seeing the light… it’s a three‐up world. We are conditioned to three. Your customer, whether they know it or now, thinks in three’s. So now, your Either / Or… will sound like this: “Well Mrs. Gottogoback, here’s what I’ve found for you – your choices are these three itineraries and they range in price from low, to mid to high meaning luxury hotels are used by this company (pushing the brochure forward with your finger directing the client’s eyes to the glorious views from the luxury room balcony) – isn’t that gorgeous! Now the other two companies offer less attractive accommodation in hotels that are slightly out of the old city centers. So let me ask you first, which would you prefer (Either / Or) being in the old city areas or close to them? Okay, I think that’s a good decision being able to walk out of your hotel and being right in the heart of 16th century buildings. So that means we’re going with this company, now they do offer three levels of pricing for their luxury hotels… let’s review the categories together and then you can tell me which of the three you prefer…” As you see, “we” had to mix in an Either / Or Close with a slight touch of the Alternative Close, but managed to cut to the chase using the Either / Or Close to focus the client on the luxury supplier. Then it was a matter of selecting which luxury category.
_________
On this page we enhance the sales relationship between supplier BDMs and the travel agent. Outcome: faster, quicker, larger, higher revenue sales!
GETTING A RETURN ON YOUR TRAVEL AGENT AND MEDIA FAM TRIP INVESTMENT
Putting on a fam trip for travel agents and or media costs money, a lot of money. Those costs mount up in terms of time and energy invested in the planning, the cost of rooms that hotels and resorts donate, same for cruise staterooms, same for sightseeing, food and beverage etc. Something that a BDM may not know is the cost to the agency owner who is sending one of their team on that fam. The cost to the agency owner for one agent to be away for one week can range from $3,000 to $10,000+. The difference is in salary, benefits, cost of the fam and lost opportunities. It is therefore imperative that as a BDM you have a plan in place for both your company and the travel agency owner / manager to recoup the joint investment and generate revenues exceeding that investment. Here’s a list of ideas to help you get an ROI on your fam trip investment: 4. Establish a criteria for participating in your fam:
a. If you accept an agent who already knows your product and taken this fam before then your offer is not a fam, it is a thank you and a vacation – and that’s fine too, you just have to know.
b. Accept agents that have the ability to produce for you and that means they have access to promotional funds upon return, that they have a desire and a plan to sell your product, specifically the fam destination, they have an existing client base – PLUS the tools to promote to that existing client base, and NEXT a plan to attract new clients to your product / brand.
5. Establish a training plan whilst away on the fam:
a. You should consider a minimum of 4 hours of solid, interactive sales & marketing training. The fam trip is the product knowledge training in motion – the real need is the knowledge on HOW to promote “this” destination and product being experienced first hand.
b. The next step is to show your fam participants HOW to create a marketing plan and cost it out.
Remember the BDM Mantra: “If I can’t sell it to them… they won’t sell it for me!”
BDM Font: Baily
1. Practice Selling: This is perhaps the most crucial element and hardly ever conducted during a fam trip, so you might get some pushback, but stick to your guns and follow through. You want your fam participants to become your ‘sales team’ upon return to home base – and so will the agency owners paying the bill. 2. Offer a Sales Incentive: Many suppliers refund the agency the cost of the fam if the agent who took the fam produces X number of bookings. That ‘X’ is yours to decide and should form part of the original criteria for accepting the fam. 3. Collect The Marketing Plans: During the marketing session have each member on the fam create a one‐pager that spells out how they intend to promote your product and the expected sales / number of bookings. Make a copy and use this copy as your coaching tool. Also, meet with the agency owner to get their buy‐in. Remember they need a pay back too and to get that ROI they will need to support their agent with marketing dollars.
Coaching For Sales Call and ask the agent how they are doing. Offer ideas. Push for the sale. Ask the agent to deliver a presentation to the rest of their agency team – ask them to help sell. Meet with the agency owner / manager and ask them to coach too. It’s an all out team effort. Do this and you should realize a healthy ROI which means the agency owner will be more than pleased to invest in YOU again by supporting your fams and products.
CORPORATE OPPORTUNITIES
Title font: Copperplate Gothic Bold
There was a time when ‘the trade’ seemed to dump the corporate travel segment as a loser. Just no point selling into a low to no revenue generator. This was good news to the agencies and agents that hung in there and worked their magic as more and more accounts came their way. Some agencies for‐went the air, hotel and car services and opted for one or two niche market opportunities. So here’s your chance to re‐think the corporate market and perhaps initiate plans to secure a piece of the corporate pie.
Here’s your opportunity list:
1. Air hotel car 2. Conference 3. Conventions 4. DRP Consulting 5. Groups 6. Inbound 7. Incentives 8. Insurance
9. Meetings 10. Relocation Services 11. Trade Shows 12. Training 13. Travel Apps 14. Travel Management 15. T&E Consulting 16. VIP & Vacation Club
By focusing on any one of these sixteen opportunities you can generate revenue from commissions and also from service fees or a combination of both. The fee side of the equation means you know something a corporate account or traveller is willing to pay money for. So what do you have up your sleeve that no one else has? There’s another equation coming into the mix and it’s the recognition of the female executive, owner, manager, traveller. For the male marketers out there – executive women don’t do pink! When selling to the female executive keep it executive. What you can do is consider the needs and wants of the female traveller and if you happen to be a female travel agent then you have a head start on your male counterparts and the opportunity to start an Executive Women Only division or niche market.
Big Fish Small Pond: This comment refers to the large account that is just one more large account to the agency of record. What this account is looking for is that great service they experienced when they were the largest account an agency had. It makes a great selling point to mention, “You would be our largest account and we will service you beyond your expectations…” In other words this account would return to being the big fish in a smaller pond. Know Your Limits: If you are going to go after corporate in your area, make sure you know full well your level of knowledge, service capabilities and tools of the trade. If you are gunning for accounts worth multi‐millions then you will need high‐end management reports and a host of software programs that can select a special seat as soon as it clears. If you cannot truly service these large and intricate accounts – stay away.
AIR, HOTEL & CAR: Every agency is servicing this segment however there are niche markets within this generic need. You can book scheduled or you can offer private jet. Go one better and especially in this day and age, you could offer emergency one‐way private jets for when a CEO needs to get home urgently. Same thing with the car requirement – could you not offer a certain brand, or be the agent that adds that pleasure component to the business trip. Offer that gull‐wing thing for a day. CONFERENCE & CONVENTIONS: It’s important not to get the two mixed up. They are not the same. A conference is all about the group. They go to convene, to chat, to meet, to engage, to learn and above all participate. A convention is where people go to sit and listen to the person hogging the stage and mic’ and then shout rah rah! What you’ll be selling here is your creativity in terms of conference themes and for the conventioneers, you’ll be selling pre and post travel services. DRP CONSULTING: We seem to be entering an era of wild weather and shifts in various tectonic plates. There are disasters on the horizon and many of your accounts to be will need an education on business continuation if and when disaster hits them. If you like this opportunity start to explore how and where you can store and retrieve your data, find routes out of the city and which city supports yours in terms of crisis – there is always a back up system. Imagine a massive earthquake. CEOs need to keep things going. Aircraft cannot use the runway. Roads are damaged. How will you extricate your top account’s CEOs and their teams and where will you take them. Sounds like a movie but it’s real and hopefully not coming to a city near you! GROUPS: So many group opportunities within the corporate account market. If you deal in groups now, you could add a corporate division too. INBOUND: Many accounts deal overseas. They arrange to bring in their overseas partners. Some partners are based in third world countries and your account might be accessing local funding and government initiatives to pay for the inbound trip. This opportunity requires knowledge of those initiatives. INCENTIVES: In corporate speak there are sales and non sales incentives and rewards range from attending the conference or convention to visiting head office to going on a cruise, to driving a BMW for a week, to a new laptop, to paid baby sitting services for one year. There you go. A huge market in any country. Takes study. Requires massive creativity and the ability to present well. There are many ‘incentive houses’ already in the business. So the competition is strong. Work on a specialty and you could do very well.
INSURANCE:Sure, every agency sells it, but few are specializing in it. To do this means you know about Kidnap and Extortion insurance in addition to the standard fare offerings. This level of insurance sale also includes that emergency private jet extraction service. Once again, given the generic state of the world – this is a timely segment to focus on. MEETINGS: Despite the fact most meetings are deemed boring and produce nothing but the next meeting – the market remains huge! To be best in selling this service you can add a training component for your accounts based on ‘how to hold an effective meeting”. It is a skill. It is an add‐on you can prosper from. Become a certified meeting planner if your intentions are focused on this opportunity. RELOCATION SERVICES: This service should be offered by the agency of record. Many times it is a forgotten feature. There is money to be made by offering this as a stand alone service. Relocation services range from house hunting to renting apartments to flights for the family. It is intricate and can be rewarding. TRADESHOWS: Do you have a planning skill and competency? This might be for you. I’m sure you’ve attended many trade shows and have a decent understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Check which corporations put on tradeshows, invite yourself to a meeting and find out if there is a fit for your agency. TRAINING: Around the world, corporations are engaged in more training and development. Continuing education is the route to being the best, the sharpest. Employees and managers will be taking courses in town and overseas. Ask the question. TRAVEL APPS: Be ready to say to a corporate account, “There’s an app for that!” and then be ready to show, tell and sell. It is the world of techno‐travel. The senior managers in age range of 60 plus are embarrassed to say they are not working at 100%. That they are deficient when it comes to new‐tech. This is your invitation to make a friend. Show them how things work and charge for it. TRAVEL MANAGEMENT: Can you write policy? Can you put a compliance plan together? If so then here’s one more service you can market. There are still hundreds of companies without a proper travel management plan. You can give it away in exchange for the account or you can be businesslike and charge for this service. T&E CONSULTING: Some companies have control over their T&E and others are dying! This can form part of your travel management schedule of services.
VIP & VACATION CLUB: Last but not least, an opportunity to pick up more vacation business from the corporate community. There are many corporate agencies who do not bother with vacation travel. That’s their business model and it offers a non‐conflicting opportunity. If you favour collaboration over competition then you make the call to the larger corporate agencies and discuss how you can handle the leisure side of those accounts. If that’s a big step then simply start knocking on those corporate doors. Start building a Corporate Travel Club and grow by the number of employees at each company. As you know some firms employ thousands of people. Imagine after a few months of hard work, you call your preferred suppliers and say, “Hi… I have a qualified group of 20,000 customers, let’s talk price.”
These 16 opportunities reside in almost every account – the ones you are serving now as the agency of record and those accounts you plan on targeting. If you have not yet closed your existing account list on the remaining 15 after Air, Hotel and Car then chances are you are missing some serious revenues, or, your business model just doesn’t roll that way. It’s all good. Just make sure you have covered off the thought as some accounts are wondering why you have never asked for their conference business, or offered ideas for their annual incentive program.
Wherever your agency is located in the world, all of these 16 opportunities are available to you and possibly more. Make sure you have this list built into your corporate service plan and be sure to ask the questions when standing at that table and need something to put on it. It’s already been mentioned, that each of these opportunities are in fact stand along business generators for those who would like to specialize. My favourite is the Insurance Specialist idea. Come up with a better, more zippy title as you check the commission revenue of an insurance sale PLUS your other services which can include health information, the private jet extraction and so on. Check locally for these services.
Speak with your travel insurance provider for more information and ask them to take you on and train you personally. You may not believe it, but back in the day, I even offered to provide leather briefcases and deliver them to the client. What would that equate to today? I guess you would pick up an iPad, visit your baby boomer senior manager and show him / her how to use the travel apps etc. Yes someone in the firm could do this, but that’s not considering the human element of being embarrassed to do so. So there is your sixteen routes to more revenue from your existing accounts. Good luck!
YOUNG, OLD, HIKING, BIKING, SINGLES, MARRIEDS, FAMILIES, COACHING, TOURING, CRUISING… DOES IT EVER END? SHORT ANSWER: NOPE! THE POTENTIAL FOR GROUP BUSINESS IS HUGE – ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE. IT’S JUST A MATTER OF YOU GETTING SORTED TO GET YOUR SHARE AND ONCE YOU ARE GOING FOR GROUPS, WELL WHY NOT GO FOR MORE GROUPS!
You know it to be true. Every BDM that visits your agency or calls by phone suggests you sell more groups. Everyone can tell you to sell more groups what they don’t give you is the how to. One of the reasons is this: they don’t know how. They know ‘what’, they don’t know how. In fact there’s the rub, few BDMs have ever sold their own product and many more have not yet experienced their own product. Bit of a Catch 22. Here then are a few ideas to nudge you forward.
To focus on groups you have a couple of ways to go about it. You can sell your group planning experience and service the business you attract – and that means planning whatever type of group comes your way. Or, you could create the group package, itinerary, etc., on spec and then market it. Usually the later requires that you know about the destination or the type of group you are planning, and you’ll need deep pockets too.
Speculating in groups can be a dangerous business if you have not cut your teeth on organizing ready‐to‐go groups such as the church group that travels every year to visit religious sites. After three or four of those you may have learned your craft to a sufficient level. To get you going for groups the suggestion here and is that you package yourself and your experience plus the experience of your team and pitch yourselves as a team of group planning extraordinaires. From this point on then, you are no longer scheming to gather 16 people for a minimum cruise group sale of 8 staterooms. And you are no longer trying to fill a 46 seater coach. What you are trying to fill is your schedule with meetings that include the director of a club, a corporate meeting planner, the tour leader of the local art club and so on. Now all you need is your promo’ kit to send or hand out.
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If you like to plan events then your talents can be pitched to arrange corporate meetings and on the other end of the scale, group weddings. That would be the bride and groom and 50 relatives. Sure you could go the all‐inclusive resort route, or, you can go extreme – to the desert, jungle, mountain.
As you know, the baby boomers are fading away over the next ten years… many have a bucket list – things they want to do before they kick that ornament! Before You Die groups can happen. It’s a niche market for sure – once again, you do not go on risk. You pitch your talents as the one who can “…take you and your life‐long friends on a memory that will last even beyond your life time…”’
If you have a speciality – you may be an Aussie Specialist, you might be a professional photographer, an oboe player… who knows what you have working for you. So, promote yourself as the Australia Group Specialist. Whatever camera you use, a Canon 60D for instance, be the photography group travel specialist for owners of Canon 60D’s – then everyone can help everyone else re the same camera.
Okay one more… sports car lovin’ couples, a convoy, grouped, travelling the road together. You could even arrange a rally.
Over to you. Going for groups should be time well spent and very lucrative for you. Spending huge sums of money marketing a speculative group is not the way to go at the moment. Market your talents and push the word out there through press releases, workshops, webinars (to the consumer) Skype sessions and all social media. Wear branded clothing and have your logo imprinted on the bottom of your sneakers!! Okay just kidding… but hey, ya never know. Some have.
Here are the sources of your non‐speculative groups:
Advertise for tour leaders who have their own customer following. These tour leaders can do it themselves, however, sometimes they prefer to let someone like you make the arrangements and share commissions or go for free with a small spiff for bringing in the business. Check out this website for ideas: www.grouptravelleader.com
Then there are the ‘official’ group leaders such as directors or leaders or anyone who heads up the organization, club, membership and so on. A prime example would be the vicar! Obviously the head of the congregation, there’s probably a body of people who assist the vicar… and this is the group you’ll need to impress when selling religious groups.
We can move on and up the ivory tower to the corporate world and here you would be dealing with a few hard cases. People who really do know their way around group planning. Chances are they have dealt with an external meeting planner and know the questions to ask.
Point to note: there’s always a reason why such companies start to look over the fence for new talent. One reason is that the creativity of their current group arranger has run out. The suggestions are tired, old, been done before. Other companies are off the wall and slightly whacky. To win this account you would need to be well grounded, highly creative and able to deliver what you suggest in terms of destination and events.
If you have a previous life and career prior to entering the travel industry then take a look back and ask yourself if your previous industry ever travelled in groups, held meetings, hosted training events and conferences etc. We know accountants do, we know that manufacturers do, sales based companies do… so chances are your previous industry would be a great place to start promoting your group travel services. And besides, you speak the language and some of your old clients may just want you to handle their next conference.
Social media = social groups. Yes you can use social media to suggest to your clients, ‘get a group of friends together’… and head south, or north… to Asia, to the beach… you might offer a few suggestions to assist the gathering of friends.
‘Being’ something, means owning it, empathizing with it, identifying with it and, in a zen‐like sense, becoming ‘one’ with it. Your mantra for this article is “Be the Sale…Be the Sale…Be the Sale….” The first time I heard one of those “Be the…” statements, was on a trip to Seoul in 2002. The Reds—the beloved South Korean FIFA Club‐‐ had made it to the semi‐finals and were about to play Germany to determine the 3rd and 4th place positions in the tournament. From our 20‐something floor in the Lotte Hotel overlooking the central downtown area of Seoul in which large screens had been set up for everyone to watch the match, we could see a virtual sea of red shirts, each emblazoned with the directive to “Be the Reds”. But it was more than just a slogan as the whole city seemed to stop to embrace their team and ponder the possibilities of South Korea standing on the world stage. While the Reds eventually lost the match, the thrill of seeing their team do so well was enough to keep the collective endorphins of thousands of fans in high gear for days afterward. Shirt sales continued to rise! (and I still have mine tucked away in a drawer) You may already be saying to yourself that ‘Be the Sale’ is not quite the same thing as ‘Be the Reds’ and getting caught up in a wave of shared enthusiasm. But I would argue that it is this and more. Being the sale is your livelihood in terms of the immediate impact of your sales experience. It is evidence of a return on investment in terms of satisfied clients who will refer your services to others, and it epitomizes the bottom line gratification of contributing to the revenue of the agency and putting commissions and bonus dollars in your own wallet. In the study of philosophy, the word ‘gestalt’ refers to the whole picture; the complete story. In selling, the gestalt includes such familiar concepts as features, benefits, closing, objections and more, But in reality, the largest component of gestalt is Y‐O‐U—the person orchestrating or staging the sale. You obviously bring your experience into play in seeing a sale to success but more often than not, it is you and your experience that are relegated to the background.
In fact, we live in a credentialized society where quantifiable expertise trumps motherhood statements of “we’re the best” of “we’re the cheapest” or “we care’ or “we provide genuine travel experiences” and on and on. And how exactly do you quantify your expertise? Hey! This is where your credentials come into play—those career achievements that make you who and what you are (part of your own gestalt) and allow you the ability to stage or orchestrate a successful sale. Credentials include the travel program from which you graduated; the specialist designations or other continuing education programs you have completed on your own time; the professional industry designation you achieved by matching your skills against accepted occupational standards; and the actual experience you’ve acquired through client interaction. “Being” the sale means owning the sale. Remind yourself that you possess three (3) things that the client does not have—that give Y‐O‐U a tremendous advantage in managing the sale. We call these things:
Guest Article by Steve Gillick, CTM President & COO, CITC [email protected]
Meditation, Gestalt, Credentials, Motherhood Statements and YOU!
As a professional solely dedicated to the provision of travel products and services, you have the TIME to research and provide counsel and advice to your clients. (They don’t. They get frustrated. They book by themselves because they are worn out and just want to get it over with. Then they hope for the best).
As a travel professional you have, in front of you, the TOOLS to perform your job effectively, whether it is a GDS or intimate knowledge of where to find information efficiently ‐‐and based on the experience you have acquired. (Your clients don’t have these tools—they have incomplete web based tools and even then, they lack the knowledge and experience to use them effectively).
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“Being” something, can turn into an exciting exercise for you and your staff, especially if you have not thought about sales in these terms. It can lead to all kinds of creative thematic goals as far as staff training is concerned: Be the destination! Be the all‐inclusive! Be the niche market! Be the cruise! But you know that if you don’t start with “Be‐ing the Sale” then you have no basis to claim expertise in the other fields. It becomes window dressing for your agency without any substance. You can still be the best, but be the sale first and foremost and the best will follow, along with clients and referrals in tow. The successful travel counsellors and agencies are those who differentiate themselves from the masses selling travel. Don’t get caught up with meaningless motherhood statements about how you and the agency would like to be viewed by clients. Turn on to reality. Be the sale and enjoy success.
As a career‐oriented professional you have the TALENT to respond to travel inquiries and turn them into sales. This is where your credentials come in handy.( Clients don’t have this talent—they did not follow a career path as you did. Oh come on—if you actually sat down and made a list of everything you do—just for one booking—you would be overwhelmed by how talented you are.)
IDEA # 216 SKYPE – VOIP SALES & SERVICEThis idea discusses the use of SKYPE, your web cam and how you can use all of this technology to boost your sales. If you are going to BE THE SALE then using SKYPE means you can also Be There and Be The Sale too. I do push Skype when I can as it is a terrific tool for home‐based agents. It is also a tool for bricks and mortar agents, however, some owners and managers and executive teams don’t see it that way. Unfortunately.
I was so happy to read about Geoff Monk in the UK who has started seeyourtravelagent.com. A home‐based travel agent and now entrepreneur has opened up a service that links clients with travel agents via Skype. A supplier too, Condominium Connections, their res’ staff also use Skype and they use it to engage you, the travel agent.
So there it is. Finally someone has made the move. I know many of you use Skype, and hopefully you have explored all the add‐ons, perhaps upgraded to the 10 video feed version for your group sales & service – or simply to chat with 10 clients about your next tour. Skype allows you to stay in touch and service those clients who move away from your community. Even overseas, you can work with them face‐to‐face. The idea in the book explains in more detail about setting up your Skype, the camera to use and so on. Just an FYI, I have upgraded my webcam to Logitech C910. Full 1080 HD, 10 mp images. This works well for when you record your own videos for uploading to your website too. Right. Get Skype. Get face‐2‐face with anyone in the world and BE THE SKYPE SALE!
There are over 30 different closing techniques that will help you close the sale. The Don’t Take No For An Answer close is quite physical as you can see. Some agents prefer the “Rugby Tackle Close” which requires the agency front door to always remain open in order to get a good head of steam up! Sam Urai’s technique here show’s that he never throws away business, just the clients!
That good old kids comic has grown up and become an adult book that has now become a graphic novel that is now used in schools and universities. Yes business books are published as graphic novels too. You know that saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” ‐ well how about a cartoon is worth a thousand sales!
I have tested the Comic‐All method and it worked. I inserted a one page Manga styled cartoon in a workbook to show a sales scenario. The younger people around the table were drawn to it immediately, “saw” the scenario, understood it and were onto solving it in a heartbeat. Previously it would have been a page full of text requiring each person to conjure up their image or picture of the stated scenario and getting it wrong. Images work. Cartoon‐ish scenarios work. Comical situations and humour works.
Sam Urai’s Sales Training School… a cut above the rest!
…and that’s the ‘Don’t take
no for an answer” close!
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How could Sam keep the business AND the client in a situation
where the customer demands a discount?
BY NOW I’M SURE YOU’VE SEEN THEM, SCANNED THEM, SHOT THEM WITH YOUR IPHONE AND FOLLOWED THEM BACK TO WHERE THEY END UP TAKING YOU AFTER THE DIGITAL RIDE. THEY LOOK IMPOSING. THEY ARE HARD TO READ IF YOU STARE AT THEM TOO LONG, BUT QR’s ARE A GREAT TOOL FOR YOU.
The latest thing in barcodes would be the QR or Quick Reply code, tag, barcode – most are referring to them a QRs. Rather than use them as an inventory sticker or an image to scan at a store checkout, they are now being used to market for instance your website, your email, your Facebook page… what else, hey how about your next tour. You’ve got it!
Anyone with a Smartphone and a QR code reader app can read your QR by taking a picture of the QR image – the app and all that marvellous technology will whip up the website, the coupon, the daily special on the screen of said Smartphone, iPad, or gizmo. That’s the basic information and all very exciting, good, great and wonderful. But what do you do with ‘em? As a travel agent that is. Where do you stick ‘em?
Hard to say if this is a marketing activity to attract Baby Boomers but never say never. It certainly is a way to prospect for younger travellers – “younger” meaning 50 and down! The more tech savvy the audience, the better ‐ especially in the 20 and 30 something range.
There are websites where you can create your own QR code and in seconds have your barcode HTML and graphic ready to use on your marketing pieces, on your website, on your body (!) on someone else’s body (!!), as a decal on your agency window and on brochures too. Wherever it can stick, you can stick’em! Print them. Email them.
At a special event you could sport the QR in a convenient place on your person, hands, feet, forehead or you rent a number of bald heads and stick the QR on the back of said bald heads. There are QRs that come in chocolate wafer style too. Imagine a Chocolate Lover’s Tour of Belgium and the marketing piece is a wafer of Belgium chocolate with a scannable code that zaps the client to the e‐brochure. YUM!
Here’s one place to play! It’s free and you can enter your website address and receive in return
your QR code. http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
You can use a number of tracking tools to identify who clicked, when,
where etc. www.beetagg.com
There’s a lot more info waiting for you – just Google QR Code
software.
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You know your W5 don’t you? Of course you do. You use it every day when you interact at home and at the office. The W5 stands for: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY & HOW. Generally, it is said, when you use this words in your conversation, you are asking an open‐ended question and an open‐ended question is used by sales people to nudge their clients into chatting. A closed‐ended question will cause a yes or no response – which is fine when you want a simple yes or no from your customer. When you need more information you ask an open‐ended question like these:
q When were you last in Las Vegas?
q What did you like most about that cruise?
q Why are you interested in this destination, it seems out of character?
And on it goes. But now, there’s a new open‐ended question in the mix and you can hear it on TV every day during talk shows, sports shows and when a news anchor interviews someone. Here it is:
Actually, it’s not so much a question as a statement that sounds like a question and when uttered you can place a commanding tone or a light‐hearted, interested tone on this simple request. Now all you’ll have to do is finish the sentence, filling in the blank with what you want to know.
q Tell me about that last trip…
q Tell me about why this destination…
q Tell me why you chose that hotel…
q Tell me MORE about where you want to go…
q Tell me what…
q Tell me how…
q Tell me who…
q If you could tell me about… that would help…
THE SIX WISE MEN Just a little bit of trivia for you about how the W5 came into being. It was actually Rudyard Kipling that first used the words Who, What, When, Where, Why and How in a poem called the Six Wise Men. The fact is, if you actually use these six words, especially when you are planning your business you will be more or less on target. The reason being is simple – each sentence starting with one of the W5 must be answered by more than a “yes” or “no” response.
Here’s Kipling’s poem: I keep six honest serving‐men (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.
There are similar phrases to Tell me being used such as “Take me through it…” “Show me…” “Describe how you felt…” – some a little more demanding in tone if you don’t lighten it up by adding something like: “You really seemed to have enjoyed that last trip, take me through it…”
Quick note: The W5 is one of the most used tools when developing a strategic plan. Determine the next step in your plan, then ask yourself / team: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. The ‘how’ is most important. The HOW becomes your operations manual.
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412 PAGES 273 IDEAS 100s of VARIATIONS 700 LINKS TO MORE RESOURCES
When you need a source of ideas to either implement as is, or to help jog your own creative juices, this is the book to buy. It took me over 25 years to get it ‘here’ and that story is on page 5. It was some journey. When I started writing it, the IBM Selectric was the word processor of choice! What a laugh. Some suppliers have purchased a copy for each of their Business Development Managers, host agencies have made bulk purchases for their members and individual agents have written in to say this book is their idea bible.
It also, as you can see, comes in pill form, a cure for the common creative block! Okay, just kidding, but it is available in E‐BOOK format if you prefer to read it on screen!
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At the moment it would appear that the world is once again facing a financial crisis
and even if the economy is shaken but not stirred the effects and the fall out will hit
the travel trade. If it does, there are things you can do as you prepare your DRP plan.
DRP stands for Disaster Recovery Plan and to have one increases the chances of
business continuation for you.
To remain viable you’ll need to be seen, heard and heard from. You’ll need to be
owning the travel news in your area and definitely with your clients. Send more
emails, phone and chat with your clients, keep the buzz and chatter dial cranked.
Some will tell you to go quiet – but then the Squeaky Wheel Marketing Technique says
otherwise. Obviously you do it with taste and have something to offer those souls
who are struggling. Remember, everyone needs a break during stressful times. Also
remember the “Busman’s Holiday”. Some suppliers offered special rates for people
out of work. Be sure to offer a ‘special deal’ not a handout! You’ll be remembered
when good times return.
“SUCCCESS IS THE SUM OF SMALL EFFORTS
REPEATED DAY IN AND DAY OUT.” Robert Collier
TELL A TRAVEL AGENT COLLEAGUE, HEAD OFFICE, YOUR SALES MANAGER
OR YOUR HOST AGENCY ABOUT SELLING TRAVEL MAGAZINE AND LETS
WORK TOGETHER TO BUILD THE SELLING TRAVEL COMMUNITY.
www.smptraining.com [email protected] T: 250-752-0106
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