THE E-MAGAZINE THAT FOCUSES ON THE REALITY OF SELLING TRAVEL
PLUS The O&M The EDGE The Frontline The BDM
NOVEMBER 2011
In this issue
EDITORIAL – My NEW Website
In this issue we talk about GIVING THE GIFT OF TRAVEL and not only is this relevant given the month, but it is also a great way to boost your high‐end business. I’m not talking about selling exchange coupons for fifty bucks, I’m suggesting you actually packaging the gift of a lifetime from start to finish. Make sure you check this article out. You have time to create your own GIFT of TRAVEL program. I’m announcing the NEW website for SELLING TRAVEL! Make sure you read that page, subscribe and put the information to use. 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.sellingtravel.net steve@sellingtravel.net Skype: smptraining1 T: 250‐752‐0106 CHECK FOR WEBINARS HERE
THE BIG “HOW TO” – Catch Me Here THE O&M – How’s Your Social Life? THE FRONTLINE – Handling Complaints in a Viral World THE EDGE – “Its not as easy as I was told!” ANNOUNCING ‐ The Selling Travel Website CLOSING THE SALE 6 – The Customer Service Manager Close STAYING INFORMED – Listen, Learn and Sell THE EXTREME BDM – Coaching Your Accounts GIVING THE GIFT OF TRAVEL – Ideas and Steps SPECIAL AGENTS – Getting Licensed to Sell SELLING TRAVEL SERVICES – Support Resources.
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
editorial
But FIRST here’s wishing everyone a wonderful time over the Christmas holiday ‐ celebrate it in your own way.
And now, here’s my gift to you. It’s not wrapped but hey, there’s plenty to discover when you click there. So make sure you do just that in between opening your gifts, chowing down on that crispy skinned turkey or nachos with blue cheese (!) whichever you fancy! So back to my new website. The idea behind the switch from SMP Training to Selling Travel is a simple one. It’s all about having the name of the website mirror the content and vice versa. SMP Training Co., the parent company, will slowly retreat from the mainstream but continue on as my training and development entity. As the momentum builds around the Selling Travel website and eMagazine I am hoping that with your help we can grow the Selling Travel community and attract dedicated travel agents and supplier BDMs who are passionate about travel and selling it too. To that end, it would be wonderful if you could mention both the website and magazine to your colleagues, send the link, forward the magazine and do whatever you can to spread the word. In 2012, I hope to be releasing a series of self‐study workbooks and distance learning programs. These will be available from my website, also at CITC.CA and The Travel Institute too. Don’t forget to check the webinar schedule as there’s already a series of FREE programs in Q1 2012. Thank you for your kind words of support and encouragement which makes it all worth it. Let me know what you need! Creatively Yours!
Steve Crowhurst Author, Trainer, Columnist, Keynote Speaker, Publisher and world traveller. Just about to pack my bags and head off on a four‐day tour to talk about selling FIT vacations. Actually more how to sell your FIT Planning Service and charging for it. The promotional piece created by Thomas Cook is inside this issue. Hope you can make it to the event. In each issue of Selling Travel magazine, one thing I try to do is mix and match text fonts, colours, images, clip art etc., so that you can see first hand what you might like to use or not. If there is something visual here that you don’t like, doesn’t appeal to you, ask yourself why. Learn from what puts you off and make sure you don’t send similar combinations to your clients.
PRESENTS
THE BIG “HOW TO” WANT TO LEARN HOW TO... • Successfully sell FIT products to increase your revenue? • Build a successful SOCIAL MEDIA strategy to promote yourself, your business and your FIT expertise? • Create a marketing plan that will drive sales directly to you? • Expertly brand yourself to increase your sales?
WELL, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT… WE’RE GOING TO BRING IT TO YOU! Join two well known Canadian Travel
Industry icons who will show you HOW to accomplish all of these things!
SAVE THE DATE!
December 5 Vancouver Executive Hotel Conference 4201 Lougheed Highway Burnaby BC V5C 3Y6 December 6 Edmonton Courtyard by Marriott Edmonton West - YEGEW 10011 184 Street NW Edmonton, Alberta T5S 0C7 December 8 Toronto The Vue Event Venue 195 Galaxy Blvd. Toronto ON M9W 6R7
Steve Crowhurst
Cory Andrichuk
December 9 Ottawa Ottawa Marriott Hotel 100 Kent Street, Ottawa ON. K1P 5R7
EARLY BIRD RATE $39 per person Register Prior to Nov 21 REGULAR RATE $49 per person Register Nov 21 onwards Includes light lunch. We start at 9am finish at 5pm.
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HEY MORE GREAT NEWS… Well that was quick. Last month I tell you I’ve Joined TTI and the next thing is I’m presenting a webinar on Friday January 27th, 2012. So thanks to the team at The Travel Institute I look forward to bringing my Training A‐Game to all TTI members and non‐members. Check below for more information and click HERE to register. TRAVEL WRITING FOR TRAVEL AGENTS Love to travel and long to write? Find out how you can profit from writing about your travel experience, how you can attract new customers, more groups, publicity and even offers of travel! 45 minutes of tips, tools and techniques that will point you in the WRITE direction. Learn what to write and to whom, what editors want, how to source material during a FAM, use press releases, create an agency eMagazine for FREE, sell your eBooks, niche travel articles and even write for Kindle! Lead the life of a double agent in 2012 and boost your sales, commission and public profile through your travel writing. Get your entire agency team involved too!
FREE to TTI members. Non‐members pay a small fee of USD $19.99
How’s your SOCIAL LIFE? Not trying to pry! Just wondering how things are coming along and if you are generating any returns, clicks, likes, registrations, bookings etc? If not, here’s a few ideas to help you and help your agency team. You need to establish a social media playbook – a how to socialize to monetize formula so that you and your team know the boundaries of what’s expected and what’s considered okay to do. Step One: Allow your team to be social and join any and all networks. Keyword… personally. That way all interaction is between them and their friends. What you want them to do is build a personal fan base. Step Two: Create your agency profile online at any and all social sites that make sense for the type of travel you sell and the customers you wish to attract. List your agency team too – but keep this strictly business, no personal anything here and no staff commentary about what’s not happening at the agency. Step Three: The marketing how‐to: Here you need to decide how you and your team will use your social life to boost sales and or attract inquiries. Twitter is great for sending back quick messages about…”Just arrived, fantastic beach… check it out here…” Or, “You have to see this to believe it… “ and link to some hot off the press photographs. This type of socializing is the plan for when you or your team are on a FAM trip. Sell your experience and follow up when you get back home. Step Four: Create a series of things to say. Having an approved list of things to say, shoot and Tweet or upload helps everyone do what they are supposed to do. Step Five: Have someone teach your team how to shoot excellent travel imagery and video too. With an agent on location you should be able to update your photo and video gallery each day during the FAM ‐ keeping your website content fresh and exciting. Purchase an agency camera with 1080 HD video capability and make sure this travels with the agent on location. Create a folder where all these images can be easily upload to, no matter where the agent is. Now you can make good use of your YouTube or Vimeo accounts, create instant Animoto videos too and email the link, upload to your website, and even embed them in your e‐Newsletter to be played when clicked. Step Six: Get socializing. Start monetizing and soon, before another network is announced! Logo Font: Mandingo
HANDLING COMPLAINTS IN A VIRAL WORLD OH, DON’T YOU HATE IT WHEN SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IS SCREAMING AT YOU IN PRINT, BY VOICE, EMAIL AND OFF THE TV! OR RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU WAVING A SMART PHONE WITH A FINGER HOVERING OVER THE SEND TO YOUTUBE BUTTON!
The thing is, a situation like this interferes with your selling time doesn’t it. So it’s a good idea to practice handling complaints of all kinds so that you can get back to generating that income. Some complaints come tongue in cheek as one concerned passenger wrote in a letter to Mr. Branson about a recent experience flying Virgin. Other complaints arrive in a viral format via YouTube or similar. It’s best to handle any complaint before it escalates out of control. Check out the steps listed in the next column and be ready for when it’s your turn to handle a customer complaint. THE VIRAL COMPLAINT It’s in our life. It is not going away. Be prepared to be taped, videoed and posted and possibly without knowing it. Posting your image without consent is against the law, however to fight that adds fuel to the fire. The Viral Comment: As you know people can leave comments on your social sites and complain through that media format. This means you must check the agency’s Facebook site daily and manage any comments that are less than nice! Let management handle the very nasty comments as there may be legal situations pending.
Frontline Font: PlazaPUit
1. Listen & Respond Carefully: Yes get those ears perked up and focus on what the customer has to say. Let them finish. Don't roll your eyes, huff, puff, look away or get defensive. When the customer has finished you say this: “Wow! So sorry you had to experience that. I made some notes, let me review them with you so I have it correct…” 2. Ask Good Questions: You may have to dig for more info’ and be sure to ask in a caring and concerned manner. “Looks like I have it well documented, however I need to pinpoint a couple of things…” As you question your client put yourself in their shoes. 3. Apologizing: You can only ‘apologise’ for your personal mistakes or a missing step in the agency’s service program. You say “sorry” on behalf of everyone else and never blame another person or department. 4. The Overall Question: Timing for his question is important. Usually you will ask it as the mood quietens down and the tension leaves and perhaps something brings a smile to your client’s face. Now you say, “Okay looks like we have it all listed here and once again I’m so sorry you had this experience, but do tell me, overall, how was your holiday/trip/vacation?” The usual response would be something similar to: “Oh, we had a great time, the kids loved the pool…” Or, “Oh it was good – the scenery there is fantastic!” You now say, “Oh excellent, I’m so glad to hear you had great time overall.” 5. Move On to Settlement: It’s now time to review the type and amount of the settlement. It may be clear such as two‐nights accommodation and a ‘sorry about that fee’ or it might be something larger to retain the client and remove the possibility of litigation. If this is not in your job description, quickly find someone who can make things happen. Say “let’s work as a team to solve this so that I keep you as a customer…” then ask "How should we resolve this… what would be acceptable to you?" 6. Follow Up: Once things are resolved – send next year’s brochure with a hand written note!
“It’s not as easy as I was told!” Getting Noticed In Your Local Area I’m receiving quite a few calls from both recently established and newly appointed home based agents telling me “It’s not as easy as I was told!” and said with some panic in the voice. The main issue is, was, still is and always will be, getting noticed in your local area. If this is a concern for you too, then hopefully I can give you some tips and tools to change that picture.
In the good old days this was called Local Store Marketing and all the ideas focused on attracting prospective clients to your agency. As a home based agent you can apply many of the ideas that were in those LSM manuals even without owning a store front. Here’s how: Setting Up Shop Depending upon where you live and what’s around your neck of the woods and your local bylaws you may be able to set up shop overnight. The question is where and why? First the WHY: Some prospects still favour a physical plant to visit, a place to sit and chat that is not their home or yours. There are hidden rules to this engagement and it’s always best to keep your personal abode separated from your business dealings – unless you do actually have a fully alarmed office with a separate entrance. Now The WHERE: You’ll want to choose a location that is easy to reach, easy to find and offers free parking. So we’re talking about locations on a rail or bus route, parking lots close by or attached to. Think, hotel lobby cafes, downtown cafes, office rental complexes and something called Pop UPs. The best of all locations would be the office rental complex. You can purchase an ID package as it’s generally called. For a small monthly fee you can get an answering service, use of an office and the boardroom and other services ala’ carte. The Edge Font: Baby Kruffy
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! Things That Go POP UP! The Pop UP opportunity is unique, it’s 2012 hip, it’s current, it has cache and here’s how. You look for an empty store front. Contact the rental agent and book that space for a couple of days, one day, a week. Your choice. This space now becomes your Pop Up Travel Agency (see Idea #187 in my book). The other Pop Up location could be an area in any existing store that sells travel related goods, such as luggage, cameras, clothing, books etc. For this, you visit with the store owner / manager and discuss. Now You Sell Your Location Now you have a location to market. You can create some social buzz, Tweet out “Get this special!” ONLY here and ONLY on these days. Ask your followers to re‐Tweet. Facebook it too. Email it out and ask your existing list to bring their friends. Consumer Events My personal favourite for home based agents is the consumer event. You can never better the Consumer Event. With 50 to 100 people in your audience – you can chat with them, tell them about yourself and win them over to do business with you through any means that works. It’s the event and face time that closes them as a prospective customer. You could send a million emails and get no response. An evening with you to discuss your travels, have the audience share their travels too, form a travel chat group etc., all this leads to group bookings and more. So focus on consumer events, weekly, monthly… and do business at your rented office. Use the cafés for one‐on‐one travel chats and be sure to always wear something branded with your logo. Carry 200 business cards at all times. Turn your car into a filing cabinet! Now make it happen and let me know how you do!
YES! IT’S UP AND RUNNING AND ACCESSIBLE RIGHT NOW. SO CLICK THERE WHEN YOU CAN AND USE WHATEVER YOU CAN FIND. SHARE IT WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES AND SEND IN ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ABOUT SELLING TRAVEL. YOU’LL FIND SOME OLD FAVOURITES AND A FEW NEW PAGES TOO. ENJOY!
www.sellingtravel.net The SELLING TRAVEL webpage will eventually take over from the SMP TRAINING Co. website which will operate but become more focused on developing training modules, presentations and keynote speeches. The SELLING TRAVEL website and SELLING TRAVEL eMagazine will compliment each other and offer travel agency managers and staff a continuous flow of no fluff, street savvy sales and marketing “how‐to”. If you can help build the selling travel community it would be greatly appreciated by letting your agency colleagues and head office management team know about it.
CLICK FOR: q q q q q q q q q q q
How To Sell Tips, Tools and Techniques Social Media Info and How‐To Niche and Specialty Travel Marketing Videos and Surveys Free PowerPoint Training Links Webinars E‐Books and Handouts Downloads Articles On Selling Travel Find Your Favourites: The Edge, The O&M, The Frontline and The BDM all here in the Selling Travel E‐Magazine
THE CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT CLOSE SOMETIMES IT’S NICE TO HAVE A TITLE WITH SOME POWER TO IT AS A TITLE LIKE MANAGER CAN SOMETIMES ADD A LITTLE OOMPH TO THE CLOSING SITUATION ESPECIALLY WHEN THE WORDS AND ACTIONS ARE DELIVERED IN A CARING MANNER.
Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Could be a communication challenge resulting in a misunderstanding. It could also be that the client raised an objection beyond your experience or capability to resolve. This is when you invoke The Customer Service Management Close. Using this close allows you to retain the relationship with your customer and have the sale take place as intended. The Customer Service Management Close shows that your agency cares about the customer’s holiday and eager to help solve their issue. We assume your sale did not happen. You could not close it. You could not answer or overcome the client’s objection. Rather than let this sale drift, you call in your Manager to assist if the customer is in your agency, or call your customer by phone using the words and phrases in the next column. Your role in this “play” is to bring your manager into the sales situation as soon as possible – even as mentioned with the customer in the agency or still on the line.
The Principal Behind The Technique After a conversation that does not result in a close, your owner or manager will call up the customer as the Customer Service Manager explaining that it is a normal follow‐up call to check the quality and customer‐orientation of the sales staff and to query the objection / challenge.
You might say it like this: 1.
2.
“Hello Mrs. Dean, I believe you have a question that Steve could not answer for you… please tell me what you need to know…” Mr. Able, I can understand why it seemed expensive… let’s review your flights and dates and I’ll be able to explain in detail and make sure we get you the best fare too.”
How it works The Customer Service Manager Close shows that you care about the person, want to build trust and create a bond between the customer and the Manager. It also gives you information that you can use to both improve your sales technique and also handle objections in this sale.
Now you practice until you can use this technique and apply it in all situations.
ARE YOU WATCHING THE TV NEWS? READING YOUR EMAILS, TWEETS, ALERTS, BLOGS… LISTENING TO WHAT YOUR BDMS ARE SAYING, SHOWING, SHARING?
Here’s the scoop. There is so much happening around the world that is important and with a direct impact on travel sales that somehow you are expected to stay on top of it all. Not only will knowing what’s happening help you better service your clients, you will also be able to take advantage of certain opportunities as they arise. Plus, chances are you will be able to charge for your knowledge. Not a bad return on staying informed.
THE FASTEST ROUTE TO NEWS… All plugged in and nowhere to go! Well time to make some changes in what you are plugging into. Google Alerts First things first – create Google ALERTS for all things you wish to know about with out searching – Google will do it for you. Choose a destination, a style of travel, a supplier… your competition even!
RSS Newsfeeds Explore your preferred supplier websites and when you see that orange RSS symbol click on it and follow the instructions and then you and your supplier will be connected. You will receive all the latest updates and news. Hardcore News Locate the best newspaper in your neck of the woods and subscribe, click on their RSS and or click to these websites. http://www.reuters.com/ and http://news.google.com/ ‐ or just tune into CNN. A One Stop Shop This link will open your eyes to much more than news. Here you’ll get the biggest and best of all things. Click here www.theinternationalman.com and enjoy. You could waste a day here easily! Selling Your Knowledge So now you know. Now you must promote the fact that you are tapped into up‐to‐the‐minute resources. This is important and it will grow local interest as you pitch, “Come to ABCD Travel, we are always on top of world events!” Someone has used this slogan in the past: “Don’t travel anywhere until you have checked with us!” That was me, and it works! Social Sell Your News Knowledge Most people are plugged into something each and every day however few are news conscious – so you can still Tweet out a few “guess what’s?” and cause some reaction – and that’s the key to selling your news. Not everyone watches TV. So your news will arrive first. You also know that much of the news is a mish‐ mash and close to the truth but not necessarily THE truth. Remember you have your travel trade contacts to check with. You can stay well informed, own the news that reaches your clients, and prosper from it.
Let’s ramp it up a notch. You are now well informed about all things travel or perhaps just your niche, specialty, core focus – the main thing that drives revenue to your door. Now you need to get between your customer and their news. Not easy but it can be done.
First thing then is to know how your customers obtain their travel news, if they do. There’s only one way to find out and that’s to ask or survey them. Once you have that information you can streamline your delivery. You’ll want to know which TV channels and travel shows they watch for their travel information. Ask if they own and use a tablet, smart phone, laptop etc. All of this is important because you will making contact with your customer through one or all of the four screens. The Travel Trade News The world news is accessible by everyone however the retail travel trade news is not. This is where you can shine. You tap the world news for information and then you can add in and refine your commentary based on your ‘insider’ contacts. Keep this in mind. It is very important to your “We know best!” marketing plan. Your Own News Channel If you like the sound of your own voice and want to be out there making some noise and creating your own buzz then why not start an account with USTREAM.COM. Using this tool you can be live, online and talking up a storm, telling it like it is and pitching against those news channels that’s saying “stay home”.
Whoever Owns The News WINS! Take this to heart. When a TV station or radio station is delivering the wrong information about a destination you sell for instance, it’s your job to get up and go large with the correct news. So, online you go. Using UStream you can be live on camera – record it or go live. Your choice. Next, you can use QuickTime to record your news show and then you can upload to your website, your Travel News Channel webpage, send out links to your news and or promote all sources of your latest updates on world travel situations. Timing IS Everything Never a statement more true than this one. If you want to own the news you have to be first or seconds late. First is good. At the same time not so good. Just after is a perfect fit. When you try to out news CNN, you will lose. After CNN when it’s all quiet, now you can be heard, watched and listened to. Now you can SELL yourself, because you know the TRUTH!
On this page we enhance the sales relationship between supplier BDMs and the travel agent. Outcome: faster, quicker, larger, higher revenue sales!
C O A C H I N G YOUR ACCOUNTS TO GO FOR IT A GOOD PAL OF MINE, VIC LINDAL BY NAME and former volleyball coach to the Canadian Olympic team always starts a conversation with a direct question: “So Steve, what have you learned today?” From that moment on I’m thinking hard, did I listen and learn or was I doing all the talking! A few minutes with Vic and you’ll soon be dancing on the spot as he puts you through your paces, finds out the weak areas and then moves in to help you repair and then coach you to success. As a BDM, it may not be on your job description, but it is a role you play. Coaching is part of the BDM mandate for sure and whether they know or not, most travel agents would appreciate your support, direction and mentoring too. Show You Know This is the basic requirement. You have to know and you have to be able to demonstrate that you know. Once you have trust and credibility established you will have a willing audience who will allow themselves to be coached into selling more for you. Coaching as a profession has evolved out of a combination of sports coaching and psychological support methods such as therapy. It includes both executive coaching and life coaching – your focus is purely business. Sales in fact. Keywords for your actions would be: supports, explains, demonstrates, instructs, directs, guides, questions, listens, gives feedback, clarifies, explores. Your next step is to think about how you can employ these words and turn them into meaningful activities as you establish a coaching format with your agency accounts – owner, manager and frontline too. Follow in the footsteps of call centers and engage in side‐by‐side call coaching… listen in on a sales call and help agents refine their skills after they hang up. BDM Font: Baily
Look For a Disconnect If sales are not happening for you then it might be that this agency and or one or two counsellors just do not know about your brand. Or, they have had a nasty experience with your company. Or, their client has. Something has gotten in the way of them selling you. Your first coaching question then is to dig below the surface and ask “What do you feel prevents you from selling us?” The room will either go quiet or you will receive a barrage of responses. Now you know.
Look For a Solution There could well be some built in bias with the agency owner or the VP Sales not interested in selling you and or they receive a higher commission from the other brand. This is all good information and will help you formulate your coaching plan. It sounds like you would have to start at the top given this situation. It’s tough to go against the rules established by head office, so you’ll need coach the VP. Coaching For Second Best If it is a head office decision – your next step is to coach the frontline for second best. In other words you coach this account to think of you as the next in line, the backup, the go‐to‐ brand when the preferred brand falters. You will eventually earn your stripes and who knows… you could coach yourself into the number one spot. Coaching helps your agency accounts focus on you and with your support they will support you and go for it. Give it a try.
Remember the BDM Mantra: “If I can’t sell it to them… they won’t sell it for me!”
The gift of travel has a far reaching effect and lingers a lot longer than the smell of Christmas dinner. A gift of travel is wrapped up in the memories yet to be created, cherished and looked at time and time again over coming years. The gift of travel can change a persons life. It can set someone on a new path, a new career and even help change personalities and the acceptance of other cultures, religions and it can build life long friendships too. I’m sure you can recall a number of clients who after travelling for the first time, or ventured out to do something different, returned a different person and for the better. This is the gift of travel that YOU can orchestrate.
Such power you hold! Did you ever realize you held this power? Well you do now. You hold the power to shape peoples lives. The lives of your clients and their loved ones, their friends, family and colleagues. Here’s how you take this power to market and do some good.
You’ll need to consider your target market. You can choose everyone and mass market your Gift of Travel campaign, or you can choose a specific group of people who could benefit greatly from seeing more of the world they live in. Once you decide the WHO, then you move on to target another WHO. That’s right. Now you need to think about WHO will purchase this Gift of Travel and give it to the intended recipient. Okay… back to the recipients and the outcomes of receiving a Gift of Travel: The 18 – 25 Age Group: Within this age bracket you have a variety of people who just need to leave the roost, get away from Ma & Pa, go visit their loved one, join the rest of the gang already booked and set to go travelling. The Before Family Couple: Married and about to start a family, a vacation together will be a long way off once the family arrives. This is a calm before the storm gift. A chance to enjoy and create wonderful memories to carry them through some stormy times to come. The Shy Teenager: A personal favourite as I have witnessed the result of such a young person being sent away by Mum and Dad on an 18‐30 adventure trip. The result, a confident young woman returned. For another client, their son never did return. He just carried on travelling! The parents kept coming to my agency to ask “Where is he, what have you done with him?” Seniors, Grandmothers, Granddads, Mums and Dads: Worked hard all their lives and the family wants to say thanks. This gift can range from a few nights to Las Vegas to a lengthy cruise. There are dozens of scenarios, so think hard. PACKAGING YOUR GIFT OF TRAVEL Now comes the hard part – getting those with the money to invest in a GIFT of travel for someone travel needy in their family. At this stage you’ll need to check how you want your gift to be presented. Will it be a simple coupon, typed up, as usual or will it be more extravagant and packed into a gift box? Will your Gift of Travel service include you, going to find a small carry‐on suitcase in which you will package the gift? Will there be the rather deluxe presentation, plus a bottle of wine? How about a destination DVD, that is top and tailed with a video clip of Ma and Pa surprising their loved one as they mention the gift. You see where this is going. This not just a slip of paper worth fifty‐ bucks to be exchanged as a deposit. This is a professionally handled Gift of Travel service. This takes some thinking about. How much effort are you prepared to put into generating a return? Your competition will still be handing out that tatty coupon worth fifty bucks as you are handing over a package worth a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. The effort will be worth it and upscale.
MARKETING YOUR GIFT OF TRAVEL Okay… here we go. Time to make some noise about your NEW Gift of Travel Service. Think about the slogans you would like to use to attract the people who will afford the gift. Think about the packaging once again. This is actually where your creative ideas come into play and make sure you engage your agency team. All ideas welcome. We’ve mentioned the DVD, so we can move to using social media if the gift is for a younger person. A video clip of Mum and Dad once again, but this time playing on YouTube. A Tweet could be sent to the recipient with instructions to visit your agency.
How about sending a group of Christmas Carollers to the door asking for Gran and Gramps. Invite the singers inside and let them sing and then hand over the gift. Or Rent a Santa and let him hand deliver their gift. For those shy teenagers glued to their smart phones, arrange for them to be in front of a QR code like this one on the right. You can click to websites such as http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ where you can type in text or a website address and the QR code will be produced. So the shy teenager now scans the code, gets zipped to a webpage on your website where he or she will read that they will soon be going on a three week journey of Europe. Sweet! The overall concept then is to attract the full fare for the cruise, the adventure trip and the cost of the packaging too. Your service includes these additional activities on your behalf, and you charge for them. You may wish to keep this very neat and tidy and offer say three different levels of service and Gift of Travel packaging.
QR ‘says’: The Gift of Travel
Over to you! You have time now to plan your GIFT OF TRAVEL campaign and get it ready for Christmas. You can use the same idea for all other celebrations no matter the culture, religion or celebration. The concept is to go beyond that slip of paper and go big! GO BETTER for your clients and the recipient of their gift. For that shy teenager, why not package their gift in a rucksack. Or stuffed into a pair of hiking shoes. Don’t forget, you are not giving these items away – you are charging for them in on your package. It’s part of your service.
As you can see a quick search comes up with 36 specialty training courses for travel agents ‐ and the list goes on! Your turn to research what’s available in your neck of the woods and here’s why. MONEY! Almost every country has it’s own version of a specialty program for travel agents, and if they don’t at this time, then it is on the books and coming soon. Same thing with suppliers. They too know the value of teaching YOU how to sell their brand or product or service. The cruise industry is big on training as you know and you can source this training direct from your preferred cruise line and of course CLIA. There are other cruises such as river cruising, pocket cruising, small boat, canal boats and more. So whatever your passion is for cruising or being on the water… search out the training program that gives you the stamp of approval. Back to the destination based specialty programs – they range from the well known Aussie Specialist to Egypt to China to Turkey, Switzerland and many, many more. The list here is a smattering just to show you that hotel chains, parks, cities and even car rental firms offer a program to help you sell more. The key to all of this is the answer to the question: what do you want to specialize in? Answer that and you are on your way!
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Adventurology Aruba Certified Expert (ACE) Program Aussie Specialist Program Black Hills Specialist Program BritAgent Program Certified Destination France Travel Agent Cook Islands Specialist Program Pura Vida Educational Workshop College of Disney Knowledge Taking the Plunge in Dive Travel Florida Specialist Hawaii Destination Specialist Holland America Line Academy Hong Kong Specialist Hyatt's Travel Specialist Course 'It's About You' Caribbean Specialist Program Jordan Travel Specialist Kenya Authorized Travel Specialist (KATS) Kiwi Specialist Program Mexico Expert Program Niche Cruising Partnership Program The Norwegian Coastal Voyage (NCV) Orlando Star Fams Puerto Rico Travel Expert Sandals Certified Specialists Shamrock Club Small‐Ship Cruising Specialist Accreditation Program South Africa Tourism Expert Course (Fundi) Spain Specialist Program St. Petersburg‐Clearwater Destination Specialist course Switzerland Network Specialist Tassie (Tasmania) Specialist Program Tauck World Discovery Sales & Marketing Symposium The Marriott Hotel Excellence Program The Mazatlán Mazters program Universal Parks & Resorts Vacation Specialist Program
PROMOTING YOUR CREDENTIAL First thing you do is tell everyone you know! Sounds crazy – but it’s true. It’s time to boast a little. Time to step up and let the world know you know about the world.
q Phone the clients you are close to, comfortable with and advise them.
q Add your new credential to your email signature.
q Post the news on all social media networks that you subscribe to.
q Create and send a press release to all media.
q Ask your clients to tell their friends.
q Place a photo and headline on your website.
q Write an article for your local community paper about this new credential and what it means to “them” – the people in your community who travel. Now about the MONEY. How much is your knowledge worth now? Yes you are allowed to give yourself an increase in fees. Treat yourself well, you worked hard. You deserve it.
The idea now is to claim all the fame you can. Sure you might be a little shy, but then this isn’t personal, it’s business. Someone might make you an offer you can’t refuse… you know, like a cruise group of one hundred wealthy people! And all because they read about your new cruise certification. If you are focusing on a particular destination then you may as well go ahead and create an event that celebrates your new knowledge and sells some seats to your favourite spot in the world.
A mistake many agents make is this: they do not think their certification has much value other than to themselves. This is incorrect. The fee paying customer out there wants to know they are being handled by a professional and someone certified to sell the destination they are planning to visit. So share the news as mentioned above. Bask in the limelight. Get your 15 minutes of fame and hopefully your $15,000 booking too. Now don’t stop! Go for more credentials that are in tune with your niche market and good for you!
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.
WHEN YOU BUY THIS BOOK YOU WILL RECEIVE 2 HOURS OF IDEA TIME WITH THE AUTHOR AND 10% OFF YOUR FIRST STATIONERY ORDER WHEN PURCHASED THROUGH BIG BARK GRAPHICS EASY TO USE E-STORE!
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! For e‐Book’s: www.smptraining.com/store.html
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SELLING TRAVEL is on a sales mission. That’s it pure and simple. Any and all SELLING TRAVEL services are focused on generating new business for you and your agency. The missing link between marketing, sales and closing that sale is generally a lack of experience, know‐how and creativity. SELLING TRAVEL CAN SHOW YOU HOW Be sure to subscribe to the eMagazine and join the list.
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