Tour and Travel

Congratulations on recently starting a travel business. But do not rest now. Your work is not done yet. You need to unleash key tactics to enable relentless, sustained business growth to occur. Let’s look at the quickest, fastest and easiest strategies to build sales right now for a travel agency starting off.

1. Follow up every enquiry with 5 multiple professional communications.

Burn this secret into your mind. To build any business to consumer relationship you need to accept that several contacts should be considered the norm and not the exception when dealing with your prospects. Three, five or seven contacts or communications with your enquirer virtually means a booking will result with you rather than a hit or miss one contact approach.

The biggest mistake most new travel businesses make is to NOT consistently follow up every enquiry. The best way to enable this to happen is to have a sales system whereby every consultant professionally and without fear is trained to simply have 3 or 5 or 7 communications after someone enquiries. I recommend you start with producing a simple 5 step sales system. Here is how you go about it.

An example would be where a quotation has been given to a prospect (Step 1). Of course you have attempted to close the sale professionally but we know it will be normal for many prospects not to book with you immediately. This is especially so for more detailed travel itineraries.

Step 2: A courtesy call to see what the person feels about the information supplied.

Step 3: Email extra tip or information quickly through about the prospect’s trip.

Step 4: Send a pre-prepared letter to thank them for enquiring and to offer them an incentive to come back in.

Step 5: Follow up call again to see how they are getting on with their plans and to offer to assist them further. Because rapport has been established now is a good time (if it has not occurred in earlier steps) to ask for the booking again and a final commitment.

These steps are interchangeable and the key is they happen in different mediums via email, direct mail and phone calls. Now consider if you are doing this versus another competing travel agency who does not follow up at all or spasmodically at best (which is the norm in the travel industry). So who will win the majority of customers most of the time?

So why do so many of us in the travel industry have no logical sales process for following up or staying in touch? Why do we make it such a hit and miss affair? Imagine the power of following up every single quotation and enquiry 100% of the time.

How to start a travel agency secret number one is easy really. It just takes some thought to how to implement this simple system into your travel business.

If I could convince you of the mightiest of strategies, the one that takes the pick as the first tactic I would introduce to any travel business, it would be following up every quote within 3 business days and to keep in touch with your prospects until they buy.

If you do this one simple strategy, train your team and have a written down, easy to implement system, your conversion rate of enquiry to booking will increase and sometimes by dramatic margins! Test it in your business and see for yourself.

Any time claims are made about incredible savings or fantastic opportunity the word “scam” can’t be far behind. This does not suggest that great deals are scams, for that is hardly the case. It simply suggests that a label can be thrown about.

According to some sources, one of the best ways to save money on your vacations is the join a travel club. In this context, a travel club, also referred to as a holiday club or a vacation club, consists of a collection of people each of whom purchased a membership in the club from a company that acts on behalf of the members. The company, which is in fact often a travel agency, acquires favorably priced accommodations and passes the savings along to the members, generating a profit in the process. There is certainly nothing wrong with this type of business as it provides benefits to members through the volume discounts offered to the host travel agency.

What has given the travel club a bad name is the method by which some clubs have recruited new members. High pressure sales tactics similar to timeshare presentations have been used where prospective members are essentially held hostage until they either demonstrate a complete resistance to the presenters or open their wallets and purchase a membership. Without question, buying anything under duress is uncomfortable and the labeling of such a business as a scam by reluctant purchasers is a likely outcome, although not accurate. Certainly I don’t condone the usage of manipulative tactics to make a sale, but the fact is that most people who attend such presentations attend to receive a free gift of some sort and are happily willing to endure the event to claim their prize.

While in the past travel clubs had to resort to expensive marketing approaches such as the incentive based presentations, recently a travel club membership has emerged that promises to offer benefits to a much broader array of travelers. The travel club membership is now being sold via the internet, and the economics of internet marketing are such that the travel agency making the offer has been able to drop their price substantially. This is fantastic news for travelers who have been looking for a reliable way to book their vacations, with a wide selection and at the best possible prices.

In conclusion, travel clubs are indeed a way to capitalize on the huge volume discounts that a powerful travel agency can obtain for their membership, and with the price of membership dropped to a very affordable level this savings opportunity is now within reach of everyone. Details of one such travel club can be obtained by visiting www.LuxuryTravelToday.com where all the information necessary to make an informed decision is available. There is absolutely no pressure and no requirement to sit through a sales presentation, which makes this a great way to shop as well.

I agree with the experts that a shakeout is taking place due to the current economic downturn. If you have not positioned your agency at this time either to be a part of the larger travel organizations or to become a “boutique,” then you might want to start thinking about your strategies for the future. Your key starting point is determining your agency’s net worth.

There are four critical areas that comprise an adequate and accurate agency valuation plan -

- operations/resource management,
- market position/agency image,
- financial management, and
- business history

Future articles will include financial management, market position/agency image, and business history. Today let’s consider -

Operations and Resource Management

Automation – Computers and Telephones

As a general rule, the more automated you are, the higher your productivity per employee and consequently the higher your profitability. Additionally, more time for agents to have face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with customers means better service. Bear in mind that if you’ve been computerized for at least three full years, you are over the start up pains and the equipment is part of your routine.

What computerization was to a travel agency five years ago, telephone systems will be for the next five years. Your phone system will make or break you. Chances are if you have an old-fashioned key button system, your productivity is low and your ultimate valuation will reflect that. You should at least have PBX and ACD systems.

Personnel

Regardless of whether a buyer will be managing your business himself or hiring you to stay on as a contract manager, your personnel are the absolute key to success under new ownership. I have seen agencies sold and then watched half the staff leave the next day with their “following” because they were offered a better deal by another agency. The result is usually a bonanza for lawyers and the disintegration of your former business. You can generally avoid such a crisis if your turnover is low, staff experience levels are high, and you have a strong incentive program supplemented by a solid portfolio.

Other Resources

The travel agency business requires an incredible amount of detailed data and consistent, logical operating systems. The question is: Have you been able to maintain an organization that cuts smoothly through all these ancillary materials and procedures? For example:

- the latest work flow changes in your agency;
- staff telephone manners and the way you present your agency to the public;
- your quality control processes before documents go out to the public;
- updating the mailing list; and
- your system to follow up on hotel commissions

And what about your space? Naturally, a buyer will want to see his new business grow. If your space restricts that, or if your lease is about to be renewed at double the cost, any future projections will be impacted and your agency is worth less. Therefore, prior to sale you might want to check with your landlord as to a potential new arrangement with the new owner.

Good management

The common thread in the criteria above is organization. If historically and financially you have done well, but if the key to your success has been your absolute and autocratic management – i.e., all of the company’s records are in your head – obviously, a new owner will not succeed. Therefore, good management not only shows in the results but in the ability to turn the reins over to new management.

Obviously a potential buyer is far more impressed by an organized, well-planned operation in which you can show your original business objectives, the current variances or changes in plan and your rationale behind it.
In all of the criteria above let me stress the most important common element – consistency – as crucial.

Do you really present a credible picture to the buyer? Do you have a dashboard that measures your activities and allows you to make mid-course corrections in the event one of your “instruments” indicates a problem?

Your answers to these questions will help determine your agency’s net worth – and its value in the marketplace.