President Barrack Obama recently made a statement that triggered quite a nerve within the travel industry:
"when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller instead of using the ATM, or used a travel agent instead of just going online? "
Many travel consultants were offended by this statement and vehemently defended their profession. The President was not making a statement about the lack of value provided by travel agents. He was simply putting words to the widely accepted perception of a travel agent.
Recently, I was getting my haircut and my stylist told me she had just got engaged and she was planning a destination wedding. I asked her if she was working with a Destination Wedding Specialist and she looked at me confused. She thought I was talking about the onsite wedding planner many resorts provide. So I spent the next 20 minutes educating her on the value of working with a Destination Wedding Specialist. She was so thankful. She had no idea such a thing existed.
And this is the problem. They don’t know you exist. Their perception of a travel agent is outdated. The general public sees the travel agent as an order taker with NO expertise, who works in a brick and mortar building on mainstreet that charges $50 for airline tickets and hardly competes with the fares online.
You don't have to convince me that there are thousands of competent travel agents that add value, provide an excellent service, and serve a great need. But unfortunately, I am not the one you have to convince. It's the general public and the fact of the matter is, the accurate understanding of your profession is falling under the radar screen.
It's
time to update the face of the travel agent. The term
alone: travel agent, doesn't do the profession any justice.
The term itself needs an update. I prefer to use travel
consultant, travel advisor or travel expert, and you should too.But the task of making over your industry doesn't fall on the President's shoulders....it falls on yours. Each and every one of you that provide a stellar service, make dreams come true and serve a growing need to accumulate treasured moments and memories.
So how does one take on this task? By marketing YOU. Stop marketing your products and start marketing YOU. The other way to take on this task is to claim your expert status. It’s time to be an expert as SOMETHING. You choose, but get out there and walk, talk and act like an expert.
My mother grew up as an only child and because of her father's job, she moved frequently. She attended 6 different grammar schools in 8 years. One thing she learned was how to meet new people when you are the newcomer. She recognized that you have to get yourself out there, even if it feels hard or scary or uncomfortable. No matter how much you don't want to, you must push yourself to go to social events, get involved, and introduce yourself to strangers to meet new people and feel part of the community.
Marketing is no different. It doesn't always feel good. In fact, it can feel downright yucky. But it only feels yucky when you are chasing people. Whether you are aware of it or not, when you are pushing products and specials, you are chasing clients. When you DON’T specialize, you are chasing clients.
When you market authentically, by following the 4 legs: 1) Connect; 2) Inform; 3) Inspire; and 4) Call to Action, it doesn't feel like marketing and it doesn't feel yucky. People don't feel like you are marketing either.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:Get over the fact that you don't like selling yourself, pretend you are a new kid on the block and push yourself to get out there. Be sure to follow the 4 critical authentic marketing legs in every marketing tool you use: 1) Connect; 2) Inform; 3) Inspire; and 4) Call to Action. For more information on how to do these things, please check out the Safari Guide Home Study System, www.safariguidesystem.com
©2009-2011 Meredith Hill, www.Safari2Success.com
Want to use this article in your E-zine or website? You can as long as you include this complete statement:
Travel business entrepreneur Meredith Hill publishes the "Binoculars" weekly e-zine. Visit her website at www.Safari2Success.com
In my experience of working with travel consultants and being one for 9 years, charging ADEQUATE service fees is one of the most difficult things to do. I’ve been there, and completely understand the fear and difficulty. Your clients can easily go somewhere else and plan their travel for a lower fee or no fee. Because you could use the income, you are willing to overlook a planning fee because you will be making a commission. And a little bit of income is better than no income, right?
Wrong. One question I ask my clients who coach with me is: Have you ever done the math? In other words, have you ever figured out how much you are making per hour to earn that $150 in commission, because a little bit of income is better than no income? Most of the time, when you do the calculation, your per hour earnings are very disappointing and disheartening. Another way to put it – when you do the math, you realize it’s not worth your time.
Another piece of math you want to consider is your average revenue per booking. For example, if you generated a total of $30,000 in commissions and service fees in 2010 and you had a total of 200 bookings this year, your average revenue per booking would be $150.
Are you content with making $30,000 in revenue? Probably not. But can you realistically take on significantly more than 200 bookings? Also probably not. With 200 bookings for the year, I am guessing you are close to maximum capacity with your time. So what’s left to increase if you want to increase your revenue?
Answer: Your average revenue per booking
The $150 booking becomes worth your time when you can supplement it with $250 or more in service fees. Sounds great, right? But the person booking travel that generates a $150 commission is not likely to pay $250 more in service fees. That’s OK! This is exactly how I advise my clients to turn away business without insulting the client.
You need to set boundaries around what business you will work on and what business you won’t. The best way to set a boundary is to establish a minimum revenue per booking. When the client inquiry comes through, you can make an educated guess about the revenue the booking will generate and then make a decision. If you think it’s too low for you, you can tell them that you would love to help them, but will have to assess a minimum service fee of X dollars. Then give them an option to go elsewhere.
The other side of charging fees is embracing the value you provide. You need to be confident in yourself and what you can do for clients and they need to see that confidence. If you’re not confident that what you offer is unique and different from what others offer, it shows, and prospects and clients can tell. They will lose confidence in you and work with someone else.
The key is to know yourself, your unique gifts, and the value in what you offer. If those aren’t crystal clear to you, then your message isn’t clear to prospects. Take some quiet time to reflect on who you are and what benefits your clients receive. How are you different? If you’re having a hard time determining your unique gifts and value to the marketplace, talk to your best clients and ask them why they chose you. They’ll be happy to tell you.
You can’t be all things to everyone, and if you don’t go after the clients you want, you’ll end up with those you don’t want. That shakes your confidence, tires you, and dilutes your unique gifts and this lack of confidence pushes your ideal clients farther away.
When you doubt that clients will pay for your services, you won’t make the sale. You have to be clear on the value you provide and not be shy about letting others know. Stop trying to be of service to everybody and anybody that comes your way. It all comes back to picking your specialty and finding the people who need you the most what do they need?
Your Assignment:
Calculate your average revenue per booking. You need 2 simple numbers:
1) The total amount of commissions paid to you in 2010.
2) The number of bookings you processed in 2010.
Your formula is 1 divided by 2 from above.
Decide if this is an adequate number for you. Are you happy with this income? If you want more income in 2011, which number can you increase to get there? Can you handle more bookings? If you can’t handle more bookings, then you will need to increase your average revenue per booking. The simplest way to do this is to have a bottom limit. Decide on your bottom limit. Share your bottom limit with your clients. Tell them you have to charge a fee of X, if their booking falls below this limit. Tell them you love doing what you do, you want to stay in business, but you won’t be able to if you take on smaller bookings.
Share this post with your followers on Twitter.
I love to cook. A meal is not worth eating unless it tastes excellent. I picked up cooking out of “necessity.” No offense to the Brits, but I started cooking when I lived in London and was terribly frustrated with the lack of good food. I realized, if I wanted to eat well, I would have to cook it myself.
Fifteen years later, I still cook way more often than I eat out, and much for the same reason. Here in Charlotte, NC, restaurants tend to be of the “Chili’s” variety, rather than the smorgasbord of excellent and affordable restaurants I experienced in New York and Chicago as a young adult.
One of my favorite sources of information and recipes is a magazine called “Cooks Illustrated.” If you are not familiar with Cooks Illustrated, www.cooksillustrated.com, their claim to fame is a 2,500 square foot test kitchen that is home to more than three dozen full time cooks and product testers.
Their mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of our favorite foods. To do this, they test each recipe 30, 40 sometimes as many as 70 times, until they arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time and equipment that yields the best, most foolproof recipe.
Recently, I was searching for a recipe on the internet. One of my search results was a recipe from “Cooks Illustrated.” Of course, I selected this result as I knew it would be an excellent recipe. Instead of getting the webpage with the recipe, a pop-up appeared with a note to me, in essence telling me that I could have access to this recipe and thousands of others if I signed up for a 14-day free trial to their online magazine.
The Cooks Illustrated website pop-up.
What I loved about this note was how effective it was at explaining why I should eventually pay money for information that I can get free on the internet. I then realized how similar their situation is to most travel consultants. So if you struggle to explain why you charge fees to a client who can book the exact same vacation online, then I suggest you read further.
Here are some parts of the note and how you can tweak the language to your situation. (For the entire note, go to www.cooksillustrated.com, then search one of their recipes and it will pop up.)
Cooks Illustrated: “These days, it’s pretty easy to get free recipes on the Internet. I’m sure a search for “roast chicken recipe” will turn up thousands and thousands. But, as with so much on the web, you should tread lightly if you don’t know the source.”
“In America’s Test Kitchen, our motto is, “Recipes that Work,” and our mission is to be your trusted source for recipes that work every time you use them. Our test cooks spend their days obsessively testing recipes until they offer consistently great results. As we like to say here, “We make the mistakes so you don’t have to.”"
Your tweak: “These days, it’s pretty easy to get cheap travel deals online. I’m sure a search for “Las Vegas Travel Packages” will turn up thousands and thousands. But, as with so much on the web, you should tread lightly if you don’t know the source.”
At XYZ Travel, our motto is, “Travel that is worth taking,” and our mission is to be your trusted travel advisor for travel experiences that are worth every penny you spend. Our dedicated travel professionals spend several weeks every year traveling and obsessively testing all the travel products we sell. As we like to say here, “we make the travel mistakes so you don’t have to.”
Meredith Hill, Founder of Safari2Success
You are an expert. You have traveled many places, experienced the travel your clients desire, know how to plan the perfect trip for them, invested in your education with FAMs and online courses. But you struggle with getting your marketing message to stand out from the crowd.
With the emergence of online booking engines, and thousands of travel consultants that offer similar travel services to you, it’s critical to stand out in the crowd of competition. Clients can’t tell the difference! It’s time to own what makes you unique and translate your passion into your marketing. When you don’t, you attract price shoppers, bargain hunters and time wasters. These clients ask for the best deals, complain, are not willing to pay service fees and ultimately suck the life out of you.
If this sounds familiar and want to learn a fabulous method for finding the words that articulate what makes you a “one and only” in the travel business, then you’ll want to join my special guest and I for our free webinar, 3 Steps to Standing Out and Being Juicy in Your Marketing: STOP Chasing Bargain Hunters and START Attracting Ideal Clients Now.
Register for this free webinar here.
On this exclusive webinar, happening Wednesday, January 12, 2011, we will show you how to use language that will filter out the bad clients and start attracting your ideal clients—you know, the ones that love to give you money and respect your distinctive approach. Attend this free call and you will learn how to find the perfect “juicy” words so all your marketing inspires your best clients to say “I need that!”
Webinar Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Webinar Time: 4 p.m. EST (3 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Pacific)
In my programs, one of the most common complaints I hear from people in the travel profession is that the online booking engines have made the travel industry so cut throat and competitive. To that, I say, “Yes, the Internet has changed the travel industry, but there are so many excellent outcomes too!” The emergence of the Internet and social media have opened the door to so many excellent, free, easy marketing opportunities for travel consultants–and one of the best is Facebook.
The first thing to understand with Facebook is how it plays a role in your marketing strategy. I will start by telling you what role it does NOT play. Facebook is NOT a tool for getting bookings. In its simplest terms, Facebook is for networking. If your town held a cocktail party every night, seven days a week, with all the residents of your town, and a large handful of them are ideal prospects for you, would you attend weekly? If you did go to the cocktail party, you wouldn’t go with brochures in hand and your portable credit card machine in your purse, would you? No, you would go to mingle, talk, share conversations, and get to know people. You might also give out your business card, too. This is exactly what Facebook is for, electronic networking, and the beauty of it is, it’s free, there’s no transportation involved, and you can wear your pajamas!
Those of you who follow my Safar2Success system know that when it comes to online marketing, you have 3 simple goals: 1) Get online, 2) Drive traffic to your website, and 3) convert prospects into paying customers. Facebooking is one of the many tools you can use to achieve goal #2–drive traffic to your website. In my Safari2Success system, I teach you how to create an “Irresistible Free Offer” on the home page of your website, filled with valuable content for your ideal client. This is the electronic version of giving out your business card at the cocktail party; however, once someone signs up for your Irresistible Free Offer, you have the ability to communicate with that person and build a relationship electronically.
With this in mind, below are a few tips on how you, as a travel professional, can use Facebook to drive traffic to your website.
1. Create a company page: Make sure you use your logo, include company information and contact information, and create appropriate tabs. Travel professionals have the advantage that travelers love to see video and photos. So, make sure to create a photo tab and a video tab and update it frequently.
See below for an example of a travel company that has created an effective Facebook company page:
Melissa McKinley of Want To Go Travel's Facebook Company Page
2. Create an incentive for people to follow your Facebook page: This is where you can give away your irresistible offer and a subscription to your ezine. This will greatly help you build your email list full of hungry prospects.
3. Post interesting content and links: Remember, you are trying to connect with your ideal client, so it’s important to post relevant and interesting content that these people want to read and share. Relevant content could mean posting industry news, photos and videos, travel-related quotes, or articles related to your specialty and areas of expertise.
4. Don’t sell, sell, sell: Facebook is not about selling. It’s about conversing and sharing information. Avoid talking about your services all the time. Instead, share information that piques the interest of your travel network and facilitates conversation.
5. Engage with followers: Social media is a two-way conversation. This means, you must engage with others. If someone writes something on your business page wall, reply back. Or go the extra mile and send them a personal message through Facebook thanking them for their comment. You also want to reach out to prospects, key referral sources, and potential JV partners. Ask them to like your Facebook business page. Write on their walls. Share their information.
6. Keep your posts short and sweet: Make sure your message is concise and clear and provide an enticing call to action within each post. You want people to comment or share your post or click the link.
7. Provide links: Link back to your website, your blog, or to other online resources. Use the link option instead of copying the URL into the message box. Doing so eliminates a cluttered message and also enables you to add an accompanying picture to your post.
Below is an example of how to effectively use links on your Facebook company page:
Image of Hills of Africa Travel linking one of their Facebook page posts to their blog.
8. Listen to the conversation: Listening to the conversation occurring on your own page, as well as the conversation happening on other pages, is the key to success on Facebook. When you listen, you know what interests your prospects. With this information, you can write blog posts around specific topics and then invite Facebook followers to read your post. Or you can write ezine articles around hot topics being discussed on Facebook. Listening helps you connect to your prospect’s sweet spot, and when you do this, you will grow your list and increase traffic on your site.
9. Post frequently: Don’t post once a week or a few times here and there. The whole point of posting is to keep people engaged and get them to take action. This means you need to be in front of them, and viewed as a source for valuable information. Post daily or a few times a day, if you can. It may take some effort and time, but over time, you will see the click throughs to your website increase.
10. Be patient: Building a solid base on Facebook doesn’t happen overnight. You are forming relationships, not marketing or selling to prospects. Be patient, stay the course, and before long, you will see an increase in activity on your Facebook page, signups for your ezine, and traffic to your site.
Did you find this post helpful? Share it with your friends on Facebook.
