What separates an average performing travel agent from the big boys and girls that smash records and win awards? Is it their experience? Their knowledge? Their dreamy eyes and perfect hair?
All these things certainly do help in turning the success dial up a few notches, to be sure.
But in reality, what actually makes a huge impact are a core set of principles that, when lived by, make you a vastly more effective travel agent with the commission cheque at the end of the month to prove it.
Here are the five principles that separate the recording-breaking travel agents from the pack. Incorporate them into your work life, and watch as your travel business soars!
1. THEY DON’T TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY
Customer not responding to your emails?
Customer gone and booked with someone else?
It’s easy to take these kinds of things personally. After all, we are only human, and even the thickest of skins in the office has at sometime wondered whether they lost the booking because of something they said or did.
But oftentimes the customer isn’t booking with you because of you.
Maybe they’re going through a particularly stressful phase at work and haven’t had time to respond to your emails and return your calls?
Maybe they’ve just broken up with their partner and the romantic holiday is now never to be?
Or maybe they found out that their cousin works as a Travel Agent and they’ve decided to give their business to them because they’re family.
You never know, so don’t just jump to conclusions.
2. THEY FOCUS ON GROWING THEIR BIZ, NOT ON CLOSING THE SALE
For the most part, superstar travel agents don’t focus on trying to make a sale.
Instead their focus is on building their business, which means earning the customer’s trust and respect and going above any beyond the call of duty to make a favourable impression on prospects.
In other words, they play the long-term game, which is a strategy that promises to deliver them bucket loads more revenue than just a single sale – e.g., in the form of repeat business and referrals.
3. THEY DELIVER MORE THAN THEY PROMISED
If you ever want to wow a client, then give them more than what you promised.
Chuck in a free transfer, an extra night at that snazzy hotel, or give them a list of the best restaurants they totally need to check out on their holiday.
It doesn’t need to necessarily cost you anything, and the extra effort you put into making the client’s holiday as awesome as possible will separate you from the pack and make a lasting impression.
4. THE LISTEN MORE THAN THEY SPEAK
As tempting as it is to go full tilt in selling a destination and a hotel and possibly a tour or cruise as soon as a customer approaches you, resist all that talk and instead shift into listening mode.
The best salesmen and women make a conscious effort to shut up and just listen to the customer before they start putting an itinerary together.
Why is this do you think?
It’s because the more they know – and most probably learnt very early on – that the more you listen, the more you’ll learn about what your customer has in mind for their dream holiday.
Once you know this, you’ll be able to deliver exactly what they want, and they’ll feel “heard.”
5. THEY SEE PROBLEMS AS OPPORTUNITIES
Finally, the best travel agents see problems as opportunities to flex their creative muscles in coming up with a solution or to learn more about their customers and how the industry works in general.
In sum, problems are seen as opportunities for growth and are relished rather than pushed away.