从大流行期间开始的顾问那里学到的教训
经过多里·萨尔茨曼(Dori Saltzman)/
Starting a travel business during a pandemic that grounded most travel isn’t easy. But it’s not impossible, as several advisors Travel Market Report spoke to learned after starting their own agencies in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lessons they learned are truths some established travel advisors might recognize but may have forgotten. When clients are plentiful, as they were prior to the pandemic, it’s easy to forget the basics.
这些新机构所有者了解到,这是一些关键课程,使他们能够在许多人称为“拥有旅行业务”的疯狂时光中取得成功。
记住你的原因
在很少有人旅行的时候开始旅行业务可能会令人沮丧。但是,当事情遇到困难时,您为什么要开始业务并找到保持积极的方法对于度过艰难时期至关重要。
“现在是时候让我自己开展业务,我对旅行充满了热情,”在密歇根州夏洛特(Charlotte)的Dream Vacations专营权的前零售主管,所有者Dawn Nowlan说。诺兰(Nowlan)于2020年2月开业,而Covid-19的消息刚刚开始传播。
“When the floor kind of fell out from underneath us, I still felt like it was the right decision. It was just horrifyingly scary timing,” she told Travel Market Report.
Despite the uphill battle, Nowlan said she kept returning to her why whenever she felt discouraged. As a reminder, she keeps a post-it on her desk with a quote she heard from Royal Caribbean’s Vicki Freed, “Every red light turns green eventually” with the words “remember your why” underneath it.
“对我来说,保持专注并不要成为这种情况的受害者很重要。我认为心态就是一切,”她说。
Focus on the Positive
当谈到心态,新的旅游顾问乔安e Michaud agreed a positive attitude is critical. Michaud bought her Phoenix-based Dream Vacations franchise in November 2020, right smack in the middle of the pandemic.
像诺兰(Nowlan)一样,米歇德(Michaud)专注于保持积极而不是居住在困难上。
“我相信我们所有人都有选择。我们可以选择专注于正面或负面的。”她说。“我没有专注于[取消]的实例,而是专注于新预订的正面。以及那些取消的预订,我知道当情况稳定时,它们会回来。”
Michaud added that having realistic expectations when she first opened up helped. “I told myself if I make any sales my first years, that’ll just be a bonus.”
Sam Yaffe, co-owner of Long Island, NY-based Crafty Getaways, a TRAVELSAVERS agency that he launched with his partners in November 2020 (their brick-and-mortar location opened in April 2021), calls it believing in yourself.
“当您想建立一家业务时,只要您相信自己,就不会害怕冒险。”
Sharing Is the Best Marketing
除了Yaffe及其合作伙伴以外,所有这些人都以前曾在其他旅行社工作,TMR顾问与没有客户群的代理商进行了交谈。他们必须找到客户,获得信任并说服他们旅行,所有这些都被认为是危险的背景。
几个转向社交媒体作为一种连接方式ing with potential clients. More importantly, they used social media to share their own travel experiences.
“I think sharing information and my experiences made them feel comfortable,” Michaud told TMR. She has traveled every month since July 2021 and has documented each trip on social media.
“When people see you do that, some people think it’s risky. Whereas others, there’s a lot of curiosity. ‘How are you doing it?’ ‘Is it safe?’ It instills confidence. It shows I know how to navigate the entry requirements and what you need to do to travel successfully in various countries.”
Nowlan did much the same. “I went on a few FAM trips and recorded the whole thing. I showed how safe it was in the airports. What the sanitation protocols at the resorts are to keep everybody safe. The testing… I felt like that helped a lot of people to see, ‘oh, she’s out there. Maybe we can do this.’ And my business really started to grow from there.”
对于诺兰(Nowlan),社交媒体已成为她的主要业务驱动力之一,她不希望这很快就会结束。She’s created several weekly “events” on social media including a Travel Reel Sunday, where she posts a 15-second video of somewhere in the world people want to go, and Travel Talk Thursday, during which she talks about what has happened in the travel universe during the past week.
“Things like that keep them engaged and informed, and build that know, like and trust environment,” she said.
网络有效
Michaud认为社交媒体也帮助她开展业务,但其中大多数来自其他人在社交媒体上推荐她。她通过网络认识的其他人。
“我加入了我可以的每个网络小组。我每天从字面上做一个网络主题组。这是很多工作,但它是巨大的。”她说。
At every networking meeting she goes to she has the opportunity to talk about her latest trip. Not as an official presentation, but simply because her networking peers know, invariably she has just returned from somewhere.
“他们喜欢这样跟随……他们提出问题。这并不是说信息被强迫。这只是引起好奇心,”她说。当小组中的人们(或他们的朋友和家人)开始思考旅行时,这保持了她的头脑。
“我的网络团体中的人们不仅要求自己,而且还介绍了朋友和熟人,说‘哦,我的天哪,与她联系,她知道国际旅行。她一直在做。’”
For Yaffe and his partners, who already have a client base, networking with travel partners has been key to their success.
“For me, it’s all about building relationships, whether it’s a customer or a vendor. Those relationships go a long way… Relationship building can last a lifetime. When we decided to open up our own business, I started reaching out to all of my contacts to say, here’s what we’re doing, can you help us out. And every single one gave us pretty much the highest commission level because of my relationships with them.”