铂金:来自三位旅行顾问的想法,庆祝了20周年
经过Cheryl Rosen/
American Express在Vicki Briggs在旅行业务的第一天举行了一场聚会 - 接下来的20年的每一天都是冒险。
It was Cinco de Mayo, 1999, when the former stay-at-home mom of a Marine family started her internship at the American Express agency in Manassas, Virginia. In 2010, she took the leap into her own business, signed on with Nexion, and was off-and-running.
“从第一天起,我就对待了我的客户,就像他们是家人一样;我们坐在我的桌子上聊天,然后立即跟进。我从那些说这家机构从未给他们回电的人那里得到了很多业务,”布里格斯说。“最初,很难不让客户坐在我面前,与办公室中的其他代理商有友情,但是在家工作要好得多。您可以控制一切。”
对于Brenda Punchak来说,作为旅行社的第一个月,压力更大。Punchak是一位直接销售化妆品的明星销售员,他赢得了30多次激励旅行和巡游,当时她担心丈夫可能会失业,她与他一起参加了CLIA培训课程,并很快就被迷住了。
“I always believed that God provides food for the birds, but he doesn’t drop it in their mouths,” she said. Within weeks of launching her business, she had three speaking engagements lined up; and in no time, “I had all these groups and I didn’t even know what I was doing as far as booking them. I just kept asking and asking until I got the answers I needed. It was right after Sept. 11, and the travel world was in chaos. I didn’t really know any of the reps in the travel business; I was so new, they didn’t really know who I was.”
但是,决心取得成功,她“参加每一次旅行会议,尽我所能,并继续前进。没有成功的秘诀;您只需要出去去做。”
Cheryl Scavron also credits just plain hard work for the success of the franchise she runs with her husband Ron, which in 2018, won her travel agency network’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. They left careers in the medical field, building on a love of cruising. When a local CruiseOne franchise (now she operates as Dream Vacations) became available, they “worked very hard at it,” and within four years, they were the company’s top producers.
“We started with what we knew, the Caribbean,” Scavron said. “That’s what I always tell new associates: Start with the easiest thing to learn, learn all the ships, and then expand out from there. Within the first year, our Celebrity rep put me on an Alaska cruise, so then I started selling Alaska also.”
确实,她说:“我们的销售代表相信我们并帮助我们发展业务,我们已经有很多好运。当有人在您旁边说“来吧,您可以做得更好”时,这会有所帮助。”
Tips learned the hard way
Briggs also grew her business by focusing on a niche; for her, it was all-inclusives. But over the years, her clients have moved up — and so has she. “At this point, I want the trips I work on to be river cruises and escorted tours and luxury travel, and I’m focused more on groups. I don’t actively seek business; I don’t advertise; I don’t market. It just comes.”
It helps that she traveled herself. “You can’t underestimate how important it is to experience what you sell; I do a lot of fam trips and I also pay for my own trips,’” Briggs said. “When I post on Facebook or talk to my friends about going to Antarctica, people start to think in those terms. I talk about travel when I’m home, with friends, in my Christmas letter, everywhere. And I constantly let my clients know that I appreciate them. I send emails after they book, a little handwritten note, a calendar to hang on the fridge where I write something about their trip. And every year, even if I have less clients, my overall sales are higher.”
她的关注groups has also been a key to growth. “Groups can be a headache to pull together, but once they are together, it’s great,” Briggs said. Hers are mostly prior clients that now have friends and family they want to travel with: a 25Th结婚周年纪念日,一个博爱小组和新娘,她预定的目的地婚礼现在想和朋友一起旅行。
同时,随着时间的推移,Punchak扩大了业务,将目的地婚礼包括在内。她创建了第二家公司,honeymoonsanddestinationweddings.com和许多团体。如今,她在全国各地拥有10个独立承包商,主要是前客户。她的女儿艾丽西亚·金斯顿(Alicia Kingston)是她的第一代理人。
Her advice? “Everyone thinks it’s so easy, but they don’t want to put the effort in to make it happen. When you hear ‘No,’ don’t be hurt — just learn what not to do next time. Get your personal feelings out of growing your business.”
And where once she gave out really nice gifts, “now I give you my service and my knowledge. My doctor doesn’t give me a gift, he gives me a bill.”
每年都比上一个更好。Punchak说:“我总是有目标 - 还清了我的宝马(我很高兴在第一年很高兴这样做),还清了房子。”“当您早上醒来时,您必须有一些努力。”
同时,Scavrons遵循的路径略有不同。当谢丽尔(Cheryl)开始在商会中非常活跃,与当地商人建立客户群,但她还引用了自己在劳德代尔堡购物中心的一家商店中的幸运地位。
“在南佛罗里达州,这是一个很大的优势,我可以带我的客户运送午餐,并且可以轻松获得最后一刻的交易。我也通过自己上船学到了很多东西。因此,当一艘新船出来时,我有机会走来走去,真正搜寻所有的角落和缝隙,找到最好的小屋。”
她是一名前护士,她也“非常彻底地关注并确保每个细节都得到照顾。我总是想超越和贝林德,并确保我做的比预期的要多,所以他们回来说:“我在那艘船上最好的小屋。’”
尽管她在购物中心的位置确实经常吸引步入式客户,其中包括一位预订了两次世界巡游的人!- “客户推荐是真正使您从一个级别跳到下一个级别的原因;当他们在那里为您传播这个词时,没有什么比这更好的了。”
Her advice, too, is to start with the Caribbean and “learn everything you can about one area first.”
And always answer the phone. “When we first started, we called 15 or 20 travel agencies and most of them just didn’t answer the phone at all,” Scavron said. “Once in a while now, four lines will be ringing at once, but that happens very seldom, and when it does, I call them right back. Treat it like a business, not like a part-time thing where you are out shopping instead of calling them back. Make contacts — get out there, join networking groups, and present your knowledge to them. And use your own center of influence; have your family and your tennis partners talk about you; host a breakfast or cocktails. Always let everyone know what you do.”