A New Kind of Sales Call
For A New Kind of Travel Agent
Written By William M. Mallia, CTC, DS
President of Ocean Crest Marketing’s TravelSalesRep.com (www.TravelSalesRep.com)
Two decades ago, when,
as a sales representative for a major New England tour operator, I hit the
road to call on travel agents and help them become more profitable by
selling that particular supplier. In the early 80’s there were loads of
retail travel agencies – one on nearly every street corner and certainly
in every mall. And for the most part they were all making a decent
living. Today the landscape is a bit different. As the travel industry
has evolved, more and more of these brick and mortar locations are closing
or merging. It seems that the retail travel agent is going by the
wayside. Or are they?
A closer look reveals
that agents are not so much going away, but rather relocating to
non-retail locations, which are often their homes. The exponential
expansion of home based travel agent organizations bears witness to this
trend. If travel retailers are embracing this new approach to business,
what are the suppliers doing to accommodate it? The main tool in the
toolbox is the Internet, which has become the new communication conduit
between the non-traditional agents and the travel product providers.
For the most part, the
Internet has been utilized to convey an endless parade of distressed
inventory. The volume of these specials and discounts has become so
voluminous that some organizations have positioned themselves as email
consolidation service. Unfortunately, many of these organizations have
managed to send out so many email messages themselves, that they have
nearly become that which they seek to consolidate. Now don’t get me
wrong. Getting distressed inventory out to travel retailers is
important. However, it really only gives an agent a transient reason to
sell the particular supplier.
Enter the concept of
a cyber sales call (aka: eSales Call -
http://www.TravelSalesRep.com/current.htm). I
invented the on-line sales call as a mirror image of the traditional sales
calls that I had done for years. After all, why drive a car to agencies
when so many have moved off Main Street and are more accessible by
email/the Internet.
Hence, with the
creation of TravelSalesRep.com (www.TravelSalesRep.com)
I became the travel industry’s first and only web-based sales
representative. eSales Calls
commenced on 1
November 2001 and were conducted on approximately 4,000 travel agents in
New England. At the time I never dreamed that my idea would be so well
embraced. Today I have the privilege of visiting over
50,000 travel
retailers throughout the United States and Canada each month.
Each eSales Call topic is kept to around
1,000 words or less which makes it an easy, quick and efficient read for
even the busiest travel agent. Of course you don’t book through
TravelSalesRep.com any more than you would through your traditional sales
representative as they stood in your office. Complete contact information
(800 number, GDS information, website location, etc.) is offered on each
supplier. Best of all, since the supplier compensates TravelSalesRep.com
directly, there is no cost to agents to enjoy this resource.
So as the travel industry continues to
change, so to does the way the supplier works with the retailer. For the
home-based travel agent, the “pen pal like” relationship with their cyber
sales representative is the perfect way to gain consistency, continuity
and real knowledge about a selection of top suppliers.
Today, TravelSalesRep.com stands as the
eSales Representative for
some of the world's leading travel suppliers.
You may register to receive your monthly eSales Call now at
http://www.TravelSalesRep.com/register.htm. I think you’ll
enjoy this new kind of sales
call for a new kind of travel agent!
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