Selling Travel, Holiday & MICE Services

By GERARD ASSEY

'Selling Travel, Holiday & MICE Services' is uniquely designed to help transform you into a Master 'Travel Sales Consultant', enabling you to discover the secrets that drive the world's Top Travel Sales Professionals, with the 12 Master Keys  that will Equip & Enable you Standout as: 'T.H.E. G.R.E.A.T.  S.T.A.R.' by helping you:

• Prospect, Win, Service and Retain Customers who will not only come back but be your advocates out in the market.
• Expand your markets and market share
• Personalize your customer's journey and experience, by tailoring their packages to suit the needs uncovered
• Deliver extra for the customer every step of their journey
• Help gain a continuous flow of Referrals
• Win back previous customers who have defected to a competitor
• Benchmark your position and establish your brand/ name as a market influencer in the Travel industry
• Build Glorious Experiences and Memories for your Customers!
• Overall, help to Maximize Opportunities by Increasing Sales and Keeping your Customers Loyal
• Build overall Professionalism and Your Credibility in the Market!

Here is just ONE of the Many Testimonials we receive after each Training..."My entire team including myself were engaged on this Sales & Team Building Training that made a Revolutionary Change in our Organization & overall Business, in just one Session itself. Now my Team is hungry for even more!"...Wilfred Selvaraj, Managing Director, LGT Holidays, India

• Language: English
• Publisher: GERARD ASSEY
• Release date: May 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223101239

Book preview

Gerard Assey

Selling

Travel, Holiday

&

MICE Services

By

Gerard Assey

© Copyright 2023 by Author

Published by:

Gerard Assey

19/18, Palli Arasan Street

Anna Nagar East

Chennai - 600 102

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means- electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author.

(Image courtesy by: www.Freepik.com- Thank You)

Table of Contents

✓  Introduction

✓  How to Get the Most out of this Book

✓  Key Attributes of a Top Travel Advisor/ Consultant

✓  12 Good Reasons why Customer’s must use you as their Travel Advisor/ Consultant

✓  The Master 12 Keys to Equip & Enable You Standout as T.H.E. G.R.E.A.T. S.T.A.R.

✓  T-Trust-The Foundation Pillar

✓  H-Habits, Attitude and Mindset

✓  E-Ethics, Esteem, Etiquette & Grooming

✓  G-Gather Information (Preparation and Planning)

✓  The Itinerary- A Great Sales Tool!

✓  R-Revealing Questions (Understanding their Needs)

✓  E-Explain, Enlighten, Engage, Enthuse & Excite Customers

✓  A-Answer Customer’s Concerns and Objections

✓  T-Techniques to help customer’s ‘buy’...as people, hate being sold!

✓  S-Service Exemplary

✓  T-Testimonials and the Power of it!

✓  A-Action Post-sale: Your Promises and Credibility to Promote Advocacy

✓  R-Relationships leading to Referrals

✓  Servicing the MICE Sector

✓  Tips to Negotiate Deals Effectively

✓  Building Your Networking Skills

✓  Handling Turn-downs/ Rejections and Keeping Yourself Motivated!

✓  Taking this Forward- The Final Word!

✓  About the Author

Introduction

Tourism is now recognized as being a major economic activity for many nations in the world and has witnessed a continued phenomenal growth of interest in how people spend their holidays, spare time, especially their leisure and non-work time. The population is forecast to reach 9.6bn by 2050 according to the United Nations and by 2030 there will be an extra billion people in the world, of which 20% will be travelling, with the global passenger and freighter fleet doubling.

Added to this is something much more significant- the MICE industry, which has emerged over recent decades as an important contributor to national economies, with MICE travel continuing to be a high growth segment. The next significant growth engine for the global tourist industry is MICE, which is the future of business travel. If you are in this sector, you know the immense potential of MICE Tourism and the indelible impact it delivers on the economy both directly and indirectly, in addition to the broad spectrum of stakeholders who are all an integral part of this system. With the continued significant growth in International tourism worldwide, this translates into job creation and several other opportunities in many economies. This growth encourages the travel sector with the need to increase its capacity to develop and manage tourism in a sustainable way. And in this current, yet, fastest changing era of business environment that we find ourselves in, it is critical that we maximize our key business asset- the one who gives us the business- our clients.

When it comes to the traveler- our asset, who is the client; ‘the product’ covers the entire experience from the time he departs from home to the time he returns to it. In light of this, ‘the final tourist product’ is to be considered as an amalgam of five main tangible and intangible components: the accessibility to the destination, facilities, amenities and services at the destination, surroundings and attractions at the destination and how he is able to capture and carry back memories of this, and finally the cost involved . The tourist product is, in other words, not just hotel room, or being on a beautiful sunny beach, but rather an amalgam of the experience of many components the client goes through as part of the package.

The perceived performance of the product in relation to the expectations and perceived value to the buyer determines the ultimate customer happiness and retention factor. When the performance goes over and above-beyond his expectations, the client is ecstatic, and now becomes your advocate, promoting your business and services. Therefore understanding what customers really want and going beyond is crucial to any successful business. The success or failure within this industry ultimately rests on the ability to win, service and retain customers!

This Book: ‘Selling Travel, Holiday & MICE Services’ is therefore, as the name says uniquely designed to help transform you into a Master ‘Travel Sales Consultant’ by helping you, discover the secrets that drive the world’s Top Travel Sales Professionals.

This Powerful Book will help you:

✓  Prospect, Win, Service and Retain Customers who will not only come back but be your advocates out in the market.

✓  Expand your markets and market share

✓  Personalize your customer's journey and experience, by tailoring their packages to suit the needs uncovered

✓  Deliver extra for the customer every step of their journey

✓  Help gain a continuous flow of Referrals

✓  Win back previous customers who have defected to a competitor

✓  Benchmark your position and establish your brand/ name as a market influencer in the Travel industry

✓  Build Glorious Experiences and Memories for your Customers!

✓  Overall, help to Maximize Opportunities by Increasing Sales and Keeping your Customers Loyal

✓  Build overall Professionalism and Your Credibility in the Market!

And hopefully by the time you complete this entire program, it will benefit you in several ways...

Firstly, to ensure that you are equipped with the Professional Skills, that will not only help you in the business world, but on the Personal side as well, especially with your relationships. It will provide a step by step professional approach that will enable you take your customers through, to help them deal with you in ways, as you will see later, using a Consultative or Relationship building approach, thus leading to a lasting relationship. This in turn will help you and the organization you work for to obtain repeat business and referrals which is vital in this business.

You will also find that you will be able to better manage yourself as well as be able to better manage your customers-both external as well as internal!

After reading the book, you will gain a full understanding of the psychology of both the buying and selling processes, including the importance of being well organized, and over the period, you will notice that you would have worked through 12 Master Keys that will Equip and Enable you Standout as: ‘T.H.E. G.R.E.A.T. S.T.A.R.’ while practicing and mastering the skills at each stage, so that your selling skills are developed and reinforced.

As a Travel Professional, you are the person that brings ’JOY’ since you hold the Master KEY to many people's travel dreams. But for that key to work, you personally need these 12 Master keys that can open the door to your business success!

With no gimmicks, no jargon, just emphasis on relationship building, I believe that this is a well structured course on 100% building value and long lasting partnerships with your customer!

Before you move forward on this exciting journey that I am about to take you through, I would recommend that you have a note pad and pen to make notes of important points that you can start using immediately.

So are you ready to embark on this exciting journey with me? Take your time, sit back and enjoy these learning’s!

How to Get the Most out of this Book

Before you get deep into this Book, here are some tips on how you could get the best out of this book

1)  Make a commitment to dedicate a fixed amount of time each day/week: The results will depend on the time and efforts you put in to follow on the self-paced process that this book will take you through

2)  Decide what you want to get out of this book- the objective and how you intend doing this?

3)  You must decide initially to get out of your comfort zone if you are to experience success from this.

Remember: ‘If you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will continue to get what you’ve always got!" If you are looking at different (better) results, you must then look at doing different things and different ways!

4)  The road to success is already walked and laid out for you. Someone has already been through the ‘School of Hard Knocks!’ You don’t have to waste time re-inventing the wheel.

5)  Put the ideas to immediate practice-Apply the ideas to your selling situation. No idea or concept is worth anything, if it cannot be applied to real situations. So applying these principles by putting them to immediate practice is the KEY!  The book will help you translate the concepts into your own specific situations right away.

6)  Work on expanding your knowledge: Do additional reading/ listening/ watching videos/ CD’s ...whatever that can help you stay ahead!

7)  Keep a record of your new learning’s/ experience in using them and your accomplishments. Build up on YOUR own workbook. The words you read are really nothing. It’s what you work on as you go along and put to practice is what really counts. The content covered is designed to help you be more organized and sell more successfully.

8)  Learn to share with others how these ideas have helped you: That way these new skills and techniques help get embedded in your system

9)  Finally, learn to have fun with every progressive step!

10) Now Enough of Theory! Let’s just start by putting it into Practice!

Exercise

Before you get any further into this book, you could stop for a few minutes and ask yourself: ‘What do I want to get out of this Book? What would be the Objectives of reading this Book?’ List them down.

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Key Attributes of a

Top Travel Advisor/ Consultant

BEFORE WE REALLY GET into the intricacies of the selling process let us first look at the key attributes of this profession, as the Travel Advisor/ Consultant must be able to wear appropriate hats- that of a salesperson, a tour guide, a business manager, a consultant, an advisor, and a negotiator- just to name a few depending on situations. Therefore there are a number of attributes and traits that stand out in the most successful Travel Advisor/ Consultants.

Here is a good list of them:

✓  Honesty and integrity: Without a doubt this must run in the blood, as professional reputation is crucial to a long and successful career or for customer referrals and retention. To maintain the trust with clients and score the all-important referral, you’ll need to hold yourself to a high ethical standard. You may be working with someone’s life savings and for this reason alone, it’s important that you’re principled and committed to doing what’s right. Honest advisors will tell it like it is, even when they know it’s not necessarily what the client wants to hear (such as bringing attention to some not-so-nice aspects of a trip)

✓  Domain Interest and Knowledge: If the knowledge and interest level is apparent in conversations, clients will see that the person cares about the travel industry they are in. Staying up-to-date on the latest in this sector and in the domains/ markets operated in will allow you to service clients more effectively. At the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it. There is a certain level of investment needed (time, energy, and money) to make any business venture successful.

✓  Client-first mentality and ability to listen: A top performing advisor understands that they have a fiduciary duty to the client, and to put the client’s needs and wants BEFORE the commission check (cheque). At the end of the day, the client wants someone that is honest, has integrity, and listens to what they really want and need.

✓  Provides knowledge and value: A great travel advisor/ consultant must be a valuable resource, and help to make the travel process enjoyable and exciting, less stressful with a positive memorable experience. They should be able to educate customers at each step  and tell them things the customer did not know

✓  Problem solving mindset: While the problem may be the same, there are different variations that you’ll need to tackle, such as the client’s budget or meeting a timeline, or just handling everything from beginning to end. You’ll need to feel comfortable with constantly solving problems - sometimes in ways that aren’t the most obvious or conventional. Therefore this will need you to come up with creative solutions to problems or issues. 

✓  Self-motivated and hardworking: To be successful in the travel sector, requires a high degree of self-motivation, drive, and smart decision making- a keen desire to control your own professional destinies- and for this you have to be motivated and hard-working. This will often be reflected in your systems, the amount of clients you help achieve their travel plans, your communication and being a real go-getter.

✓  Hustle and tenacity: It is not just about putting in a lot of time- it’s about working smart, having the tenacity to pursue every lead, knowing priorities, and putting in the right amount of time on each- ensuring whatever is necessary to keep customers happy by adhering to great work ethics

✓  An engaging and winning personality: Before one sells anything, they sell themselves. Attitude matters. People will respond if you have a great attitude, are personable and honest, have confidence in your abilities, and are interested in helping them and others. Personable is one of the most essential traits for any travel professional. The bottom line is this: people want to work with people they like, and they want to buy from people they like. Being friendly and agreeable isn’t an option for a travel advisor; it’s part of the job. Travel is a people-oriented business. You need a personality that can woo prospective