Over the years, the travel industry has conditioned the buying public to shop for price. These days, it is far easier to feed the beast than to change decades of conditioned behavior. As a distribution channel, we too deserve a good chunk of the credit for perpetuating the discount-driven vacation market. Research shows it’s not just contemporary and premium customers who expect a discount – its affluent buyers as well!

One of the services I provide my corporate clients is to “mystery shop” their businesses. Recent experiences confirmed what I often observed as a supplier sales executive. Many travel professionals do not adequately qualify their prospects and will often do the prospect an injustice by “underselling” the experience.

What do I mean by this…

Usually I have a pretty decent insight into the industry and the world around me. I can usually pick out a signal when a big change is afoot with a supplier. I can look at reports and figure out what will be a “hot” destination for my agency. I can usually predict what impact on travel a poor (or rebounding) economy may have. SARS… Avian Flu… Mad Cow Disease… war… political unrest across the globe… I have been pretty good about managing the expectations for both my agency and my clients. Right now, I just don’t know.

I try to steer clear of politics in most aspects of my life and writing. There is typically very little to be gained by engaging friends in a back-and-forth…

“In your presentations, insure your clients that you are working for them.”

One of the reasons why sales has earned such a poor reputation over the years is because the salesperson themselves speak and respond in a self-serving fashion.

One glaring example of this less-than-attractive reputation is the failure to listen to the prospect’s specific needs, wants, and desires. If one had to identify a single missing link in the success chain, it would have to be the skill, or lack, of…

A company's USP is its Unique Selling Point - something that makes it different from all other companies of its type. Is there something about your business that is so unique that customers would do business with you based on that one quality alone? If so, you have located your USP and are on the way to better understanding how to build a smart marketing campaign based on that uniqueness.

Fortunately, most travel agencies do indeed have a very valuable asset that distinguishes them from all other retail travel companies or online travel agencies - people. Your travel agency's human resources are not duplicated anywhere else. Somewhere in your personnel, whether you are a 500 person agency or…