The Secrets of Top-Producing Agents
December 18, 2006 By: Mark Rogers, Joe Pike, Debbie Strong, David Eisen, Dan Butcher Travel AgentHighly successful agents share their insider secrets
How can you become a top-producing agent for a travel supplier? In this in-depth cover story for Travel Agent magazine, we reveal the secrets of the most successful, profitable agents in the business. Read how these travel sellers learned how to work collaboratively and creatively to earn the most cash (and the most prestige) from some of the largest suppliers in the travel industry.
Lynn Olivari
Discount
All-Inclusive
Top Producer for
SuperClubs
If knowing your product is the key to becoming a top
producer, no one should be surprised that Discount All-Inclusive was named
Top-Producing Travel Agency for SuperClubs' Grand Lido Resorts and Spas for the
third year in a row.
The agency, home to eight-full time agents and located in
Georgia, was recently handed the SuperClubs' Superstar Award for the category
of sending between 500 and 700 clients a year to Grand Lido properties.
"You have to love the product you are selling, and you
have to know all about it," says Lynn Olivari, the agency's owner.
Olivari fell in love with Grand Lido Resorts and Spas when
she stayed at Grand Lido Negril during her first fam trip 10 years ago.
Ironically, falling in love is also the same reason she was unable to attend
the recent awards ceremony held during SuperClubs' 30th anniversary in
was too busy celebrating her honeymoon. Loyal to the brand that has helped her
agency rake in the business for the last decade, Olivari celebrated the
romantic occasion at Grand Lido Braco.
Olivari says the product, as is the case with all SuperClubs
facilities, is ideal for both couples (usually in the 30-to-50-year-old
demographic) and families. The key to selling a specific product is repeat
customers who then spread the word, she says.
And to have that, the hotel must be able to back up the
agent's advice.
"You don't convince a client they are going to love a
place unless you really feel that way," Olivari says. "In all my
years selling Grand Lido, I haven't had one complaint from a customer. When
that happens, the product usually sells itself."
Leatta Purdue
Europe-Your-Way
Top Producer for
Travel Bound
One of Travel Bound's highest-producing agents is Leatta
Purdue, founder of Europe-Your-Way (www.europe-your-way.com), an online company that focuses
solely on FIT excursions to
customers on any budget.
Purdue says that her success with Europe-Your-way comes from
limiting services to just
that may be harder for other agents to do. "We will turn down potential
business," she says.
If a satisfied client she had previously sent to Europe
calls and asks if she can help him plan a trip to
elsewhere.
"It's not easy for some agents to turn down a potential
sale," says Purdue, but she notes that by limiting her company's sales to
Europe, she is able to stick strictly with a list of preferred vendors and
suppliers, with whom she works very closely. The result is that her clients are
happier and have better experiences in Europe, and she and her staff aren't
wasting time trying to plan trips to destinations where they don't have strong
connections—and where clients may perhaps find better prices from a different
company.
"Also, she notes, "people tend to go to
deal."
By keeping her Europe-only customers happy, Purdue is able
to turn them into repeat customers and also earn their referrals.
A blend of an online travel company and a traditional travel
agency, Europe-Your-Way allows customers to fill out a form online and then
assigns an agent to each customer. Purdue, who leads a yearly tour to
"My first job was in a storefront shop, where I
realized that most of my coworkers were only interested in the fam trips and
free food at lectures. I quickly realized that online travel was the move to
make," she says. Though her company is based in
business comes from elsewhere. "We are one hundred percent an online
presence," she says, "and our advertising budget is much higher than
other agencies, for sure."
Nico Zenner of Travel Bound attributes Purdue's success to
her "successful business model."
"She has a highly personalized customer approach in an
otherwise impersonal and often crowded marketplace," says Zenner.
Purdue runs several other successful travel web sites, and is also in the process of launching a new venture, Asia-Your-Way.
Mary Jean Tully
The Cruise
Professionals
Top Producer for
Twenty years ago, Mary Jean Tully made a conscious decision
to turn all her attention to selling luxury cruises. The choice was a smart
one, and today her Canada-based agency, The Cruise Professionals, is the
number-one worldwide seller of Crystal Cruises and Tully, chairman and CEO, is
the one who made it all happen.
Her aim to become a schoolteacher was quickly dashed after
reading a classified ad for a job with a travel agency. She never looked back.
Tully has been voted a top luxury cruise specialist by Condé Nast Traveler
for seven consecutive years, but accolades aside, she credits Crystal Cruises
with allowing her to become a top producer for the line.
"They are one of the top products out there, a
fine-tuned machine, which makes it easy to sell," she says. "They
have a level of professionalism which they have never deviated from. I align
with lines that will keep people coming back."
Tully credits her close relationship with
is run for allowing her to succeed in her position.
"I can count on one hand how many problems I've had
with
and any problem was then fixed right away," she recounts. "If I screw
up, they are right there helping me to resolve it."
Resolution like this is why Tully has many repeat clients
booking
The splendor of the lines' two ships—Symphony and Serenity—doesn't
hurt, either, she says.
Tully has been able to succeed where others have failed
because she knows how to sell luxury cruises. She says that many agents aren't
adept or equipped to do it. "Many people think it's about 'what can the
line do for me,' as opposed to what can I do," she notes. "They
already have an excellent product and shore side excursions; my job is to
market it."
Steve Pomranz
AAA
Top Producer for
Pleasant Holidays
Steve Pomranz is the vice president of travel services for
the AAA branch that serves
and northern
and is a top producer for Pleasant Holidays (www.pleasantholidays.com),
which is a AAA Preferred Supplier. Pomranz has 30 years of experience working
in the travel industry, and he has been with AAA Travel for the past six.
"Pleasant Holidays has always had a fantastic
reputation," he says. "I knew of them over the years, but I had been
on the corporate side of things. When I moved to the leisure side 11 years ago,
I began to work with them, and they've provided high quality service,
competitive marketing support, various categories of rooms in high-quality
properties and competitive pricing."
Pleasant Holidays is best known for
in fact, it's one of the largest wholesalers to the
While that remains their largest and strongest market to this day, they have
expanded to offer products in
which Pomranz has sold. He attributes his success in selling the tour operator
to the talents of his fellow AAA agents; he describes them as a "very
strong, well-trained and highly qualified group of agents that knows how to ask
clients the right questions."
Also contributing to his sales success is the fact that
Pleasant Holidays offers "lots of flexibility with their products. They'll
take a package and modify it to fit clients' needs, goals and interests,"
he says. He also praises the company's web site, customer service support and
marketing efforts. "They've been excellent in supporting our marketing
efforts through co-op advertising, promotional events and the annual Mahalo
Days Hawaii promotion. Also, they've been willing to hold agent incentive
programs where agents get money or prizes for achieving sales goals."
The combination of his own attention to his clients' needs
and the skills of Pleasant Holidays' management personnel has allowed Pomranz
and his team to achieve repeat business and become top producers for the tour
operator.
"If you haven't tried them, it's definitely a company
you should consider," he says.
Jeff Anderson
Top Producer for
Carnival Cruise Lines
Listening to Jeff Anderson speak is like getting a free
tutorial in web-based applications. Turns out, the technology he speaks of is
what has propelled
marketing, toward the top of the travel agency heap— and helped the company
become one of Carnival Cruise Lines' top producers.
Similar to the rhetoric of businesses needing to embrace
sustainable technology platforms to compete, all indications point to
technology playing a major role in the future growth and existence of travel
agencies. "There has to be some tie to the Internet. Without it, you're
toast,"
says.
Unlike a consortium, AVC is a host agency with roots dating
back to 1964, when
started the company in
The company develops a close one-on-one relationship with all of its agents,
who are rigorously screened to become members.
"Agents seek us out, and we look for the cream of the
crop,"
divulges. Suppliers approve of this selection process. "Vendors don't want
people in the industry who don't deserve the 16 percent commissions we
negotiate for," he says.
So how do both Anderson and his outfit become a top producer?
chalks it up to the company's proprietary software called Agent Power, which is
seven years in the making and is constantly being updated. The technology
allows agents to interface not only with the company, but also with other
agents. Further, it is an all-inclusive booking engine and back-of-the-house
tool. "It's technology that actually works," he says.
Of course, not all of AVC's success is Internet related.
When it comes down to it, a strong business model and solid relationships with
suppliers and customers can make or break a sale.
"We treat all customers the same, regardless of how
much they are paying," explains
"Our technology helps facilitate that, and we have service people who are
passionate to back it up."
also says becoming a top producer is eased when suppliers make overtures to
agents. He cites Royal Caribbean's no rebate policy, which ensures pricing
parity across the board and helps out retail agencies. Since then, Carnival has
followed suit.
"Competition is good," he laughs.
Sandra Smith
Directional
Strategies Travel
Top Producer for
Sandals and Beaches Resorts
Sandra Smith is co-owner, with her husband, David Smith, of
Directional Strategies Travel, an agency specializing in honeymoon travel and
destination weddings.
In 2006, the Royal Oak, MI-based agency was the top-selling
company for Sandals and Beaches Resorts. Smith had a proactive approach to
setting off on the trail to becoming the top-producer for Sandals. Five years
ago, when she was thinking of switching suppliers, she flew down to
own dime and researched a variety of Sandals resorts.
"We invested our time and money and determined that
Sandals resorts were wonderful," says Smith. "The other resorts
didn't have the branding and marketing of Sandals."
Another factor for Smith was customer recognition of
Sandals. "This had a lot to do with Sandals' print advertising in bridal
magazines," she says. "A couple will see such an ad and yearn for the
same experience. We tell them we can get it for them. We fulfill their
dream."
After her initial research trip, Smith approached Sandals
with a request. "We told them we needed their help in bringing our people
in for training, and to be included in upcoming fams, that we needed brochures
and a contact person to help us with questions," says Smith. "They
were skeptical at first, but when they saw how we performed, and the success of
our Sandals nights, they were convinced."
On the day of the interview with Travel Agent, Smith
was packing for the next day's flight to
the new rooms at the Sandals Regency.
"We know the product intimately," she says.
"We believe in directing business. Our success was never about putting
heads in beds—it was based on 'suite success.' We believe our clients deserve
to be in suites."
Smith has some advice for agents who want to become top
producers. "When you spread yourself too thin, you become a generalist
instead of a specialist," she says. "Specialize in a destination and
the products in that destination. Educate yourself. And then make a decision
about who you want to partner with."
Smith also believes agents gain a real advantage when they
know the people they're doing business with on a day-to-day basis, from the
golf pro to the general manager at the resort.
—By Daniel Butcher, David Eisen, Joe Pike, Mark Rogers
and Debbie Strong
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