2010's Top Supplier Sales Reps

Supplier sales representatives are the people who step up to the plate for you when you need assistance with a booking or with a challenging client. They’ll often appear in your offices on a day that’s pouring rain, with a big smile on their faces as they prepare to update you on their products. They are road warriors, they are experts in what they do and they are often your friends.

After the success of our 2008 Top Supplier Sales Reps Awards, Travel Agent again surveyed our esteemed readership to get feedback on who is the best in the business. We were thrilled to receive more than 3,000 responses. All candidates were written in; all we supplied were the categories.

After sorting through all the submissions, we proudly present to you the Top Supplier Sales Reps of 2010. Join us in congratulating these special individuals, and be sure to start planning for next year’s nominations.

Consortia

Ellen Harris

Ensemble Travel Group, Business Development Director

Helping members achieve higher profits is Harris’s primary job and to that end, her focus is on one-on-one relationships with them. “Whether it’s in training a frontline agent or a strategy session with an agency owner, it’s truly gratifying to play a role in a member’s success,” she says. Harris has served as a business development director for Ensemble Travel Group since 2006. Her territory includes the eastern and southern U.S. where she’s responsible for consulting with members to help them increase preferred supplier income with specific partners, arranging and conducting regional online and in-office training, analyzing revenue opportunities and recommending/assisting with business and marketing strategies to increase profits, and helping target and recruit new members. Prior to joining Ensemble Travel Group, Harris held management and sales positions with Jurni Network, American Airlines and Sabre Travel Information Network.

Rosemary Sarkis

NEST, Senior Director, Business Development

Having agent experience certainly helps when you work with a consortium, and Sarkis brings with her more than two decades’ worth, having worked as a home-based and retail travel agent as well as having assisted in managing retail agency locations. “Being an agent myself in the past has assisted me in better understanding the wants and needs of our member agents,” she says “and has contributed to my success at NEST.” She has achieved her ACC with CLIA and has also worked on the supplier side in group operations. She is responsible for maintaining one-on-one contact with NEST members and providing training in all of the organization’s products and programs.

Kathie DeVincenzo

TRAVELSAVERS Inc., Business Development Manager

Like many of her consortia counterparts, DeVincenzo was a professional travel agent for many years, as well as recently serving as a field sales representative for Palace Resorts and SuperClubs Resorts. She is a member of Eastern Travel Association (ETA) and Association of Central Travel Agents (ACT) in New Jersey. “I believe we have a responsibility to ‘give back’ by helping others,” she says. “Through the generosity of ETA members, I conducted a ‘Sneakers for Kids’ campaign. We collected over 700 pair of new sneakers, which were distributed to Jamaican orphans.” She helps travel agents with the same diligence. “My agents know I am always available to help in any way that I can. I feel integrity, honesty and hard work are tantamount to everything I do.”

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