What does it take to be a travel agent whose yearly paycheck is in
the six figures?
Persistence, sales skills, a good fit with your clients and a
commission-based deal, according to Paul Gilbert, who's been making
more than $100,000 for several years. An agent at the Liberty
Travel office in the Wall Street area of Manhattan since 1990,
Gilbert has a wall of plaques attesting to his top-selling
status.
Gilbert believes in the basics of closing: "There's nothing
wrong with asking for the business when you know you're selling a
good product," he said. "Don't let 'em leave without getting 'em
booked."
"Clients will tell me, 'you may not be the most pleasant agent,
but you're the one who always gets back to me.' You have no idea
how much business I get because other people don't follow up."
Gilbert's previous gig was as a Wall Street broker. When the
company he worked for was sold, he checked out Liberty because a
cousin was working there. His Wall Street background stands him in
good stead with clients. "I talk their language," he said. Asking
prospects a key qualifier -- "What's your budget?" -- is second
nature to him, because "I have no problems talking about
money."
He's also known as an advocate for clients whose trips turn
sour. For example, he received a personal apology from the
president of a car rental firm for a client who was charged
twice.
Gilbert's not sure that he'd be making six figures without
Liberty's pay structure of commission, plus incentive bonuses. But
he is positive that commission-based agencies "definitely get
brighter, more qualified agents. If you come across anything tough
and you're working on salary, you're not going to follow up. If you
make a commission, you do."
The Six-Figure Man Looks at Corporate
Travel
Paul Gilbert may be a top-selling leisure agent at a New
York-based Liberty Travel location, but he's also picked up some
small corporate accounts and has some fresh ideas on business
travel.
"If I had time, I would solicit small to medium corporate
accounts and tell them, 'you're overpaying on travel by tens of
thousands of dollars,' " he said. Then he would suggest a system
where he's paid a percentage of what he's saving the corporation on
travel.
"For example, I recently saved a company $14,000 on seven people
flying to the Frankfurt Book Fair [in Germany]. They wanted to fly
business class, and I found Singapore Airlines made a stopover at
Frankfurt on the way to Singapore, at $2,000 less than the usual
business fare."
Gilbert said he hasn't begun using this system yet, "but the
clients I've spoken to have been receptive to it. There's no
incentive to [save them money] under the old system, where you're
rebating your commissions back to the clients and that's all
they're thinking about."
He'd also tell corporations that they should guarantee everybody
on staff a free airline ticket so business travelers would stop
worrying about racking up frequent flyer miles. He called frequent
flyer programs "the biggest con, and [one of the major] reasons why
business travel can be so expensive."
Update on Fees
If there's anything more to say about service fees, you can be
sure that the guru on this topic -- Scottsdale, Ariz.-based
industry consultant Robert Joselyn -- will say it. So he did --
during a recent ASTA teleconference seminar on "Updating Your
Service Fee Program."
"The good news is that fees are working and they're working
quite well," Joselyn announced. "While there are horror stories of
agencies having problems, it's usually a case of [agencies having
trouble] presenting the idea of fees to clients."
The question of fee presentation is a hot topic once again,
according to Joselyn, since "we all know there are further rounds
of changes coming in the industry" and more agencies will have to
either introduce or increase fees.
So should agencies make a formal announcement, with ticket
stuffers and letters to clients?
"Yes and no," said Joselyn. "With commercial accounts, yes.
[Corporate clients] absolutely need to be notified in person that
there's a service fees change." But on the leisure side, "My
personal recommendation is, don't make a blanket announcement.
We've found customers are much less likely to be upset when fees
are presented in a service context" -- that is, when clients are
about to receive the service you'll be charging them for.
At this time, clients "can see how hard you're working, and see
the value you're bringing to them," said Joselyn. So he's
personally against posting a card that lists standard fees.
Another tip: Unlike leisure fees, corporate fee structures
probably should vary according to the profitability of each
account, he said. "Look at upfront revenue as well as what happens
at the back end, such as cancellations, voids and demand for
management reports," said Joselyn.
You can be surprised by the results, as one agency owner was. He
found that his largest account was actually his least profitable,
and he adjusted his fees accordingly.
A Happy Ending
"The travel agent...has been identified as the enemy and is
treated with suspicion and disdain [by airline employees]," wrote
Harold Panel in a letter that was published in Travel Weekly's
March 26 issue. Panel, president of Capitol Travel
Designers/American Express in Raleigh, N.C., also wrote,
"Hopefully, there may be some airline folk out there who are
listening with an open mind." Apparently there were.
Soon after his letter was published, Panel received an
invitation from US Airways' vice president of sales, Steve Tracas,
to talk to the carrier's sales staff about "the trials and
tribulations of trying to be a good travel agent and ways to handle
our mutual concerns," said Panel. He was flown to Washington for
the May meeting.
Panel was there just before the June 1 launch date of US
Airways' new agent help desk, On Call, designed to help agents
solve problems requiring immediate attention. The carrier was
"interested in exposing [On Call] employees to the real-world
problems we [as agents] face," said Panel.
He found the meeting a positive experience. "They were genuinely
interested in my comments and suggestions." Panel admitted, though,
that his background as an ex-airline employee (he worked in the
marketing and sales departments of Eastern Airlines for 23 years
before becoming an agent), may have "brought a little more
credibility to the situation, at least as far as they were
concerned."
"I sense that US Airways is really interested in improving
relationships with its travel agency customers," he added. "My
hat's off to it for recognizing that problems exist and for taking
action on finding solutions."
Gestures and Saturday Hours
Clients who book trips through Sue Mayberry Travel in
Williamsburg, Va., are welcomed home with gift certificates to a
local gourmet food store or restaurant. "Service is what sells --
and sells again," the agency's owner, Sue Mayberry, said. "Thanking
them for their business is a small gesture, but an important one.
They notice, and they come back." Mayberry's success is also due to
her hours. The agency is one of a very few in the tourist city of
Williamsburg that's open on Saturday. "They come in because I'm
open and their regular agent isn't," she said. "I suggest and
advise -- and most of the time I book. They don't forget me, and
they come back to me, on any day of the week, for their next
trip."
Educational Seminars
Agents in the Tampa, Fla., area are invited to attend a series
of Knowledge Means Business seminars given by Claudine Dervaes,
whose Tampa-based Solitaire Publishing produces travel agency
educational materials.
The Sept. 2 presentation will explore the nuts and bolts of tour
guiding and escorting as a way for agencies to increase their
income. The Sept. 9 topic is selling cruises, while on Sept. 16 a
seminar on geography proficiency will spotlight new destinations.
Agents attending will receive refreshments as well as educational
materials during each of the two-hour seminars. The cost is $45 per
agent, and the location is the Ramada Inn Tampa Airport. All
sessions start at 6:30 p.m. For further information, contact
Solitaire Publishing at (800) 226-0286.