ome might consider Todd Silberman a
contrarian. The founder of Lifeco, the $1.5 billion travel agency
he and his partners sold to Ameri-can Express in the early 1990s,
has re-entered the agency industry.
While he said the events of Sept. 11 have "devastated" the
agency community, Silberman said he believes they are not going to
destroy it. Strong agencies will thrive, Silberman said, and among
them will be his new venture, Better World Travel, a Portland,
Ore.-based travel company that focuses on "environmentally
responsible" policies.
In late August, he and partner Mitchell Rofsky acquired
Portland-based Journeys, a $12 million agency, and Beaverton,
Ore.-based Triangle Travel, a $6 million agency. Earlier this year,
they purchased an online company, Webvacations.net, which has a
database of 60,000 vacation homes for rent worldwide.
Silberman is in the process of looking to buy more retailers and
integrate them into Better World Travel. And, he and Rofsky have
even bigger plans.
Under a concept they call Triple E, the two veteran
entrepreneurs hope to bring together auto insurance, roadside
assistance and travel agency services under one corporate umbrella
and compete with an American institution: AAA.
Drawing on experience Rofsky has had working in environmental
and "socially responsible" ventures, Silberman said Triple E would
target the 8 million to 10 million Americans who consider
themselves environmentalists and an additional 60 million who call
themselves what market researchers term "interested"
environmentalists.
"These are the people who, if you give them two products that
cost the same, would walk across the street for the one that does
less environmental damage. They are willing to make a difference if
it doesn't cost them any more," he said. Rofsky, a close associate
of Ralph Nader's, was president of American Consumer Insurance
Agency, a "socially responsible" property and casualty insurance
broker. He also was president of Working Assets, a mutual fund that
only invests in companies with policies friendly to the environment
and workers' rights.
Details about Triple E are expected to be disclosed in January,
said Silberman. Meanwhile, Better World, thanks to its
acquisitions, has reached $20 million in sales. It generates
traffic to its Web site, www.betterworldtravel.com, through agreements
with Outside.com and Away.com, two sites that offer links to Better
World's vacation home database. The company also started a program
with Worldspan's Go! that offers travel agents the opportunity to
book vacation homes through the CRS.
Silberman said Better World's focus also is on customer service,
drawing skilled and experienced travel agents who are destination
specialists to the firm. "People will be able to book on line, but
our focus will not be on that because very few people are using
online reservations systems [for upscale travel]," he said. "We
want to develop a call center staffed by professional travel
agents."
Part of the strategy will be to create packages for consumers
who want to rent vacation homes. Vacation-home rental, a fragmented
industry with $45 billion in annual revenue, typically goes through
real estate agents, and, until now, has not been tapped by travel
agents, Silberman said.
-- Laura Del Rosso
A perfect fit
arol Pinnell had been thinking
about selling her agency for a while. Then Todd Silberman came
along with his concept of an "environmentally responsible" travel
company with a strong focus on customer service, and she felt she
found a good fit.
Silberman's Better World Travel recently became the first travel
company to operate as "carbon-neutral," a phrase meaning that the
firm "offsets" the amount of pollution its business generates by
taking part in environmental good works. "The average flight of
1,600 miles puts a ton of carbon in the air," said Silberman. "We
developed a formula that shows how we can successfully offset that
damage."
Better World's first "carbon-neutral" project involved replacing
oil-burning furnaces in Portland, Ore., public schools with
cleaner, gas-burning furnaces. It is that concept and Silberman's
overall visualization of an environmentally friendly company that
drew Pinnell to choose Better World from among all potential buyers
of Journeys, her 16-year-old Portland agency, this fall.
"We were approached by a lot of companies, and it was hard to
find a good match," she said. As an aside, Pinnell said she knew it
was time to sell because she no longer enjoyed the administrative
aspects of owning an agency. "I was worried that I could not
withstand more commission drops, with all the overhead costs that
go along with running an agency," she said. "I also was concerned
that over time, I would lose my very loyal and very good
agents."
As a result of the sale to Better World Travel, Pinnell joined
the acquiring firm as business development manager. She has new
duties and challenges, such as integrating the vacation homes
offered on the Better World Web site into the Journeys operation.
Her agency has kept its name, with "a Better World Travel company"
as its tag line.
Trade Shows
Which ones work?
hen you are approached by a
show organizer, consider this before deciding if you should
participate: The potential number of visitors to a booth relates
directly to the number of people expected to attend the show.
Organizers can provide figures from the last show. New shows
without a track record might be slow to fill up with
exhibitors.
Estimate how many show attendees would be interested in your
product or service. Divide this by the total number of hours for
the show. This figure gives the number of potential people that
could visit your booth in one hour. This number will indicate how
many leads or bookings might develop.
This calculation also assists with staff planning. When it comes
to choosing a show in which to participate, it pays to do your
homework. Here are some suggestions:
• Obtain a brochure from the organizer with information on the
previous show -- attendance, comments and exhibitors.
• Contact previous exhibitors for comments.
• Get a demographic profile of the visitors and exhibitors they
are targeting.
• Find out if it is "trade only" or open to the public?
• Ask what is included in the booth rental (table, cover,
lighting, taxes).
• Inquire about promotion for the show (direct mail, magazine,
newspaper, radio, TV, trade papers and their distribution
numbers).
• Ask about choice of booth locations and sizes.
• Find out if there is convenient free parking or public
transportation.
• Determine if you have enough planning time for booth and
promotional preparation.
• Ask if there are any date conflicts with other major events in
town.
• Compare the total cost with other shows on a per-day basis.
Staffing can make or break an exhibit. Consider these tips:
• Rotate staff frequently to keep enthusiasm high.
• Look at the show schedule. When there are high-profile
speakers, have more staff available just before and after the
speeches to capture those coming to hear the talks.
• Use staff that best represent your agency and can produce
leads. Although sending junior staff can be a good experience for
them, customers visiting your booth might become frustrated when
they cannot obtain the information for which they came.
Julie Olley is owner of London, Ontario-based consulting
firm Perfect Word. She can be reached at [email protected] or by visiting her Web site at
www.perfectword.on.ca.