Royal Caribbean International has
restructured its sales force and added several new positions,
including additional field trainers, a new sales coach, two new
market development managers and senior regional business analysts.
The new structure
provides region-specific marketing training, said Lisa Bauer, Royal
Caribbean's senior vice president of sales. "We are working towards
regional and channel opportunities vs. a 'one-size-fits-all'
approach," she said.
Bauer also said
that the new initiatives aimed to enhance communication with travel
agents and provide them with peer group analysis data and market
trends.
Two new positions
are heavily focused on the growing home-based segment of the
industry, Bauer said, and Royal Caribbean added a position to help
get new and small agencies up and running.
But, she said, the
new organization "is focused on ensuring we can meet the specific
needs of all the channels, including home-based, traditional
brick-and-mortar and online."
Royal Caribbean
announced the changes during the line's recent national sales
meeting onboard the Mariner of the Seas.
"What's most
important to us is the new sales coaches and trainers trained
specifically for the home-based channel," said Michael Anderson,
director of development for America's Vacation Center, who was
onboard the Mariner.
"We have experience
with every region of the country, and different things work in
different regions," he added.
Starting now,
frontline sales positions, formerly known as inside sales reps and
district sales managers, will be referred to as customer business
development managers because, Bauer said, "we are focused on the
customer, who is the travel agent, and agencies, not the
district."
The positions will
be filled mostly by people in senior positions at Royal Caribbean
in different areas of the company, including revenue management,
marine operations and the air/sea department.
Bauer said that
bringing employees from different areas of the company into its
sales force would bring increased product knowledge to its sales
effort.
To
contact reporter Johanna Jainchill, send e-mail to [email protected].