FORT
LAUDERDALE — A successful agent-supplier partnership is a relationship that
starts with commitment.
Commitment, respect, trust: Those are the cornerstones of sales-building according to Mike Going of Funjet Vacations, who sat on a
panel of executives at CruiseWorld, tasked with talking about supplier
partnerships.
Much of the discussion centered around the type of business
attitude that the executives said work best in a favored partnership: Someone
who will work to get problems resolved instead of looking for someone to blame;
someone who knows their clients and will brainstorm new business with business
development managers; someone who will be reasonable; someone who won't, in
Going's parlance, simply "go for the short-term buck" but will
instead focus on the long-term relationship.
Jesus Repetto of Titanium Tours said that he would give the secret
of agent partners who have a 100% quote-to-booking ratio: "they know their
customers really, really, really well, they know how to profile. We know this
always turns into business, we're happy to get on a conference call and help
them profile and see what we need to put into that itinerary. So when we're
done with that itinerary for that person, it sells itself."
The panelists suggested that new
agents think hard about their niche, business model and goals before seeking
partners. "Clarify your own particular mission, get focused,"
counseled Bruce Wilson of Apple Vacations. "And you do that through
networking, talking with other travel agencies who have used suppliers that fit
your business model, begin to sample the suppliers, make a sample booking with
various suppliers, see which ones fit your expectations.... and from there,
develop a relationship."
On a more practical front, several
executives also cautioned agents who are hosted or part of a consortium against
going to nonpreferreds. " We invest a lot of money in consortia and host
agencies," said Steve Gorga of Exclusive Group Travel.
Still, some audience members expressed
frustration that they couldn't easily build a relationship with their local rep
because they were supposed to work through the BDM of their host, often in
another part of the country.
Going said that his company has
rearranged its sales structure to deal with this issue.
"We've evolved over the past
few years," allowed Richard Aquino of Allianz Global Assistance." He
brought up the idea of cluster meetings, i.e. taking a group meeting with
different agents in a region. "Let us host an event .... It's tough to get
out there and talk to everyone, so I think cluster meetings are great. There's
still networking events. These events are kind of great."
One question centered on the
influence of the Internet, and almost to a person, panelists said they viewed
the Internet as a helpful tool — to take clients' research and build on it to
close a sale.
"Do things that will really
make [clients] remember you, versus something they could have gotten on the
Internet," Gorga said.
The discussion made moderator
Geoff Millar's opening comments seem prescient: "I don't care how much
technology they throw at this industry, it's still a relationship-based
business. And you need to have a relationship with your clients and with your supplier.”