Choose Your Suppliers Wisely

Today’s travel agent-friendly suppliers are loyal. They have committed to helping you sell more by providing tremendous resources. Top sellers will always receive a disproportionate share of loyalty. Why? Because they provide extraordinary loyalty in return.

Fiercely loyal business partnerships drive the highest performance, greatest results and highest satisfaction. But who commits first? You! It does not have to be your actual sales volume that earns you brand loyalty. It comes down to your commitment to providing loyalty to your preferred suppliers.

Focusing on specific brands will drive better performance, profits and customer loyalty. Everyone wins when your marketing and sales efforts are targeted – including your clients.

Here are five of 10 ways to create a brand-loyalty campaign. Feel free to email me for the remaining five.

—Don’t be afraid to make a definitive decision. Carefully choose your suppliers. Which brands match up best with your customer profile? Are they easy to do business with? Consider their policies as well as their service levels. Is it possible to build an even stronger relationship with the suppliers’ business development managers?

—Alert suppliers to your commitment to loyalty. Let suppliers know that you have selected them to be your “all-in” partners. Position this as a major business decision on your part. Most importantly, detail exactly what this means. Share your action plan.

—Inform staff of your supplier loyalty commitment. Communicate your supplier list with great clarity to your team. Describe the features and benefits to your business and how it will positively impact them.

—Tell your customers about these new partnerships. Leverage this news and describe the benefits to your clients. Customers will have an elevated level of comfort favoring these brands because you are their trusted advisor.

—Create a strategy to shift the business to these key partners. Identifying new primary brands may require you to shift sales between companies. Your strategy must include intensive staff training to master the brand differentiators. Your go-to market strategy must shift to promote only your loyalty brands. Make sure you set realistic shift goals over a period of time to achieve maximum brand loyalty. Give employees incentives!

I challenge you to launch a brand loyalty campaign. You will not be disappointed with the results. And maybe most importantly of all, neither will your clients!

“Fiercely loyal business partnerships drive the highest performance, greatest results and highest satisfaction.”