Relationships Are Everything to Your Business

Strong personal relationships are key to any travel agent’s success, but that doesn’t just apply to the agent-client relationship.

Creating and maintaining personal relationships with hotel and resort sales reps is also critical.

“We talk a lot about the digital side of travel; the technologies of marketing, booking and staying in touch. It’s easy to forget that the very best travel is still dependent upon that most analog of processes: personal relationships,” said R.G. Gavel of Harvard, Massachusetts-based Travel Repertoire, an affiliate of Travel Experts.

“In no area is this more important than the hotel and resort segment, which has the greatest concentration of direct-to-consumer options. The ability to leverage a relationship with a property and enhance the client experience is what sets us apart.”

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Sarah Krafty of Krafty Travel in Perrysburg, Ohio, a Nexion agent, agreed: “I have worked hard to create relationships with suppliers from Day One in this industry."

What then is the best way to create and maintain those relationships? As Krafty and other agents noted, it’s a variety of strategies that help foster close ties with BDMs and DSMs.

“I attend trade shows and supplier training as much as possible,” Krafty said. “I email suppliers to follow up. I send thankyous. I share their content. I want them to see I am willing to work with them.”

Krafty also enlists her sales reps for training, setting goals and help with client presentations: “The BDMs I work with are great for help with my own customer-focused events and with bridal and other shows in which I am a vendor."

Yet another benefit of these relationships is that they “demonstrate my expertise and connection to the travel industry,” said Krafty. “I want my clients to know my suppliers have my back, which means I have their backs when it comes to issues that may arise.”

Judy Nidetz of Northbrook, Illinois-based Travel Experts, pointed out that nurturing personal relationships requires a time commitment.

“I get invited to private tradeshows almost every week and also to lunches and coffee meetings with sales reps,” she said. “They want to meet with me and really appreciate me taking the time to learn about their product. It’s a great way to connect on a personal level.

“Even if we have only a few moments to chat [at a tradeshow], it’s still possible to establish a connection, trade business cards, show interest in their product and perhaps set up a time to meet in the future for a one-on-one.”

In addition to the tradeshows, coffees and lunches, Nidetz also attends sales reps’ general training sessions and online meetings offered by the hotel chains. She uses all of these occasions to ask specific questions about the things that are important to her and her clients:

“It’s very helpful to establish a personal relationship so that when I send clients [to a property], I have a contact person to make special requests.”

Finding specific sales reps, though, can be an obstacle to forging relationships.

“Despite all our technology, making a phone call can be the most effective solution,” Nidetz said. “If I am unsure of who the rep is for a specific hotel and I want to reach out, I never hesitate to pick up the phone, call the hotel and ask for the sales department or general manager office to find out the contact name and email address.”

Another option for finding reps comes from Gavel.

“Many of the best travel advisors suggest keeping a ‘black book,’ something I took to heart and find infinitely useful,” she said. “Having names, email addresses and phone numbers of key contacts associated with a property is priceless. The general managers, reservation managers, sales managers and business development managers are people we should cultivate, and the hotels and resorts offer many opportunities to do just that.”

Ultimately, strong relationships between agents and their sales reps serve to foster strong relationships between agents and their clients.

“With our goal of providing the best service for our clients – service that they cannot receive if they book on their own or through an online booking engine – we can distinguish ourselves as top agents by building great relationships with industry representatives,” said Nidetz.