"What's the most expeditious way to get to Kansas City?"
"Can a charter aircraft be arranged?"
"Can you arrange limousine service from the airport to hotel?"
"Can you recommend the most luxurious hotel in town and arrange for video conferencing, a computer rental, and the use of one of the hotel's boardrooms?"
"Does the hotel have a fitness center and a business center?"
"What is Kansas City's most popular restaurant for a power lunch?"
"What is the weather like in Kansas City, and how do business people dress?"
"What recreational activities can you recommend for the boss's leisure time?"
Can you provide accurate answers to these questions? If you can, and are also capable of giving accurate responses about other major domestic and international cities at a moment's notice, you may be on your way to becoming a specialist as a business travel agent. The difference between a general travel agent and a business travel specialist is:
- The possession of a thorough knowledge of what a business traveler will require on his or her mission.
- The ability to service the needs of the executive traveler by offering efficient and appropriate planning of transportation, hotel accommodations, meals and conferences.
As an agent, once these skills are acquired, you can increase your business in a variety of ways:
- You can offer full service to your leisure clientele who, from time to time have need for the services of a business travel specialist. This is important If the leisure traveler calls a specialist for the occasional business trip, that client may later defect entirely and also take his or her leisure business to the specialist.
- Your knowledge and skill not only enables you to retain your existing executive clientele, but could result in their defection from another travel agent to you for their leisure travel requirements.
- Your knowledge and skill provide you with the weaponry with which to solicit new business from other travel agents.
- If you are seeking employment in a travel agency, or would like to elevate yourself to a higher position in your current agency, your specialized skills will make you very marketable.
1. Stability and Consistency
a. Leisure travel is discretionary, and susceptible to economic fluctuations. True, the economy also affects the volume of business travel, but many business trips are mandatory regardless of economic downturns, or even political unrest
b. Leisure travelers take trips depending upon their mood, finances, and health. Business travelers frequently have to travel whether they want to or not. And if one executive is ill, another can usually take his or her place. Such substitutions are not generally made in leisure travel.
2. More Sophisticated Clientele Most travel agents agree that it is easier and often more pleasant to work with clients for whom travel is not so esoteric. The more experienced the traveler, generally the easier it is to communicate with that client. Business travelers usually know what they want and make decisions quickly. Furthermore, because of the diversity of services offered, the challenge to the travel agent is greater and the vicarious aspect of the mission is heightened. Most travel agents agree that it is exciting to be a participant in the planning of a business mission.
Training for this Specialty
I assume that the reader is a travel agent, or has already acquired the skills to become one. How do you enhance those skills so that you can become a specialist?
1. Learn about the most popular business traveler destinations.
Surveys we have conducted reveal that approximately 30 American cities receive 90% of all business travelers. Add to that another 10 cities in Asia, and 10 in Europe. Most of the host domestic cities have populations in excess of 500,000. The United States has approximately 60 additional cities with populations in excess of 250,000 that also may be likely hosts. Obviously it is difficult to learn about each of these cities. But it is important that you acquaint yourself with as many possible.
Discover where the major areas of business activity exist in each city where the banking and financial centers are, the industrial complexes and business parks, the location of specialized industries such as automotive, garment, electronic, etc. For example, did you know that one of the most heavily populated business communities in the Kansas City, Missouri, area is actually in Overland, Kansas?
Your next step is to locate the hotels near the individual business centers and obtain detailed information about them, either by writing for brochures or by consulting a hotel encyclopedia. Learn as much as you can about the hotels, such as the year of construction, the date of the last major renovation, the size of the guest rooms, the configuration of the meeting rooms, and features about their restaurants and recreational facilities. For example, is shuttle service offered from the airport? Are computer modem hookups provided in the rooms? Determine the distance from the hotel to the airport and the easiest way to get there. Finally, obtain a general knowledge about dress, customs, and weather for each destination.
Then, when a client calls and tells you he or she is going to Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, Kansas City, or Birmingham, although you may never have been to any of those cities, you can, nevertheless, provide a service most travel agents are not equipped to offer. First, ask the client where his or her business activities will center. If for example your client says, "I will be near the Pittsburgh Gateway Center," your quick and impressive response might be, "The Pittsburgh Hilton is in the center of the complex and is just twenty minutes from the Pittsburgh International Airport The hotel was renovated last year and has a new fitness center. I can get you a special corporate rate." You can further tell the traveler that a 50 passenger bus departs the airport every 20 minutes at a cost of $10.00, or a taxi ride is approximately $25.00. Finally, check the weather and offer tips on what clothes to bring. Will that client be impressed? You bet
2. How to Find New Clients
Your home town may be populated by travel-driven businesses you never knew about How can learn the business demographics and ferret out these companies?
Start with a business encyclopedia such as Standard and Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives or Dun and Bradstreet's Million Dollar Directory. Most public library reference departments have these publications, which list businesses in a number of categories annual gross income, product or service, or geographic location. From the list of businesses in your city, select companies whose activities would most likely include business travel. Businesses with branch offices, sales forces, or those who sell products to out-of-town companies are likely candidates.
The natural tendency is to survey the larger companies, but don't be fooled. A one-person company could be engaging in millions of dollars of business generated from his or her sales trips to other cities. Discovering these potential clients can only come with further in-depth investigation.
Once you gather a list of companies, call each firm and ask who handles business travel. The rest depends upon your skill, personality, and sales ability.
3. Learn the Skills of a Meeting Planner
Your client may be hosting an out-of-town function which could include attendance by executives from several other cities. (Perhaps you can make their travel arrangements, too). These various attendees may require several rental cars, or a limousine. You can earn yourself extra commissions by providing limousine, bus, and car rental service which historically pay commissions. Restaurant operating of small functions (i.e., for up to 25 attendees) is something you can readily learn. You will become acquainted with new terms such as classroom seating for meetings, break-out sessions, flipcharts, teleconferencing, and spouse activities.
The best way to acquire this knowledge is to become friendly with a local hotel sales manager who can serve as your tutor. Take a tour of a local hotel and use it as your classroom. Try planning a meeting at a hotel in your city. There are no rules against a travel agent organizing a function for a meeting to be held in his or her own city to be attended by local attendees. A local hotel sales manager not only can help you plan the meeting, but can teach you how to plan future meetings, either in your town or another city.
