A Closer Look At Your Financial Goals

I have a pressing question for you as BOTH a travel professional and a business owner. This question is valid for anyone who is independent or works inside of an agency: with more than a quarter of 2023 gone, how are you coming along in your financial goals? Business is coming fast and furious when you look across the landscape of travel but not all advisors are reaping the rewards of this boom. Sometimes this is due to a matter of organization, readiness for the volume or not having clear cut goals to guide you. One thing that hurts my heart more than anything is seeing business owners who can’t figure out why their business isn’t growing in the same way they hear about from other colleagues.

Notice here that I asked about your financial goals, not your business goals. This is an important distinction. You still need overall business goals to work toward although a major subset of that is financial goals. When you own a business, or manage a book of business at your desk, making money is THE goal of business. Small businesses are not excused from the simple fact you need to make money to exist. Now, here is the tough talk from Coach Martin; many travel advisors will have and accept a much longer threshold of pain for not turning a profit. They do this in the interest of “learning the business” or “expanding supplier relationships.” Quite frankly, many accept it because they just love this industry with a passion. Trust me, I get it. Eventually though, you will be forced to take a hard look at all the work you put into this and make a decision. If there’s no profitability one must ask, why do it in the first place? I’m here to tell you it doesn’t need to be that way.

Here are FIVE areas you can think about that could have an immediate impact on your bottom line. If you were to adopt only one or two of these into your financial goals for the remainder of the year, I believe you can potentially double your business from the previous year or even quarter. It doesn’t happen magically though. You must make a conscious decision to add it into your plans for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024 for future success. Each idea below becomes a question of “how” you can implement it. Where possible I have added a blog post or given ideas that I think might help.

Charging a Service Fee

This is all about valuing your time as well as expertise. You have no doubt spent countless hours researching, building relationships with suppliers and staying up to date on the latest travel trends. By charging a fee you are valuing your time and expertise, and your clients will appreciate that they are getting a professional service. Believe it or not this actually helps you stand out in a crowded market. While this may feel counterintuitive it’s true that the clients you desire can understand the value you bring and are willing to pay for it. Think about a time that you were offered something for “no charge” and might have been skeptical about it being legitimate. By charging fees you can invest in your business by attending industry events, taking courses to enhance your skills or offering more personalized services. One of the best blog posts on this topic, that gets updated on a regular basis, can be found here.

Group Travel As a Strategy

As a simple math equation, take the travel product you sell that earns you the highest commissions and then have fun and multiply that commission you received by 10, then 20 and dream some more and do it for 100. Can you see why working in multiples of one higher priced product can have a major impact? In its simplest form this is what we are talking about. How can you create multiples of one thing and reproduce the formula many times over? You might put a lot of work into the first one as a blueprint for the ones to come after. It’s well worth it when you are getting commission checks with commas in them! You can also adopt the discipline of asking each customer you book if there’s anyone they can think of who would want to go on this trip with them. Expand your thinking and keep in mind that you may have two to four couples or families traveling together who can be the foundation of a group. This can open access to group rates and amenities you can sell to others. They are all reaping the benefits of what you put together for them.

Relationship and Referral Marketing

Building on the last strategy of groups, you are creating the opportunity for repeat and referral business when clients have experienced your services already. As a standalone strategy I believe this is the VERY best way to build a business. I have known business owners who put both small and large amounts of money into outside marketing with little to no return. We are all sitting on a business goldmine right inside our close contact network. Here’s the key though to this strategy; working it as a real business building strategy as opposed to leaving it to chance. What does that mean? You have to know that the value of asking for a referral after a customer returns from their travels will have an impact. Did you know that 93% of people NEVER ask for a referral even when they said they would earlier in the sales process. If you adopt this strategy you must build in a discipline of talking about this as a business building strategy. Let them know you will ask for a referral at least three times prior to their trip and then actually ask for it at your follow up call. If they do not have one right away remind them to think of you and do not be shy about telling them you want more customers like them (if you truly mean that). Your authenticity in this process can’t be faked. When you remember the birthdays, anniversaries and events in their lives you are adding to their emotional bank account. Asking for a referral is a withdrawal from that account they are willing to make because you have put so much effort into the rest. Some of you do this so well already and can teach the class. Also, this strategy will reduce your marketing costs, meaning there’s a financial gain on a couple of fronts here.

Building Focused Supplier Relationships

The word “focused” makes all the difference! I could have just said “build supplier relationships” but the impact to your financial goals is creating a focused relationship with one to three specific suppliers in your specialty area of travel. I have seen travel advisors double or quadruple their business because they went “all in” with one supplier in a segment of travel. This does not mean they will not sell others, but it does mean they learn all of the ins and outs of that brand. Consider becoming a specialist, taking the training, and working closely with the Business Development Manager of a brand on how to increase business as a mutual benefit. One such new advisor I know built his business in one year selling only one vacation group that had lots of brand offerings for his clientele. I know of yet another who created a close relationship with only one river cruise company that led to charter groups and buyouts of an entire vessel. When you work closely with a brand everyone buys into making it work. When you express that kind of commitment to a brand you will be amazed at what can be achieved. Your clients will be the benefactors of that relationship too.

Track Your Financial Progress

Have you ever heard the phrase what gets measured gets done? Well it’s true. While most will hear this and agree it makes sense, why are there so many who never track their performance against financial goals? I have found one reason to be the fear of actually knowing the numbers or just not knowing how to go about it. Lots can be said about this topic, but I want to keep it really simple. I believe you should adopt big business thinking of forecasting your desired sales and commission goals and then track what you actually do each month. I call this the Easy Peasy approach. You can get more complicated for sure, but you need to breakdown your overall sales and commission goal for a year and divide it by 12 to come up with a monthly goal. At the end of each month, record what it actually was and adjust up or down as needed each quarter. I promise that by looking at this each month and knowing what it is, you will make different decisions about your business. It may mean making that extra sales call when you know you are so close. If you have read this far and want my Easy Peasy Dashboard spreadsheet to help with that then email me and I will be happy to send it to you. It will be interesting to see how many requests I actually get!

So which one speaks to you? Pick one or two and make a plan to put it into practice. Find an accountability partner inside or outside the industry who you can check in with on a regular basis. If it’s someone outside the industry it helps if they have some business ownership background as they will identify with what you’re asking them to be for you. They are not a mentor to tell you how to do it, they are there for you to report back to for accountability purposes. You will know you have found a good partner when you both can share best practices and help each other out in achieving your goals. Tracking against your financial goals and knowing where you want to go rather than hoping you get there is Hi Five worthy. Have a great month of May, and here is to Your Success!

Have a topic you think should be considered for future editions of Travel Hi Five? Get in touch with me at mmussey@travelleaders.com.

About the Author

Martin Mussey is a Certified Business Coach, Certified Travel Industry Executive and a Business Development and Education Manager at Nexion Travel Group and Travel Leaders of Tomorrow. #CoachMartin works with travel professionals at all levels using his award winning Business Coaching program. Martin's brand of travel advisor focused consultation where they are the HERO in their own story is on display with Nexion’s newly announced Business Success Journeys program at Nexion Travel Group. When Martin is not coaching or traveling himself he enjoys the arts, both on stage and off. He currently serves on the board of directors for Stomping Ground Comedy Theater in Dallas where they entertain and educate with Improv for Life programs. Coach Martin has presented his own workshops on applied improvisation as it relates to business owner adaptability and success.