MasterAdvisor 84: Why Travel Advisors Need Training
Hello everybody welcome back um today is February 8th 2024 this is Master advisor episode number 84 we’re going to be talking about training today with a couple of really impressive trial advisers who I’m really excited to introduce including one who is a past guest we also have a sponsor for today’s
Session so let’s go ahead and get started um first things first as always you can go ahead and switch into speaker view if you haven’t done so already that’s going to be the best way to watch today’s episode second go ahead and open the chat on the
Bottom right and drop any comments or or questions or concerns in there we’re going to go ahead and grab them as we go along today that’s one of my favorite parts of this uh of this episode and then this series is getting in trct with
The chat so if you do have any questions any comments again please don’t be shy uh drop them in there next I just wanted to say thanks to all those who came out a couple weeks ago for the episode with emotional brand on emotional branding with asses Alvin
Adriano I always love talking to Alvin um I always get a lot out of those episodes so again thanks to him thanks to everyone who came out we’re going to go ahead and drop the link to our YouTube in the chat now so if you do
Want to watch it or rewatch it you can go ahead and do it there um just a reminder all of our content all of our video and audio content is on the YouTube page so if you want to head over there again any subscriptions any likes any comments really does help us grow
That channel uh so if you’re fan of these episodes uh please head over there and all those interactions really do help us a whole lot um and last thing I just also want to announce that we’ll be back here in two weeks to talk about personalized service which is one of those topics
That we’ve been asked about consistently by our audience for master advisor we have a great TR adviser lined up his name is Jamie Anderson I’m really excited to have him I’m really excited to see you all there too so we’re going to see if we can drop that link in the
Chat too if you want to register ahead of time you can go ahead and do so and yeah we’ll see see you we’ll see you in a couple of weeks okay um all right so to kick us off here I really I’m happy to introduced Steve Phillips from core
Who’s gonna help us kick off today’s session on training by talking to us a little bit about uh core thanks Dan hello everybody uh for those of you who don’t know me I’m Steve Phillips Senior Director of Education and Training for cor travel education cor is a complete solution to Bringing
New travel uh new Talent into the travel industry it was really built with three goals in mind first is recruitment we’re active in the marketplace with online advertising and Live Events looking for people with an interest in a career and travel and I emphasize career we are actively out there looking for people
Who want to become professional travel advisers whether it be as employees or independent contractors the second goal of course is training uh our 100% self-paced digital curriculum is designed to give a new entr into the industry the proper foundation on which they can build a true career in travel our 16 module
Curriculum is the equivalent of a one- semester college level course the last goal was placement by our students working with a mentor during their studies they already have a leg up on placement with an agency whether it be as an employee or an independent contractor and if that
Mentor agency doesn’t work out we have agencies across the US and in Canada that are actively looking uh for people both employees and independent cont contractors with a strong emphasis on sales marketing digital content and relationship building car offers skills needed to undertake a career in travel
Students also receive a full training on all sectors of the industry including air Hotel Crews guided in fit vacations ground transportation and insurance we also pay special attention to legal matters within the industry to ensure that a new entry into the industry has all the tools they need to ensure that
Both they their agency and their customers are protected from a legal and a fraud protection standpoint as well as operating within the regulations of our industry core travel education is truly a One-Stop solution to all things needed to increase your in-house staff your remote workers or your independent
Contractors uh if you do have interest in learning more about core um Dan I I can put the web address in my email in the chat if that’s okay yeah you can go ahead I believe Tom might have it the okay might be ahead of you on that yeah
There perfect so our our website address is in the chat um and uh you can contact us I’d be happy to talk to you about it and I’m I just appreciate the opportunity to come on board and talk a little bit about core thanks Dan yeah thanks Steve and I know Steve’s around
At a lot of Industry events too so if you want to say hello you have some answer some questions about core I’m sure Steve you’d be more than happy to to meet and greet people I’ll be at Clea 360 and at ASA this year both in the
Next two three months all right all right perfect thanks again Steve thanks so core um yeah let’s go ahead and introduce our two travel advisers our two guests for today’s episode um I’m really really excited and really happy to welcome Heather dpet and Bridget Merritt from travel Sales Group um
Heather has been with us twice before this is Bridget’s first time with us we’re really excited and happy this is an interesting way to sort of tackle this subject um yeah but before we do so I just want to say thank you Heather thank you Bridget I know how busy
Everyone is this day so we really appreciate both of your time um and for joining us here today thanks for having us I I watch these so often so the times that you’ve asked me to be a part of one I just hope
That uh I can be as helpful as a lot of these people have been to me when I’ve watched um all right so I know again I know Heather I know a lot of our our audience knows you already but I’m hoping we can start with just some short
Introductions we’ll we’ll go with you Heather first and then Bridget we’ll let you you have the floor for a little bit too okay um I’ve been in the industry for about 20 years I started as an IC um started my own agency uh 11 years ago
And this past year we launched a second brand uh she’s the world which is targeting uh solo female Travelers so I have five agents who work for me Bridget is one of my full-timers and then I also have another full-timer in three I’s um and Bridget I know you have you’ve
I’m not going to say recently got in the industry but you’ve you’ve gotten in the industry and sort of paid the ground running pretty quickly right yeah I mean I I still think it’s recent I laugh because Heather’s like you’ve been here a while and I’m like I don’t feel like
That so U I’m about three year almost three years in and um so I started as Heather’s Administrative Assistant s behind her for about a year and a half just soaking up everything that she had to offer which was a ton and so I I’ve really enjoyed it I’ve got into it and
She made the mistake of telling me I could sell a little bit of travel on the side to make some extra money and about a year and a half later she’s like you you got the wrong job so she turned me into a full-time advisor and so here I
Am yeah I know we’re going to talk about your entry in particular like moving into the industry as an administrative assistant and moving into a sales role I’m just curious Bridget you I I I we don’t I don’t need to know a ton about what you did I guess in your past life
But what kind of skills did you have that I think it would be nice just to hear about like if you had sales skills marketing skills just so we can sort of set the stage for for the trading discussion today yes so my previous experience I was an accountant for about
Nine years and so I worked as an an inventory auditing accountant for about nine years which um is the most boring job in the world um but I enjoyed it I didn’t mind it so much I like the kind of the tedious part of it I guess was
Somewhat appealing so I mean I always knew what I was doing every day but I was traveling so I was in a different area a lot and then most recently I had done um food distribution sales so I did have a a you know somewhat of a sales
Background um but I really didn’t know much as far as the travel industry and as a whole I was pretty green coming in so um the obviously what we’re talking about is training training was you know vital I had to have it because there was
Just so much that I didn’t know so it’s been uh it’s been an event three years learning everything that I have learned but there’s just so much more and I think that’s what I love the most about the industry is there’s always something new to learn you you can’t possibly do
This job and get bored because there is always something out there that you don’t know yet because things are constantly changing and the world is so huge you you can’t get it all so yeah um all right so again I today is going to be all about training but I I hate
Missing opportunities to ask people about consumer sentiment simply because because we’re still fairly early in 2024 there’s always concerns about if demand is dropping off and I want to ask Heather and and Bridget I want to ask you both about what you’re hearing from your clients um is there anything new
Any Trends or any things on the horizon that you think is particularly interesting or you think would be good for the advisers on the call um to hear about um Heather anything from your side whether it’s whether it’s with travel sales group or even or even she’s the
World um the big thing for us I mean so female travel is definitely a trend that is on the rise and we feel like we jumped on that right about the right time but um a lot of Europe a lot of river cruises we’re getting a ton of
Requests for those um we get a lot of St Lucia we we’re doing a ton of Aruba right now Bridget’s getting a ton of Aruba requests um other than that I think the main change that I have seen is just post pandemic everybody was tired of being stuck in their house and
They were willing to spend whatever they had to spend to get away and I am seeing that cooling off just a little bit we’re getting more questions about sticker shock more questions about like our luxury clients maybe don’t ask about that much of stuff but all of our kind
Of mid-range clients which is more than half of our business I would say they’re starting to ask questions about seriously I can’t go to Mexico for less than $4,000 for a week I went three years ago for 2500 so I am seeing a little bit more of that and a little bit
More of the push back with pricing but aside from that everything is we’re still just as busy as we’ve ever been it’s just people are looking for more value and more customization is a big word right now people don’t want the same old same old trip they want a custom planed
Vacation all right Bridget are you hearing the same things when you’re when you’re testing sort of testing the waters with your clients um pretty similar pretty similar for sure and and yeah Aruba I don’t know why it’s just been a super hot ticket lately so i’ I’ve done quite a bit of
That and the other thing that I’m seeing is multigen that’s getting it seems to be getting bigger at least for me you know I in the beginning a couple years ago I would book a couple and then now I’m booking a couple and then their adult children and now I’m booking that
Couple their adult children and their their kids kids like so it’s it’s kind of evolved into what started as a couple’s trip is now Family travel a lot so I’m seeing quite a bit of that and and the other thing that I’ve noticed that’s really On The Rise recently for
Me I handle a lot of um pretty much all of North America so um I’m seeing a lot of outwest and Yellowstone put put everything on the map so everybody wants to go out to Wyoming and Montana and Colorado and people were wanting to see Grand Canyon Bryce National Park
National parks are really big right now so I’m seeing some of that Trend as well I know you said it’s difficult to know Bridget but like any ideas why Ruba seems to be trending at all I mean cuz I imagine is it are you seeing like softness and pricing there or or more
Availability than you would see at other destinations in the Caribbean um I definitely see the pricing being more competitive than say a St Lucia or an Antiga trip so I think once people have done Jamaica you know Dominican and Mexico they’re looking for something unique they’re looking for
Something new and you know Turks or St Lucia just might be Out Of Reach and so Aruba is really a great uh mid-grade option that I have found and honestly I’ve gotten to where you know a lot of you know my Mexico Caribbean clients most of them are allinclusive but I
Don’t always sell the all-inclusive at Aruba I think it’s great to give them the opportunity to have the option of both or you know one or the other where they can go and and um get off Resort and get into the island and really see the destination and eat you know eat in
Town and and enjoy all the amazing food that Aruba has to offer so I think that um that’s another reason why it’s there’s been an uptick for that all right really interesting yeah thank you both for that I I always love to check on uh client sentiment um but yeah but
Let’s get into training because I know that’s why all of our audien is here today um Heather I want to start out with you Bridget mentioned she came on as an administrative assistant to your agency uh we spoke earlier in the week she said she was looking for a career or
Or possibility of that had certain certain flexibility and things like that and you know coming to travel was something she hadn’t considered before she saw your posting for an administrative assistant I was hoping we could talk a little bit about your philosophy when you’re bringing people into the industry because I know that’s
A big task and it’s a big concern for a lot of people um who own agencies and who are running consor and hosts and things like that absolutely um almost everybody that I know right now is looking for people because everybody is so busy and and they’re all short-handed and they want
Somebody for me I had a decision I I we this whole thing is about training I did a 10 KB course with um Goldman Sachs and they really emphasize in that about working on your business instead of in your business well if I was going to do
That I needed to have somebody to help me out but it I didn’t know whether it was going to be an admin or an agent or an advisor so I I decided that I was going to keep on selling and keep bringing money in bringing in an admin
Would allow me to just do the part that I’m good at which is guiding people to the right destination and the right Hotel once I have that deposit on it I don’t touch my bookings so in doing that Bridget was getting some training so I I hired that admin but she’s going through
All of our booking systems she’s going through all of our vcrm and to be honest Now My Philosophy is I would bring people in in that role first and then let them graduate into an advisor position because they’re learning everything about it that way um the things that she wasn’t getting in the
Day in day out interactions with me were the things that I just didn’t have time to teach her and that was a lot of the geography that I’m still not good at if I’m being totally honest she would kick my butt at geography after taking core but um
Those things are the things that I don’t have time to teach someone so there’s courses out there and core is a perfect example of them where they can take and give you that time back and help you to train that adviser so when we bring them
In we tend to bring people in either as an admin or as a part-time IC and let them grow within the company the best way to train people is the way that Bridget in my opinion is the way that Bridget was trained and that was she sat
Next to me three or four days a week every day because like she said every day is different there’s something new popping up every day and you need to have an answer and you need to have this and sitting next to me and just hearing me on the phone with clients and things
Being thrown back and forth that is the best way to learn and then those really specific things that they need to know about the industry training programs like four are great for that to fill that in yeah and I know there’s research out there about how well training increas how creating increase
Profitability in sales and things like that but I’m curious how I mean do you have any requirements whether it’s for new people coming to into your agency or agents you already have or IC you work with do you have any requirements for them when it comes to training um
Whether it’s taking core or something else yeah uh if I’m bringing someone in brand new we actually do require them to take core um and the way that we do that is we get calls and I I’m sure there’s a lot of people if there’s any agency
Owners on the the meeting I get at least twice a week somebody that wants to be a travel adviser because they follow me on Facebook and see me traveling and think that’s my job and I tell them no that’s this much of my job this much of my job
Is sitting in front of a computer 14 hours a day so if they’re really serious we require them to take core and then I will up their commission split by 5% as soon as they complete that program say so it’s a way within a few months if
They’re selling they’re going to get the money back that they invested certainly by the end of the year so um that is something that re I require and then with all of my advisers they are required to do at least an hour of training within their Niche every
Month and then we have a monthly I try to do it monthly it doesn’t happen every month but I try to do a monthly Bridget’s laughing at me um we try to do do it once a month it ends up being six or seven times a year um and at least
Three or four of those we bring in a vendor maybe it’s somebody new or maybe it’s somebody that there’s been a lot of changes we bring a vendor partner in to go over everything and kind of teach a little crash course so that they’re getting that training with me but most
Of my advisers are doing way more than that hour that’s just what’s required in their contracts okay yeah and I do want to ask Bridget about uh what she found most relevant during that pH of training but Heather like just to play Devil’s Advocate I know I talked to travel
Advisers a lot I know how busy everyone is I know the volume will like you mentioned maybe there’s a little softness in cons in consumer spending from some segments of the population but the volume seems to not be going down as much um I know time is short again like
I mentioned why would an agency owner want to sacrifice valuable hours for training when hypothetically agents or ic’s they they could be out there making sales and and directly contributing to your bottom line um well one of the things in the industry that I’m most passionate about is training and certifications and
Things like that because it sets an actual professional travel adviser apart from people that want to come and do this job very part-time enough to pay for their own travel so if you’re doing that training it’s it’s going to make you more and there are so many people I
Actually jotted down a couple of quotes because for me that these are things that I thought were really important Bill Gates still reads a book every single week Warren Buffett sets aside time every single day to read for up to five hours from all different newspapers
To keep up with his industry and Mark Cuban has been known to say treat your business like a a sport stay in competitive means always reaching for knowledge so and I really do believe that I think you have to if you want to stay competitive in the market and if
You want to be really good at what you’re doing it is an everchanging business you have to stay on top of that training otherwise everybody else is going to pass you so it may be formal training or it may be talking to like I belong to several different
Organizations that to me is training sitting and talking if I’m on a board and I sit and talk with the other 12 people that are on a board I learn a ton from that as well so I consider that training and well worth my time also
Okay um all right Bridget I would love to sort of now that we’ve set the stage um I’m curious when you were getting into the industry when you mentioned Bing uh Heather’s job posting and eventually making your way as an administrative assistant and then through where you are now um I’m curious
What your perception of how travel advisors worked was and then when you did get to experience it firsthand did that perception meet the reality of the situation well coming in so green to everything I really had no preconceived notions so I really didn’t know what to expect and I I didn’t come
Into the the job with the idea that I was going to make a career out of travel um I was gonna work you know with her a couple days a week work from home a couple days a week and and do a little bit of admin work and that that’s really
At that time was all I was after and so um you know I just got into it and like I said I just kind of fell in love with it because there’s just always something to learn you can’t get bored there’s just there’s so much and and I I started to
Travel and then I started to get into it a little bit more and and then you know tried I tried selling I put a few social media posts up just to let people know I did it and then people were coming out of the woodwork for for things and I I
Think that first year I I want to say I topped like 200 for the first year in sales and so it was crazy I just didn’t realize that there was even that big of a market while working as my part-time assistant she Ted $200,000 in sales
That’s when I decided she was in the wrong job yeah so I mean for me I had no preconceived notions and I didn’t know what to expect so for that to happen so quickly and and to happen the way that it did I almost just felt like it was
Really fate that I was supposed to be here and this is the way it was supposed to work and and and you know I I I can’t really imagine doing anything different now I I’ve really just fallen in love with it yeah and you mentioned you had a
Sales role before this you mentioned you were an accountant um I’m curious I mean what kind of skills or qualities did you not have when you entered the industry that you now can look back and recognize that those things are absolutely vital to having success in this
Career um I I think probably the biggest thing would be the product knowledge I mean just not not knowing what I didn’t know um coming in and being able to train and learn as much as I’ve leared and um I mean traveling and that’s such
A big thing training is is huge but just to travel and get the experience because the one of the things that’s really vital when speaking to a client is you have to be able to relate to them the experience because if you can’t explain the experience to them they’re not going
To grasp it fully until they go so your job as an adviser is to kind of bridge that Gap I guess between what their expectation is and what the reality is of what they’re going to see so when you start traveling you really you pick that
Up and you I think too that it really traveling gives you almost more of a humbleness almost and and really gives you um a a gratitude for for your world and and for what you have at home so I think those things are really important to
Have and I think that’s just vital when you’re speaking with your with your client because you know you need to have that you need to have those perceptions so you can share those so the client really understands what they’re buying into yeah and I know uh I know we’re
Going to talk about more specific things in the training modules and things like that but it’s interesting Bridget you mentioned traveling being so vital um in a way it’s its own training because you’re going to need to talk about that experience and that the firsthand knowledge uh you said you want to relate
The to the experience to your clients you want to help them bridge the gap I’m just curious I mean what kind of things do you usually need to tell tell them or warn them about or inform them of when you’re bridging that kind of Gap like is it just about like Resort experiences
Cruise experiences things like that yeah I mean I think it’s I think it’s all of those things I think it’s important to know that you know if you go on to if you’re a consumer and you go on to a consumer facing site like an Expedia or TR velocity and you’re
Looking up Resorts and Cancun you know you can look up three 300 Resorts there you have no idea which ones are good or bad you’re kind of going on what their perception of those places are and then the other kind of key factor in that
Which almost kind of hit me in the face this week and this just kind of show goes to show you really got to look into it a little bit more but I’m going to Tulum in a couple weeks I had no idea it was that far away from Cancun so I knew
It was far but I didn’t realize it was that far I mean if you’re a consumer and you go on and you see oh there’s dreams to loom down in but it’s just right here it’s on the Cancun site it can’t be that far yeah it’s almost two hours away so I
Think knowing that type of stuff and being able to educate your client you know hey you may want to upgrade to that private transfer to Tulum because it’s just so much nicer and you’ll get there a little quicker you know having that in Your Arsenal to be able to not just to
Upsell but to be able to just inform the client because those are important things that they need to know you know what they’re what what their experien is and what they’re going to get you know hey it’s it’s going to be a while for you get there grab a snack before you
Leave the airport or whatever that that particular piece of information may be that they need um you know before they book yeah so I guess geography is going to be an important one Heather I think you mentioned geography a couple minutes ago um that seems to be under like it
Doesn’t seem to be something people outwardly talk about in travel that you need to know you need to know the difference between Eastern Europe and Western Europe and even like Northern California Southern California things like that it seems so important to know those things partly because you need to
Show your client the level of credibility you have right well and I mean there’s a big difference between Grenada and Granada you want to make sure that you’re booking the right airport um geography if you are one of the old school travel advisers that went through
And or even one of the new ones that went through and took a college course on hospitality and travel you a big part of that was geography for those of us that didn’t come into the industry that way that’s something that you have to take on yourself and traveling certainly
Helps you with that um I still if you’re the other side of my camera behind me or photos right in front of me I have maps of everywhere in the world so if I am sitting on the phone with a client and they ask me well if we go to Barbados
What’s close to that and I can you know if I that one I know but if I didn’t know I can look at the map and go through and point that out but I think what she got through for was a deep dive into geography which I don’t have I I
Have geography based on where I’ve been What I’ve Done where my clients asked me for yeah yeah Bridget anything anything to add about I guess your experience learning geography or maybe any surprising things any anything else you can share with us well that was one thing I really enjoyed about core that
Was probably my favorite part of the whole program was just being able to get into the geography seeing everything and they really took it a step further so it wasn’t just where is this or what you know what’s the airport code or what’s this it’s it was more than the logistics
Of it they actually went into the culture of the people the history of the area you know why you know why you need to see this what’s important you know what are hot spots for you to see when you’re in a certain area so I mean while
Um you know they give you geography they really gave you a more in-depth look at the destination as a whole versus just where is it on the map and I thought that was kind of that was interesting it was neat to learn about some of those
Things because there was a lot of stuff obviously that I didn’t know so yeah and just I guess one thing just to prove how important geography is I remember when the Ukraine Russia war broke out um I in 2022 I think at this point um I know advisers I spoke to were getting
Questions about about people booking travel in Western Europe and wondering if they were going to be affected by something that was you know a good bit away so obviously geography maybe the public isn’t as informed as they they believe they are and travel advisor need to fill that
Role for them it seems like is really a certain point well it’s something that we use every day it’s like this past week we had the issue come up because there was uh something that went on the news about Jamaica and how they had opt the security protocol
They didn’t up security protocols they kept them the same as they were a year ago they just redid them but having some geographical knowledge of where those hot spots in Jamaica are that’s what we use to argue those points we go in and we look up okay what are the crime rates
In St James and what are the crime rates and where is your traveler from and I’ll go in and I’ll look in Charlotte the crime rates were eight times higher than they are in Jamaica so when you can go back to your client and say that because you know where in that geographical
Region they are it makes a huge difference and it can kind of kind of calm those fears a little bit yeah yeah I’m curious Bridget I mean what other uh modules or what other information did you find most most helpful when you were I guess initially onboarding and then
Continuing your education throughout the last few years you mention airport codes that seems another thing that is going to really lend to your level of credibility when you’re speaking with your clients and some an airport that they might might not be familiar with comes up right I mean I think there’s a lot
There was a lot not even just in core but in a lot of the other training that I’ve done that was just really vital I think um just destination training learning about an area I mean you can’t sell it if you don’t know it so you
Really got to take time to do those destination specialist programs I think those are really huge um I think I I have I know I’ve done Jamaica St Lucia Aruba you know there’s several different ones I think I Costa Rica there’s might even be a few others and so and then
Your supplier trainings are so important it’s you know learning those right now I’m trying to finish the Virgin voyages training so I can you know be certified in that and I’ve done um I think Mo almost all I think I have a master’s degree with Norwegian now and so some of
Those um supplier trainings and destination trainings are just really important to to do in addition to something that’s a little more foundational like core what and that was one of my favorite things about core is that towards the end of the program they actually offer a lot of those supplier
Trainings and you have the links right there so it’s a a One-Stop shop to be able to access those things and you can kind of note which ones are your preferred suppliers and at the end Bridget got herself a whole manual that she could go back to so from the owner
Standpoint it saves me a ton of time because there’s a ton of questions that she would normally call me and ask me that now she doesn’t have to she just goes back and and looks back through her notes yeah we’re going to launch a poll
Now I’m just curious with the 50 or so people we have in uh how many do take training on a regular basis um but Bridget you mentioned supplier trainings which was something I did want to ask about too because I know almost every supplier is is is launching their own
Training or has launched their own training what specific things do you find most important to to get out of the supplier training I know Cruise Lines is like a whole another world for people outside the industry um what kind of things are important when you are taking
The training just to make note of and be able to pass along to your clients um well the the most value that I take from training maybe not necessarily is always for the client might be more for me because I think one of the most valuable things that you can
Take from supplier training is how to book the actual trip how to book the vacation how to book with that supplier having them walk you through their booking engine and how it works and and what to take um um you know what to do with the with the um information that
They’ve given you and and how to figure all that out I think that’s really important um and then yeah of course they go through and they explain all of like if if you’re taking the the one for I’ve done the one for princess so if you’re taking that they go through they
Teach you about The Medallion class they teach you about um you know why The Medallion class is so important and what all it does and and so all of those things are great for you to be able to share with the client but if you don’t
Know how to book it then you’re in trouble you have to know how to do that part so I think that’s probably the most important yeah um all right and then what about things so we talked about we talked about geography airport codes destination training is important suppliers training obviously important
For both you and the client what about skills training like like marketing or sales and I know Bridget you mentioned your a sales background but what kind of things helped you along the way in those two Arenas like I I can I can’t imagine that it was super
Easy maybe it was for you but easy making that initial sale or learning the best way to Market Market vacations to your clients yeah I mean I obviously just like anybody else I try to use a lot of social media and I was fortunate um you
Know I’ve had I had had a couple different jobs I’ve been a part of several different organizations so I have a pretty large um Facebook following I guess and so I have a lot of friends and things like that so I was really fortunate when I tried to start
Launching different things on my Facebook page that you know I was able to use a lot of social media marketing to grow um grow my client base um so I think that that training is important and and what I had started doing in the beginning is I would just pick a resort
And I would steal some of Heather’s photos because I hadn’t been and I would just start putting them up on my Facebook page and I would go to the resort website and I would pick out you know five or six things that I wanted to mention about it how many restaurants it
Had what type of restaurant or what different things that they offered where they were located like just general stuff like that that you would think that doesn’t make a difference you know like anybody can figure those things out all they gotta do is look at the website
But people don’t really want to take the time to do all of that that’s the one thing that I found in being an advisor is the client just doesn’t everybody’s busy everybody’s busy and that’s why we’re so busy because the client doesn’t want to take all that time to do all
That research that’s what they’re relying on you for so what I would do is I would go and all the research and then I would put up a post on my social media and say oh today’s Resort Spotlight is such and such and I would put all the
Photos and put my little write up on there and it before too long people were you know reaching out to me hey what about this or have you seen this or can you do a spotlight on this and so I think social media is just that that was
Really what did it for me and so training on that and how to how to Market yourself you know with that credibility I think was important that’s interesting I mean Heather what about you you meent you mentioned the quotes by Mark Cuban Warren Buffett and uh the
Third person I can’t remember um but I imagine you still pursue your own training and you have such a wealth of experience you’ve launched two different agencies but do you find yourself actively pursuing new skills or reinforcing old skills now like what kind of things are on top of your mind
When you’re doing your own training oh always if you if anybody follows me on social media you’d see one of my favorite hashtags is never stop learning so so like Bridget mentioned I think traveling is huge I try to see at least two new destinations every year I’ve
Been very blessed past few years that I’ve seen a lot more than that um there are several conferences that I go to every year um afluent traveler is a big one uh either Nest Fest or travel Market those are both whichever one is that year it’s every other year they have
Nest Fest one year and then travel Market the following year um female leaders is not necessarily an educational conference but that’s one that fills my bucket every year that one I will plan nothing around I plan everything around when that particular conclave is um they also have um the
Ally Symposium which I love so I try to go to at least three or four conferences every year Ascend is another great one so and those things I think are they’re hugely important to do that I don’t care how long you’ve been in the business there’s always something new to
Learn this year you talked about marketing I invested almost $14,000 in SEO this year and I was getting 14 visits to our new web page and then I sat down at one of those conferences with a fellow adviser had maybe a 20 or 30 minute conversation
With him and then we met at the airport when we were leaving to come home and he showed me some little SEO trademark tips and things like that and this month we had 600 visitors to our website and I didn’t pay anybody because he showed me
How to do it so little things like that if you looked at marketing 10 years ago it’s completely different than it is now so even if you went to school and got a degree in marketing a lot of what you did 10 years ago to get that education
Is completely different than it was then so you have to constantly be learning I wish that I had more time in the day to spend more time training my advisers it’s the one place that I feel like I fall shy for sure because there just isn’t enough time in any given day yeah
And uh you both mention social media I know there’s like new social media Outlet every month it seems like I know Tik Tok is trending now and Instagram trying to compete with reals and stuff like that I mean what about when video has has become this Avenue for childhood
Advisers have either you had to pursue education built around Tik Tok or a different platform or just shooting video in general 100% I and again some of that I get from training I go on and watch YouTube videos things like that other things have been from trial and error um
But I have learned so much of that from other advisers and when you go to these conferences and just interacting with other people in the industry I may be strong on a product knowledge front where somebody else is really strong on SEO or on social media or any of
That just sharing information and being willing to share that it that’s huge and I think cooperation versus competition I think those are very different things when you are with people that you trust in this industry that’s one of the things that I have taken away from allies in a big way is
That we all learn from one another and there’s enough business for everyone out there what we want to do is Elevate our industry as a whole so if we’re all professionals and we’re all acting in a professional ethical Manner and sharing ideas then it’s going to elevate all of
Us yeah the level of cooperation industry I I don’t think you can beat it with any of other industry I hear that from so many people I see it in real in in real practice and it it seems almost startling at some points but like you mentioned the attitude of having enough
Business to go around is fairly pervasive so I think it’s it’s a great Point Heather like learn from learn from the trading modules learn from C Core learn from suppliers learn from destinations but learn learning from travel advisors your fellow travel advisor is also going to be important as
Well um the biggest thing for me I think was um I’m sorry the biggest thing for me was um 10 KB um it’s programmed through Goldman Sachs and where I would did not have as much knowledge as I would have like kind of muddled my way
Through for the first six or seven years that I owned my own agency is the business side of travel and I know that core teaches some of that I took my CTA that taught some of that but as far as getting right down to the nitty-gritty of the actual business there’s a
Marketing piece there’s a sales piece there is um accounting training there’s all of that and it it’s probably the hardest thing that I have done as an agency owner but I also got the best Roi on that because when I started that program I was a travel adviser that
Happened to have a business and now I’m a business owner that happens to be a travel adviser and those are two very different perspectives yeah it is I I we spoke to someone who’s had a former life as a VC and came in the industry and just in my
Personal experience the way like you mentioned Heather she was a business person who’s now selling travel and like the way she was thinking about and quantifying her business and checking metrics just constantly was something I haven’t heard from a lot of advisers but it does seem like that kind of thinking
Is starting to come more and more into the industry like you mentioned yourself and other people I’m sure are thinking the same way as well like you know these these these travel agencies that people are running are obviously incredible businesses and you have to start thinking about sometimes start thinking
About it as a business first yeah you know if you’re not profitable you’re not going to be here very long so you know I kind of like I said I muddled my way through and now that’s one of the things that’s on my list for this week is building a new dashboard for
2024 tracking different metrics um keeping track of when I send leads to clients what is their or to other advisors because when you’re not selling anymore you really need to find out okay who is going to be selling when I send my strong leads to an adviser
They need to be able to close those leads so you have to be able to crack that metric so you know okay who’s selling and who’s not um all right so we have an interesting comment from Bridget in the chat who says she’s a flight attendant
And one thing she need to learn was to use military time because I know if you go to Europe if you go anywhere else probably outside North America you’re you’re using military time and that is that is a bit of an adjustment because things things things can go very wrong
If you’re communicating a non-military time to your clients incorrectly so it’s a good it’s another good point to know maybe I’m not sure if that’s in core I know Steve’s still with us but maybe something to to add to the core going forward absolutely it’s already in there
Sir all right cool all right so I only have one more question um we did the poll and it was 92% of the of the attendees on this episode said they do take regular training and 8% said they don’t I’m just curious if we can start
With You Bridget what would you say to the 8% who maybe aren’t pursuing training right now um or even anyone else coming in the industry new and fresh who thinks they can avoid training like just I know it’s a pretty obvious answer but what kind of words of wisdom
Would you have for those kind of people yeah I mean that’s that’s an investment in you as not just in as an advisor but just you as a person trying to help someone else if you are trying to help someone else with their vacation you have to take that initiative to do
That training and know because um that helps build your credibility and so I mean if you don’t have credibility and professionalism you’re not going to be here very long so if you really want to make this a a formidable career for yourself where you can continue to learn
And grow and and and grow just not just in your in your in your knowledge but grow in your sales you have to have that training it’s just so important and start small you don’t have to to start with something like core I mean core is was foundational for me if you’re brand
New absolutely make the investment and do a program like that if not that program because it really gives you a fullon overview of everything in the industry that you will need that will help to propel you to to know what you need to know to kind of start it taking
Core really gave me almost a little bit more of a respect for the industry because I understood how it worked and why it worked the way it did and so that was important and I’m sure that probably CTA or something like that does the same thing I don’t know I haven’t taken that
Program so that’s kind of the next step for me but um you you need that you need that because if you’re brand new understanding and learning about your industry that is what you need to have that respect for your industry and to be able to grow and and and have that
Credibility and that professionalism with your client because that’s that’s what’s really vital is the credibility and the respect of the client if you don’t have that or you can’t earn that you know it’s it’s going to be very difficult for you to make a make a living doing doing this great job yeah
And then something Bridget you mentioned to me earlier in the week that I should have asked about before but you mentioned acronyms in this industry and the industry is just so full of acronyms that if you hit if you come to if you come in blind it just seems like people
Are speaking a foreign language um that that was an important step for you too to to be able to understand those acronyms and to have us have somewhere to go to find out what they mean to right and I still have to look some of
Those up every once a while which is so it’s great to be able to go back to to my core training and and find those because they are in there um I mean really like I said it just it gives you that foundational overview it covers just enough of everything that you’re
Able to really Propel and it takes you to a different level when you when you when you do that and and having other training to Compound on to on top of that whether that be those initial supplier trainings destination trainings whatever that is um you know that being
Able to refer back to those things and and um using that as as your guideline for for you know for moving forward it’s important to be able to know all of those things and it you know that’s why that training was so so vital yeah yeah and I think that’s great advice too
Bridget start small I’ve heard that advice we had a group uh session a couple weeks ago and that was an advice because I know people get overwhelmed with trying to build these giant groups but starting small multigen groups starting small with training do small training module eventually you know you
Can certainly have the time and energy if you have it to expand um Heather what about you what would you say to that 8% of people on this call who maybe haven’t taken a training course or aren’t planning on taking regular training uh coming up monthly I mean I’m very proud
Of what Bridget just said because it’s exactly what I would say it’s what I taught her um it’s our responsibility to know that information and to be able to book our clients into a trip that is safe and seamless and everything that they’re expecting so we always want to make sure that we
Have the product knowledge in that area and if we don’t have it we want to make sure we can get it but the bigger piece of advice that I would give to anybody on this is and this is something that I learned in 10 KB and I know it’s
Something that Bridget talked about when she was in core is designate that time I use calendly and I don’t take phone calls from clients until noon so when I sit down in my office I usually work 10 to six and then I don’t really work 10 to
Six but that’s what my clients think I work yeah I work more like 8 to 2 in the morning but um from 10: to 12 I don’t take client calls that is my planning time now does that get interrupted by emergencies and things yes but if you
Designate that time and even if it’s one day a week do that and I was actually on a zoom call with two friends of mine just discussing stuff and one of them said Wednesday is my CEO day and I just mind blown I was like I need to do that
I need to take one day where I just do all the tasks that are working on my business I said that for me is going to be Thursdays from now on because that’s payroll day so I already know I’m going to designate that time if you don’t cut
That time out of your schedule and designate it to this you won’t do it now the 10 KB program that was 20 hours a week of classroom and homework time while I was running my business and launching a new brand like I said hardest thing I’ve ever done but when I
Realized you know what if that’s a priority and I can dedicate 20 hours then I can dedicate an hour or two hours each week to do one thing that will build your business if it’s taking a social media course if it’s core if it’s whatever it is if you take even if it’s
Two hours a week that you cut out designate two hours a week to do one thing that will build your business I guarantee you that you’ll get it back incrementally yeah we have a great comment too I guess echoing that step back pause it and do a reset if you have
To because finding time for this stuff is always possible possible um but Heather and Bridget thank you so much we we covered a lot of ground today we mentioned a lot of different kinds of training geography airport codes destination supplier social media SEO travel conferences we mentioned core
With Steve ASA travel Institute so there’s so many different ways to get your training there’s so many different types of training you can get if it’s overwhelming like Bridget said start small but uh thank you both for your time um I really enjoyed hearing from
Both of you today so I couldn’t ask for more and thanks again to Steve and to core for sponsoring today’s session as well you our pleasure um we’ll be back here in two weeks talking about personalized service with Jamie Anderson but until until then I hope everyone stays safe stays healthy
And uh hope to see everyone pretty soon thank you thank you thanks take care everybody
Training is vital to travel advisor and agency owner success, regardless of what level of career you’re at.
In this episode, sponsored by KORE, TMR’s Daniel McCarthy is joined by Heather Di Pietro and Bridget Merritt of Travel Sales Groups, to talk about their philosophies and experiences training. The two provide very different perspectives, as they are at different stages of their careers, but still both value scheduled training sessions, whether that’s supplier training, social media training, FAM trips, and more, highly.
For more #traveladvisor content, subscribe.
For more on KORE: https://www.koretraveleducation.com/
For past episodes with Heather: https://youtu.be/QynduhDd8fs
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