Health is wealth

How to energize your post COVID-19 sales

STEVE CROWHURST

As of today, we have several months of COVID-19 history to consider and from that information I think we have a handle on COVID-19.

The shock has worn off.

We know what it does.

We know how to sell around it.

We know how to keep mum, dad, gran, and granddad safe and how to stay safe ourselves.

We know we must wait it out.

Yes, there are those arrogant, irresponsible COVIDIOTS who refuse to abide by the rules and help flatten the curve, but overall, we’re on the path to travel recovery.

My new book, Marketing Ideas for Travel Agents, has been written to aid in the overall recovery.

It contains 332 low to no-cost ideas that are relevant now and certainly in the POST-COVID-19 selling environment.

The ideas include tips, tools, techniques and step by step suggestions are designed to kick-start your creativity to the point where you latch onto an idea and run with it.
Change it to suit your situation and make it your own.

Here are three suggestions you can start working on right now.

The Health and Safety Sale

Travelling in the post COVID-19 era should be much safer and possibly more civilized. Countries that were suffering Death by Tourism might soon return to some sort of normalcy. Tourists will (hopefully) continue to respect social distancing, follow the rules and behave better than they did prior to the pandemic.

The role you play in this includes knowing which countries are open for business, and which hotels, resorts, airlines, cruise, and tour companies have upgraded their cleaning protocols.

If you have this knowledge, start promoting it across all channels and hand out masks with your agency logo printed on them.

Travel Insurance Know-how Attracts New Clients

Yes, it is still a valid product and yes you should be encouraging your clients to take more interest in their personal COVID-19 safety by purchasing the right coverage.

Not too many travel agents can boast being a travel insurance expert, so that is one idea you could target.

Study up and work with your insurance vendor to become an expert, especially in insurance plans that cover COVID-19.

Promote your knowledge and you will attract more clients.

Get Out and Report Back

It is important that you pave the way.

As soon as the rules are lifted, get out there and travel to your top selling destination. Spend your own money if you have to.

When you are on location, start posting and blogging and emailing that all is well.

Talk about your journey, the food, the safety, the cleanliness … and keep doing that until you arrive home.

Next: host a socially appropriate gathering for your clients and tell them what you told them. Then tell them again, show your photographs and videos, and start taking their bookings.

The Business Continuation Fund (BCF)

The BCF is a management concept more than a business generating idea, however it is a very important step towards surviving the next pandemic or a second round of COVID-19.

Quite simply it means having sufficient funds locked away ready to fund your business when a downturn strikes.

That’s it.

To make this work, you should know your costs over a typical six-month period. It is not there to buy that new car.

It’s there to save your business when needed.

Over to You

Mask up and remember, selling travel has become a matter of health and safety.

The client’s mantra is: Keep me safe and I’ll book with you. Your mantra is: Their health, is my wealth.

There are tens of thousands of clients chomping at the bit to reclaim their favourite deckchair, take the tour they had promised themselves, retake those wedding vows, experience forest bathing in Japan, and simply getaway from where they have been hibernating for the last few months.

Key point: the physical world as you know it has not changed. London is still London. India is still where it was pre-COVID-19.

Wherever your clients wish to go, it is still there, waiting for them.

Post uplifting words and images to keep your clients energized and interested in fulfilling their travel dreams until you can make it so.

Steve Crowhurst, CTC, is an author of how-to books designed to help travel agents generate new business. He has published thirty eBooks and four softcover books. For more, please visit, www.sellingtravel.net.