8 Steps to Get Travel Agents to Sell Your Tours

How to Get Travel Agents to Sell Your Tours

1. Create Compelling Tours

If you want to get travel agents to sell your tours, then you need to create compelling experiences. Agents have options when it comes to the tours that they promote. Why should they let clients know about your experiences in particular? Give them a few good reasons.

When creating a tour, make sure that it is unique. For example, you may want to offer travelers exclusive access to a site. You may also want to include unusual destinations or specialized activities on the itinerary.

In addition, try to incorporate flexibility in your tour packages whenever possible. You can utilize open-ended schedules, where participants can embark on their own adventures within certain parameters. Accommodation options can also be tiered to cater to the different budgetary constraints of different travelers.

Overall, as a tour operator, you should offer spectacular experiences that excite travel agents and their clients.

2. Provide Excellent Customer Service

If you want to get travel agents to sell your tours, then you need to also provide excellent customer service. Travel agents take this into account when selecting tours to promote.

If your customer service is mediocre, then agents will not want to work with you. They do not want to put their reputations on the line by telling their clients about your tours. Therefore, do what is necessary to create a top-notch customer service department.

First, make sure the information that you share is accurate. Prevent problems from occurring by double-checking itineraries and prices.

The essence of great customer service is being responsive to inquiries, calls, and emails. Always have your phone on you and check your email often so that you can quickly respond to questions.

Moreover, listen to feedback from both agents and travelers. There may not be anything wrong with your tours, but maybe you can do something to make them even better. This is how you can make your tours stand out for the right reasons.

3. Network Like Crazy

Now, you should establish strong relationships with travel agents because it is a sensible business practice. The travel industry revolves around people, so if you have strong connections with the industry’s major players, then you will inevitably be successful. Here is how you can establish relationships with travel agents:

For one thing, you can attend trade shows, conferences, and other industry-specific events where you can meet travel agents face-to-face. Introduce yourself at these events, engage in delightful conversations, and exchange contact information.

Remember to keep in touch with your new friends. Otherwise, the connections will slowly fade away. You can send regular email blasts to share news about tour updates and special offers.

Personalization is key when establishing relationships. Try not to send the same generic message to everyone. Instead, think of ways to customize emails for each agent that you’re communicating with.

4. Educate Agents

Before agents can effectively sell your tours, they need to thoroughly understand them. This is why you should organize training sessions that cover tour highlights, unique selling points, and other relevant information.

Don’t just host one-time training sessions. That’s not enough. For the information to stick, there needs to be repetition. So, do as many training sessions as you can.

At these workshops, you can start by going through a boilerplate of information about destinations, sales techniques, and booking systems. Afterward, you can ask the travel agents if they want to focus on any areas in depth. Everyone can then spend more time on these topics.

Training sessions don’t necessarily need to be in-person. To accommodate agents who work remotely or have tight schedules, you can also host webinars.

5. Utilize Familiarization Trips

This is going to be fun!

Set up familiarization trips for the travel agents because firsthand experience will help them provide detailed descriptions and genuine recommendations to their clients.

First, send out invites. Where will everyone be going? When? State the purpose of the trip and the benefits of going.

Next, take care of accommodations. Make sure you are satisfied with transportation options and meals.

The familiarization trip has two important focuses: learning and networking. You want the travel agents to see for themselves what being on a tour is like. This will make it easy for them to answer clients’ questions.

The trip is also a great opportunity for you to get to know the agents. This bonding experience might just convince the travel agents to sell your tours. People do business with people they like.

6. Offer Marketing Support

Let’s help the travel agents sell more tours by providing marketing support.

First, offer customizable marketing templates that agents can use to tailor promotional materials to their specific audience. This is easy to do on the computer. Just send everyone word document files with some blank text boxes. Travel agents can use these spaces to add their contact information, logos, and personalized messages.

Next, provide high-resolution images and videos that agents can use on their websites, social media pages, and email campaigns.

Moreover, see if you can provide any guidance when it comes to buying ad space online as well as offline. Introduce the travel agents to the right people and point them to the right resources.

7. Streamline Booking Processes

Streamline booking processes to help travel agents and their clients save time. By reducing the steps needed to book a tour, you will make it faster for agents to secure sales.

First, incorporate a user-friendly online portal. This portal should provide easy access to prices, booking options, and other tour details. You don’t need to create your own software if you don’t have the time or skills to do so. You can simply subscribe to a third-party software solution.

Next, teach the travel agents how to use the online booking portal effectively. Offer training sessions and guides that agents can refer back on when needed.

Most importantly, ensure that the online booking system reflects the real-time availability of tours and accommodations. This prevents overbooking and headaches.

You should provide round-the-clock support in case agents encounter booking issues. Customer service is something that you must consider when choosing a third-party software solution.

8. Use Rewards

If you want to get travel agents to sell your tours, then you need to pay them. Offer competitive commissions. This will motivate agents since their time and effort will not go to waste. They will be rewarded instead.

Implement a tiered commission system where agents are rewarded with higher commissions as they achieve certain sales milestones. This system will make agents think about how to optimize their work routines. They want to be as productive as possible to maximize earnings.

Besides money, you can incentivize travel agents in other ways. For example, you can honor top performers with all-expenses-paid trips and exclusive access to new tour offerings. You can also publicly acknowledge them in newsletters and at events.

Overall, getting travel agents to sell your tours is a straightforward process if you have a robust rewards system in place.