What to ask Travel Agents during a Travel Show Meeting
Travel Trade Shows, whether online or in person, are always a significant investment for suppliers and we always want to make sure we extract the maximum positive impact from every encounter. We all want maximum ROI "Return on Investment".
One issue I see time and time again in the industry however is that suppliers often expect too much "Magic!" and want to see sales flood in as soon as possible after their meetings at a Travel Trade Show. Sometimes is the case but often having the meeting is just the start of your marketing and sales development journey.
Your meetings, especially with new contacts, are in essence what we at Travel Kinship call “Discovery Sessions” and are supremely useful as a way to understand the details of a prospect’s situation. These meetings are a way to extract as much useful information as possible to be able to then know exactly how to build a strategic marketing, business development and sales support plan with that person and company. If you want to. If they are the right kind of buyer for you to be working with. They are a way to:
Ensure prospects / existing clients better understand your business, destination and product.
Demonstrate to them that you’re invested in their success. That you want to support them for win-win solutions, sales and happy end consumers.
Check if you want to work with this contact or not and if so, gauge your chances of winning their business (or growing business) and start to work out the next steps to ensure success.
I have written a few blogs about different areas of this journey. Today's post comes out of a conversation I had with a client who was about to take part in the PURE Life Experiences, Remote and Emotions Travel Trade Shows and had a lot of meetings with Travel Agents. As we know, marketing and business development with Travel Agencies is often very different to working with Tour Operators. In the main, they are structured differently, operate differently, have different requirements and problems that they need their suppliers to solve for them.
To give some initial help and stimulate discussion I came up with the following 5 questions that you should always ask in a meeting with a Travel Agent at a Travel Trade Show.
Top Tip for Travel Trade Shows:
Don't forget that the first part of any meeting at a Travel Trade Show is to have buyers talk about themselves, their agency, what's going on with them, issues and opportunities, trends they are seeing, where they need help and so forth. Then you can move forward with your other questions and talk about your company in line with what you have just learned about the buyer's needs.
Q1. Learn about the company and the type of clients they have.
Q2. How is your agency structured? How can I best support you?
Q3. How can I help you spread the word to other agents about our offering when you get back?
Q4. How can I help your marketing department?
Q5. Can you recommend any other agents in your agency - or in other agencies - that you think would be interested in us?
The idea behind these questions is to:
make sure that the agent definitely has the right kind of clientele for your product and service
learn about how they and their agency work so that you can continue to follow up with them in the weeks, months and years to follow to ensure you make the most of this opportunity.
What do you think? Do these seem helpful?
Often, you may not have time or opportunity to ask all these questions - or they may not seem correct to ask, given the way the meeting has gone. They are meant as guidance and ideas on how to dig a bit deeper during a meeting and to realise that, for maximum ROI, not all the meetings should be you talking about your company and product, and the meeting is just the start of the marketing journey.
Would you like to receive more support and coaching on how to get the most out of travel shows? Get in touch.