You’ll recall a couple of weeks ago, I posted an interview that I did with TRO saying that I read two digital travel news outlets regularly.  The other is tnooz.  For the record, I find tnooz reporting to be very timely and, having been the target of Kevin May’s persistent investigative work, I can tell you it’s thorough.

Recently tnooz asked if I would write a post on lead generation.  Of course, I couldn’t write a long advertisement, rather I had to keep to the facts.  You can read that post at: http://bit.ly/tripnooz (Frankly, you should be reading tnooz daily and following Kevin May and Dennis Schaal on twitter.)

Here however, I can add all sorts of references to Tripology.  (After all, this is our blog!)  So, below please find a more Tripology focused version of the post.

I remember the first time I heard the term “lead generation” for travel; my response was “Impossible!”

As it turned out, “lead generation” was the term being used by the co-registration companies to categorize their “leads”.  If you’re not familiar with co-registration, I’m sure you recall registering for a major website like a newspaper or consumer electronics store and then, just as you’re about to leave, they have one more question for you; “Might you be interested in the any of the following services?”  And, there it was, right near the top of the list; “Travel.”  Well sure, who isn’t interested in travel?  So you checked the box (read: big mistake!)  Your email address then got placed on a list of “travelers” and suppliers around the world started emailing amazing travel offers to you because they were told you were a “really hot lead.”

As you can imagine, these “leads” were anything but real leads. They were email addresses. Suppliers were buying these for 25 cents or more (at the time, me included).  If your street address was included, your “lead” might fetch as much as one or two dollars.  Amazing right?  How on earth could these email addresses be categorized as leads?  They weren’t and they still are not.

Fast forward a few years to the Tripology offices (or either of the other two companies offering online lead generation.)  I can’t vouch for the other companies, but I can tell you Tripology leads are from real people looking to travel.

While just signing up and jumping in is a good start, there are certainly two ways to attack these leads; the right way and the wrong way.  The “right” way isn’t one hundred percent fool proof, but you can be sure the “wrong” way is a 100% waste of time and money.  After leading the team that helped register over 15,000 travel agents and processed over 150,000 travel leads, I’ve come up with some suggestions on how to do lead generation correctly and thought I’d write an article about it.  These come from some of our best clients lest you think I’m pulling these out of thin air.  

Here’s a fact; according to Forrester Research, 27% of online travelers would rather work with a good offline travel agent, if they knew where to find one.  So, more than a quarter of the people shopping online would rather work with an offline travel agent; they just have no idea where to start looking for the right one.  These consumers are frustrated with online booking engines and the plethora of generic, meaningless travel information and want – get this – to talk to a human being. 

I’ll be the first one to tell you, lead generation isn’t for every travel agent.  Our best Tripologists are not only specialists in a particular destination or trip type, they’re experts in selling to online consumers and, well, they’re experts at Tripology. They buy leads and respond with an introductory email in a very timely fashion, usually within hours of buying the lead.  They under-promise and over-deliver, each and every time. They’re always connected and they are always engaged. 

So, here are the ten things you need to do to succeed with online travel lead generation:

1.     Be “open for business” for as many of the 24 hours in a day as possible. To prove my point, last year, I had invited a handful of our top travel specialists to New York for a brainstorm session.   During our dinner conversation, I noticed one of them, Kristen, was typing on her iPhone.  I remember thinking, “I wish she was paying attention to the conversation” so I asked her a question and hinted I saw “she was busy.”  Her response? She showed me her iPhone screen and showed me she was buying one of our leads -on her phone, during dinner- that was, according to her, “right in her sweet spot.”  My response? “Please continue.” 

2.     Specialize, specialize, specialize. Some travel agents register for Tripology and get a booking right away.  Others try it yet simply don’t succeed. It doesn’t mean they’re not good at what they do, it just means they haven’t yet figured out how  to sell to online consumers or they took too long to respond or, the big lead-killer; they come off as generalists.  Online consumers don’t want generalists; they can get that online.  They want a skilled professional who specializes in the exact trip they are looking to take and who demonstrates he/she has first-hand knowledge of the destination and local contacts there.   By the way, “cruises” isn’t a specialty any more than “hotels” is.  Family cruises is a specialty. Small-ship cruises is a specialty. Small-ship cruises for gay couples with children is an amazing niche.  The more defined you get, the less competition you’ll have. True, your potential audience is smaller, but you’re much more likely to get the business.

3.     Stop worrying about price shoppers. Do some consumers want a cheap price? Sure, but that’s no different from consumers who call a travel agent’s office.  Frankly, I’m a little tired of agents who say lead generation “pits agents against each other based on price.” This would mean that anyone who has ever walked into a travel agency never walked into another one or called another agent to check prices.  People shop for everything.  They check prices and search for deals. With online travel lead generation, it’s up to travel specialist to prove why they can offer the best value.  It’s up to the agent to show they have local contacts, that they’ve been to the destination, know the destination intimately and offer the best, hard-to-find, relevant information.

4.     Pick a lead-generation company that lets YOU pick YOUR customers. (Read: “Pick Tripology”)  There are a few companies selling “leads” but only one other legitimate one that I know of lets you decide which leads you want to buy.  This way, if you don’t like the lead, don’t buy it. Also, you should only work with lead generation companies that offer you the option of setting filters. You should be able to filter out leads that don’t match your “sweet spot.”  If you don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t have at least $X to spend, set a filter and you won’t even see those leads in your in-box.  I have to tell you though, some of our more successful Tripologists ignore the budget field entirely because they’ve found consumers just don’t know how much travel costs and they’re certainly not going to guess high.

5.     Be persistent. People are busy. Staying top of mind until they’re ready to make a purchase is key.  I’m not saying you should stalk someone, but regular, polite follow up is critical if you’re in sales. If the person decides not to travel (or even if they book with another agent) put them in your database for proper, targeted marketing efforts later.  You paid for the lead, so use it to grow your database.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard our Tripologists saying they booked someone months or even a year after they bought the lead.  The lesson here? Follow up, follow up again and when you’re done with that, follow up again. 

6.     Know your acquisition costs.  Recently, a travel agent told me at a trade show she tried lead generation but it didn’t work as well as “walk-in” customers because (ready?) those walk-in leads are free. Free? Really? When I had her add up salaries, rent and other expenses then divided it by the number of walk-ins…well you know how this story ends.  I’ve also been amused by the people who are going to put money into Search Engine Marketing, i.e. buying keywords on Google or Bing.  Fine by me, but you should know SEM isn’t for the faint of heart.  A $100 budget can disappear before your eyes with terms like “cruises” or “vacations” going for $4, $5 or more PER CLICK, which includes little Johnny doing his book report on Caribbean Islands. His little homework project will cost you $5.

7.     Be passionate, but not too verbose. When you’re selling face-to-face, it’s easy to show emotion. For some reason however, one of the biggest mistakes agents make with online leads is they become either short-hand secretaries or encyclopedias. With an online lead, you have one chance to make an impression on the customer.  Your goal is to get the consumer to trust you, respect your knowledge and to start painting a picture of the vacation in their minds.  Your first few sentences of your first email to them will say it all. Too little or too much information or long, boring diatribes is a sure way to lose the business. Get someone excited and wanting more and you win. We give our Tripologists plenty of training on this with all the samples coming from our most successful users.

8.     Invite every online lead to read your blog, follow you on Twitter and “like” you on Facebook.  People book vacation with agents they know and like.   Holding cruise nights, attending social gatherings and general schmoozing are not gone forever, but they have been virtually replaced by social networking.  Someone who likes your blog, enjoys the pictures of your travels on facebook or Flickr and finds your tweets funny will stay connected to you. This way, when they’re ready to book, they may very well book with you.  If they’re not ready, they will hopefully refer their friends to you.  By the way, if the whole blog / social media thing is foreign to you, please feel free to put down the buggy-whip and join us in the new world whenever you have time. A 45 year old friend of mine uses “social media tutoring” time to connect with her fourteen year old daughter.  The lesson here? Get with the program; ask your kids or your grandkids for help if you have to.

9.     Your online profile is your calling card.  Dress it up. Market yourself. Tell people all about your travels (please, PLEASE tell me you travel regularly to refine your craft, update your knowledge and expand your contacts). List all the languages you speak (if English is your only language, learn another one and impress your clients.  Heck, get a used copy of Rosetta Stone language classes from eBay or something). Finally, get a professional photo taken or better yet, use one of you on a recent exotic vacation.  And smile, would you?  People like smiling people.

10.  Speak up. If you’re having trouble making Tripology work for you, talk to us! Really, we’re happy to talk anytime and share everything we know.  We can’t make money unless you keep using us. So if you tried, say 15 leads and didn’t close a single one, something is wrong. Call us and we’ll try and help you on track.

Finally, some agents are getting ALL of their business from Tripology leads.  They’ve stopped most other marketing efforts and are concentrating on leads from Tripology. Don’t take my word for it, check out www.tripology.com/successstories and see the success stories from real Tripologists.

Happy selling!

John

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