A Wise Consultant – Simply Sales with Scott

Peter Drucker Wrote 39 Books on Business. Here Are the Seven Lines Every Travel Advisor Should Steal.

Written By: Scott Koepf, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)– Cruise Planners

Peter Drucker was an American management consultant, educator, and author of 39 books. While he wrote about business and management many years ago, his observations are as relevant today as they were then. I have listed some of my favorite quotes from him and added my perspective on how we can implement his conclusions into selling travel.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said”.

Listening is much more than hearing words as we all know that body language, tone and inflections carry far more impact than just words. Unfortunately, this is the element of communications we have diminished due to our digital world. The takeaway here is to do everything possible to meet clients in person or at the very least have a video/zoom call so that you can read between the lines. Studies have proven that closing rates skyrocket when you meet your potential customers eye to eye, so don’t hide behind emails and make it a priority to ‘see what is being said!’

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection because from the quiet reflection will come even more effective action”.

When you make a sale or have a successful marketing campaign, take the time to review why it worked and how to repeat it. Our schedules do not usually include time to reflect on successes (or failures for that matter) but doing so leads to improvement and even better future results.

“Most of management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done”.

Ouch. That one stings a bit but sadly rings true. If you have other people working for you or with you, are you doing everything possible to make them more efficient and productive? This includes providing the right resources, technology and access to you when they need it. This statement also holds true for self-management, and you may want to ask yourself the same question. What do you need to change or add or get rid of to become more efficient?

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”.

Speaking of efficiency, this quote may be more applicable to travel advisors than all of the others. Most of you became travel advisors because you want to help other people (and travel the world for free – HA!) and so you may say yes too often. Doing something right with the wrong outcome happens more than we typically want to admit. How many itineraries and quotes did you create efficiently that did not result in a sale? Your time is limited and working efficiently is the goal but only if it achieves the objective you really need (which usually means a deposit!).

“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different”.

Hello AI. The only thing that never changes is change. Travel is a fabulous industry as innovation and change are thrust upon us daily. To rise to the top of the industry you must be open to what the future holds and be willing to adapt what you are doing today to be relevant tomorrow.

“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions”.

A travel advisor is at the core a consultant. Now you may say that being ignorant is not the skill needed for success in selling travel and I will agree. Product knowledge and understanding the sales process are very important, but what I think we can learn from this quote is in reference to qualifying our clients. What you like and what you have done will help in the long run but the most important element of qualifying a client is to learn as much about them as possible without any bias or assumptions. You need to have your list of questions ready and not try to sell anything until you truly know the motivations and desires of your client.

“People who don’t take risks AND people who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year”.

This quote fascinates me and while it does not seem to have any studies to back it up, it is probably just his conclusion after talking with thousands of people over the years. Based on this we can all count on two major mistakes each year no matter how we operate our business. We could try to go back and determine each of those mistakes we made each year but that is not the point. His advice here is to take more risks. Be more creative, try unique things, chase after the long shots. You took a risk getting into travel so don’t stop there. The more risks taken, the more rewards attainable. Try that crazy idea and if it was a mistake then you only have to worry about one more mistake for the year, so go for it!